Greetings from Sal Island in Cape Verde, a former Portugese colony (written on 10/02/10 whilst in Cape Verde)

A photo will follow. I need to sort out how to reduce the MB on my photos. Help from the Group please!

I took a Thompson Airways flight from Gatwick, which was just over 5 hours. The crew was very friendly and provided an excellent service, and the food was good.

Cape Verde is off the west coast of Africa, and is 1000 kms south of the Canaries. It was a Portugese colony from the 1400s to 1975.

It consists of 10 islands including Sal, Boa Vista, Santiago (the capital), and Sao Vincente

I arrived in Sal Island only to discover that my luggage was still back in London, and would arrive the following day.

So I turned a very frustrating situation into an adventure, and went out on a shopping excursion with Emma from the Resort Group plc who is my guide here.

I bought a ‘Girl from Ipuana’ style Brazilian swimming costume as those are the only types sold out here plus a wrap around skirt, which looks a bit like one that David Beckham wore.

I am staying at the beach facing Hotel Morabeza (www.hotelmorabeza.com), which is owned by a Belgium family. It is a 4 star hotel with every facility one would want from dance, scuba diving, kite surfing, wind surfing, karaoke, beach club, tennis, football, table tennis, snooker, spa, massages, Creole lessons, fishing and excursions.

I am impressed with the hotel staff who are who are warm, friendly and very welcoming without being affected. I think the year round sunny weather is good for their disposition.

Indeed, I have been welcomed at every local shop.

Whilst Cape Verde has been a popular destination for the Portuguese and the Italians, it has only been in the past 2/3 years that it has started to gain popularity with the British, French, Germans, Scandinavians, and Irish.

Thompson Airways has two flights every day from various Europeans destinations.

The U.S. carrier, Delta, is going to start to fly from Atlanta by the end of March this year.

Soon Ryan Air will be flying to Cape Verde.

Emma asked me whether I wanted to eat in town or at the hotel and I chose in town at a real local favourite call the ‘Cultural Café.’

I had ordered one of the island favourites, a Caipiranha, which is a lime based and very refreshing cocktail. The alcohol in this drink is grogue, a local spirits, rather than Cachaça.

I went for one of the native Creole dishes called called Cachupa Rica, which is a mixture of two different beans, carrots, fish, sausage and sweet potato. Simply delicious and the portion I was given was enough for two! I thought I was in back in America with such a large portion.

In the background were the lovely and harmonic drums. They are practicing for Carnival, which is next week.

In the morning Emma took me out to see Tortuga Beach, which faces the ocean. It is on the south of the island, and is very near Santa Maria. It consists of villas and apartments and will have 400 units. The quality is excellent with Smeg kitchen and Roca bathrooms.

This will be a 5 star spa resort, which will be managed by the Hotel Sol Melia Group, which is the largest resort hotel group in the world.

Dunas Beach, which has just commenced construction, is also being built by the Resort plc. This will complete in 2011.

This will include a hotel, apartments, villas, a luxury spa, conference and medical centre, swimming pools, restaurants, kite and wind surfing, scuba diving, a beach club, and more.

There are very strict planning and zoning restrictions in Cape Verde. No building can exceed 4 stories, frontline buildings on the beach can be a maximum of 2 stories.

Additionally, the Cape Verdians have learnt from the Spaniards and you can only build on 25% of the land.

I met two buyers and they were excited about their investment. One is using his pension to buy as these properties can be bought with a SIPP. Peter Callomon knows all about this.

The company is employing native workers and also has accommodations for them on site. It will be employing mainly staff from the various Cape Verde islands, which in my opinion, is a key ingredient for sustainability.

Apartments are from €99,000 for a one bedroom apartment to €560,000 for a 3 bedroom villa. The developer gives buyers an exchange rate of €1.25/£1.00 on the 35% deposit, and pays the finance on the loan during the build.

Hotel Sol Melia will be running the resort so there is nothing for owners to do, a completely hands off, hassle free property.

As a barometer of the potential and confidence in Cape Verde as a popular tourist destination, Hilton Hotel is erecting a 366 room hotel near Tortuga Beach and Dunas Beach on the south coast of the island. Cape Verde will continue to go upmarket.

I had a look at Cotton Bay, also known as Porto Antigo, which is three star resort. Flats are renting from €500 to 1200 per week.

Getting back to fun, an Irish woman Katie and her Aussie husband, have a fantastic bar called the Grijinha Beach Bar on the southeast side of the island. It is a favourite destination for wind and kite surfers.

The web address is www.grijinhabeachbar.com. The facebook page is grijinhabeach Beach Bar

You can make as much noise as you want as there are no surrounding buildings. It is a breath taking spot and I look forward to showing you my photos.

The Worldwide Windsurfing Competition is held in Cape Verde as it has perhaps the most favourable winds suited for windsurfing in the world.

A few pieces of interesting facts about Cape Verde:

• The airport runway is the longest in Africa and was built by Mussolini.
• It is a default landing for NASA if it can’t land in Cape Canaveral.
• South Africa used to land here during apartheid to refuel as no other African nation would let them use their airports.
• Cape Verde was a place for the slave trade.

Emma took me to the Café Criol for dinner on Wednesday and I had grilled lobster – delicious.

Another hotel to stay at which I recommend is Riu Hotel, which is Moorish in design.

The Italians and Portugese stay at the three star hotel, Crioula Club Hotel (www.crioula-clubhotel.com), which is also on the south side of the island. It has undergone major renovations to stay competitive.

Today (Wednesday 10 February) I went up to the north of the island and saw the old salt mines. This was a precious commodity in the 19th century, which was exported all over the world.

The old mining facilities looked like something out of the wild West.

Now there is only a modest production facility.

Espergos is the capital of Sal Island and combines new and old.

One of the most thrilling experiences was watching the kite surfers on the west side of the island. It is known as kite surfers beach. Sal is gaining popularity as one of the best kite surfing places in the world.

During lunch I had a wonder around the old town of Santa Maria. It reminds me a bit of Havana, Cuba with its weather worn buildings and lack of modernisation, a bit frozen in time.

The weather has been fantastic today again with not a blue cloud in the sky. The aqua blue water rivals that of the Caribbean.

I have met several holiday makers who came over on the Thompson flight with me. For all of them, this is their first time in Cape Verde, and all are really enjoying themselves.They also like that it is just over 5 hours away, and no jet lag.

The food is a mixture of Portugese, Italian and native Creole.

I have made some good contacts out here which I hope can help our chapter. I will share that with you when I am back.

I am on a 2am flight on TAP to Lisbon and then from Lisbon to London. I can recommend TAP, its one of the best air carriers I have ever taken.