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Boavista Island – April 2007

Boavista Island – April 2007

Boavista Island – April 2007

Cheryl Thomas - Monday, April 23, 2007
Boavista Island – April 2007

After living and working on Sal for one year I finally made my first from Sal to Boa Vista on 12th April 2007. The day trip by flight on the Cabo Verde Express day excursion meant that we could take a look around the island just to get a feel for what it was like.

Myself and two other expats had all agreed that perhaps the excursion would not meet our requirements, so we booked ‘flight only’. Our aim was to carry out a quick and brief ‘reccee’ on property and developments that were being built on the island. We went armed with some information that we had gathered off the internet, Real Estate Agencies on Sal and some tourist information guides.

Our flight departed Sal at 7.15a.m.The 15min flight took us over the BV coastline of Cabral and Estoril beach areas. On arriving at the airport we hired a taxi to take us into Sal Rei. We were fortunate to have an ex-pat that lived on Boa Vista share the taxi with us and she provided us with more information about the island and also took us to a the café Atlantico in Sal Rei where we had some breakfast. Our first appointment to view property was not until 9a.m. From then on, until 3p.m., we had the day to look around.

I must say that on arrival in Sal Rei I was pleasantly surprised. We entered the ‘Square’ and found that it was probably about 3-4 times larger than the ‘square’ in Santa Maria on Sal Island. Even though I had been told there were only a few restaurants and shops in Sal Rei, there was a charm about the place that differed to my initial feeling of that when I walked up the main streets of Santa Maria for the first time in 2005. This may be down to the fact that I now have something ‘real’ to compare.

One of the main streets into the Square was quite wide, so again this gave an additional feeling for space. The roads leading off the square were quite narrow, but they led to the typical back streets of local Cape Verdean houses that looked quaint. These streets reminded us of a mix of other towns and islands we had visited such as Mindelo on Sao Vicente and Praia on Santiago, but on a much smaller scale. Obviously, the further we moved out from ‘the square’ the more developments or unfinished buildings we came across, but compared to Santa Maria there is less being built at the moment, but this will change.

It is quite apparent that the island is further behind Sal as regards infrastructure and tourism. According to one local there is currently one bar and two disco’s in the town.

The Riu Karamboa Hotel opened in 2008 and accommodates many of the islands holiday guests, though the Royal Decameron and Iberostar took their portion too. The island doesn’t have as many large hotels like those in Santa Maria on Sal, nor much of anything else, but it will come in time. It may be 10-15yrs yrs behind Sal, depending on what you are comparing, but I think that with the right investment and controls for building, that the island of Boa Vista will be a very nice place to visit as well as live or work in the future.

My initial visit was just for a 6hr trip during which time we managed to see various plots of land and areas approved for planning permission for different developments. We also saw some of the lovely white sandy beaches.

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