Cabo Verde has always been one of those holidays I’ve always dreamt of doing. I actually planned this holiday a year ago, and choose the dates to fall around my birthday. After doing a lot of research, I decided to choose the island of Sal. Diving reviews looked great, and so did the island. The easiest and closest way to getting to Cabo Verde is from Lisbon in Portugal. Originally I planned to drive the 6 hours up from Gibraltar to Lisbon, but then changed my mind and got a one hour flight from Malaga airport instead.
The flight from Lisbon to Sal took just over four hours, landing at around 1AM. I queued up to get my Visa and stamps on my passport, picked up my luggage and there was my private transfer at the arrivals hall. Everything went smoothly as planned.
The next day, I was picked up with all my equipment on the dive centre truck. It was literally a five minute walk from my hotel! But nonetheless much easier on the truck on the first and last day with all my heavy equipment! We arrived at the beach where the dive club was situated and my mouth dropped; the beautiful turquoise waters and white sandy beaches, just like I had seen only in photos and in dreams, finally I was here!
I did a total of ten dives whilst in Sal. All boat dives. Something which surprised me, was the way we boarded the boat every morning. All our gear was taken to a nearby pier, and the Divemasters, Assistants and Instructors passed everything onto the boat for us. We then had to wait at the shore, and when the boat arrived, we would have to swim to the boat and board from the sea! Pretty fascinating at first for me!
We saw lots of turtles swimming on the surface on boat trips, as it was the season when they laid eggs on the beach overnight. We also saw a pod of dolphins on one of the trips. Most dives were nice reefs, walls caverns, and we also did two nice wrecks. The marine life was so colourful, I loved it! Unfortunately the day I arrived and left, was the days they went to the caves at the “Blue Eye”. Maybe I will have another chance to dive these!
It was an amazing holiday, highly recommended. Both diving and land tours!