Boavista Island
The Saharan island with miles of sand dunes, sprinkled with a few oases. Just three hours from Sal by boat, or a short flight. Its fine beaches have yet to attract many bathers. Offshore wrecks include the Cecilia (Italy's Titanic) and galleons containing gold coins. It has one of the largest turtle breeding grounds in the world for loggerhead, hawksbill, leather back and green turtles. They land in summer to breed.
The island of Boavista has a surface of 620 Km2 and it is the third largest island of the Archipelago. Similarly to the island of Sal, it is flat. The Peak of Estância is the highest point of the island measuring about 390 metres. It is covered with white sand dunes. Oases of date palms are found here and there, and are the typical vegetation of the island. Boavista has 55 Km of white sand beaches and crystal clear water.
This island considered to be the birth place of «Morna», one of the main musical genres of the country, went through some economic improvement only in the beginning of the 17th century when great amount of salt were found in it. At that time, salt was already sold in the island of Maio. Before the discovery of this product, the islands economy was based on cattle breeding, just like the other arid islands of the Archipelago, which had little or no water available. The first settlement was called Povoação Velha, and the Englishmen mainly carried on the extraction in the island.
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