Sal, Cape Verde (municipality)

Geobox|Municipality
name = Sal
symbol_type = Coat of arms
symbol = Coat of Arms of Sal, Cape Verde.svg
capital_type = Seat town
capital = Espargos
population = 14792
population_as_of = 2000
population_density = 68.5
iso_code = CV
iso_subcode = SL
code_type = CGN-CV code
code = 41
free_type = Demonym
free = Salense "m", ~s "pl"
website = http://www.municipiodosal.cv

Sal is a Cape Verdean municipality. It encompasses all the Sal island. The municipality includes only one parish, Nossa Senhora das Dores.

Economy

Sal’s main town, Vila dos Espargos, is home to one of the nation’s international airports and has around 8,000 inhabitants. Its population grew around salt collection and later shifted to fishing, but is now based on tourism (amounting to 50% of the archipelago’s tourism) at the beach resort of Santa Maria.

Its airport, Amilcar Cabral International Airport, was used as a refuelling base by South African Airways on its Johannesburg to London routes. Later, flights to and from New York and Atlanta also refuelled there, and the island was a crew-change station. SAA established the long runways needed by the fully-fueled Boeing 707s on their take-offs in the high temperatures. On July 1, 2006, SAA operated its final flight to Sal due to the ending of its flights to Atlanta.

Saline marshes can be found in the "Pedra de Lume" crater and north of Santa Maria.

Transportation

The major roads on the island are:
*Santa Maria - Espargos Road (paved)
*Palmeira - Espargos Road (narrowly paved)
*Pedra de Lume - Espargos Road (paved)
*Espargos - Reguinho Fiúra Road (unpaved)

Settlements

There are six inhabited centers::*Pedra de Lume, on the eastern coast, is the most ancient, and the home of the first salt workers. Today it is only a small village with very few inhabitants.:*Palmeira is a fishing village, built around a port situated on the opposite coast of the island. It is also a small village but is growing.:*Espargos (6,173 (2005 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Cape_Verde] ) for the town, 8,000 including Hortelão and Preguiça) is the main urban center and is situated between Pedra de Lume and Palmeira. It was formed around the international airport named after Amilcar Cabral (IATA airport code SID) located in the heart of the island.:*Terra Boa is the only place on the island where agriculture can be found on a large scale, as the island is very dry, mainly because it has no mountains to induce rainfall. This place is situated north of Espargos.:*Murdeira is a tourist resort, which is growing in population.:*Santa Maria (pop: 20,114 2008 [http://gazetteer.de/wg.php?x=&men=gcis&lng=fr&des=wg&geo=-58&srt=pnan&col=abcdefghinoq&msz=600&geo=-1064] ), which was a former salt working village, is now the tourism center of the island.Other inhabited settlements are::*Feijoal, 1 km west of Pedra de Lume.:*Fontona, south of Palmeira.:*Reguinho Fiúra, a remote village near a lighthouse and overlooking Ponta Norte, the island's northernmost point.

Persons

*Manuel di Candinho, a Capeverdean singer
*Nélson Marcos, a Capeverdan footballer (soccer player) living in Portugal
*Yass-Yass, a Capeverdean singer
*Ildo Lobo, a Capeverdean singer

Sport teams

*Académica (Espargos) - Espargos
*Académico do Aeroporto - Espargos
*Juventure
*Palmeira
*Santa Maria - Santa Maria, Cape Verde
*Verdun

External links

* [http://www.caboverde.com/ilhas/sal/guide-e.htm Information on Sal]
* [http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/sal.html Ilha Do Sal, Cape Verde Islands]