Travel Guide São Domingos

Leaving Praia to take the road to Tarrafal, you pass through an area of neighbourhoods under construction. Unfinished houses line up one after the other in the suburbs. Then, until you reach the village of Variante, the land you cross is very dry. Then you enter a less dry area. The landscape changes, you ride along an old dry river and the mountains are already visible on the horizon. You then reach São Domingos, a small town located 18 km from Praia, topped by its mustard yellow church and decorated with bougainvillea groves. The district has a total of 13,000 inhabitants spread over 27 small towns. Locally produced handicrafts and pottery are highly sought after by visitors and are a trademark of São Domingos, although they are still activities of little economic importance. At the entrance to the village, the modest craft centre, the Centro de Apoio à Produção Popular, offers its creations: basketry, cotton cloth, terracotta objects... São Domingos has a tourist potential, like almost all the corners of Cape Verde, and the municipality wishes to invest in mountain tourism. It is the starting point of this magnificent ribeira and of the numerous hikes to be done in Monte Tchota for example, where you will cross a beautiful forest of acacias, eucalyptus and sisals which scent the air. São Domingos is also the birthplace of Anu Nobu, famous composer of funanás, mornas and even merengue.