A single road skirts the north of the island with a minor road linking its northern and western parts. Many of the interesting parts of the island are inaccessible by car, mostly because of the lack of roads, including Monte Estancia and the plains and coast of the south.
It’s believed that the island was once fertile but having been over farmed, the desert took over and the population declined in the ensuing poverty until salt collection became a replacement industry. Of late, tourism has replaced salt collection as the prime revenue source with hotels being built in the coastal settlement of Sal Rei and on the south coast. Typical of the Cape Verde Islands as a whole, there is huge development of holiday homes with ensuing increases in infrastructure meaning that gradually, the island is gaining places of interest to tourists who want more than a beach.
There are several churches dotted around the island and some of the abandoned settlements make for interesting and quite eerie day trips but most of the activities for tourists are based on the beach or the water.