Santiago is the main island of the archipelago. It's the biggest one and the majority of people are living on this island. More than 100.000 of the 230.000 inhabitants are living in the capital Praia.
Among the extremes of the Cape Verdean archipelago - the desert islands and the islands so mountainous there is barely a scrap of level ground - Santaigo stands out as the normal relation. It is more balanced, more varied and more wholesome. At its heart are craggy mountains cut into exotic outlines and afforested on their lower slopes. Sliced in between are green valleys alive with agriculture. To the south lie irrigated planations; to the southwest a sterile and gravelly landscape where nothing grows; and in the north and southeast ther are some beautiful beaches.
In Santiago the black and the white ingridients of the archipelago's past are at their most vivid. On the southern shore is the old capital of Cape Verde - Ribeira Grande - first European city in the tropics. But up in the mountains the people are as African as Cape Verdeans can be - their ancestors were escaped slaves from the city below.
© by Bradt Travel Guide [5]