Ponta do Sol

Ponta do Sol “Sun point” located in the southwest; a peaceful and beautiful village by the sea and the sunniest point of the island, where you can enjoy an excellent pebble beach and beautiful sunsets.

Just offshore of Ponta do Sol divers can visit the wreck of the Bowbelle, a gravel dredging boat that once operated on London’s river Thames. This is the notorious boat that collided with the Marchioness in 1989. It was subsequently sold to a company in Madeira, where during a storm it sank off the coast and now diving schools make trips to this area.

The main agriculture here is sugar cane, banana and wine production. Historically the sugar cane was worked by slaves owned by a Flemish lord João Esmeraldo, a close friend of Christopher Columbus.