Pedra de Lume Salt Crater

Sal earned its name - salt - from this crater: an extinct volcano whose floor lies below sea level, seawater seeping through the porous rock into pans that dry to brine many times saltier than the ocean. Salt was dug here from the eighteenth century, hauled first by donkeys and later by a cableway whose rusting pylons still march over the crater rim, and shipped as far as Brazil. The industry died; the swim remains: visitors walk through the old miners' tunnel into the crater bowl and float, cork-buoyant, in rose-tinged pans ringed by crystallised salt banks - the closest thing to the Dead Sea in the Atlantic.

What you'll find

• The float - hypersaline pans that hold you up like a cork.
• The crater bowl - the below-sea-level salinas ringed by volcanic walls.
• The cableway relics - the salt works' pylons striding the rim.
• The salt crusts - crystal banks tinting the pans rose and white.

When to go

Year round on ever-sunny Sal; mornings beat both the heat and the excursion buses that arrive from the resorts late morning. Calm, windless days keep the pans mirror-like.

Practical notes

Rules exist for reasons: no diving or splashing - brine in the eyes is misery - and cuts sting instantly; shower after, and keep the salt off cameras. The site is compact and busy at excursion hours; it is a two-hour visit, not a day. The float photograph everyone wants requires surrendering dignity briefly.

Nearby

Santa Maria's beach strip, the Buracona blue eye and Espargos.