Friday 17th of January
We are getting to the end of this visit to Sao Tomé, and the things to do are getting fewer and fewer. After breakfast we took a long walk to the city, and went looking for some local galleries. But since a lot of the streets doesn’t have a name, and definitely no numbers, it’s vary hard to find places. The direction could be ”close to the Supermarket”, or ”just by the stairs to….”. We once again past by the local market, and it seems like it’s going on every day from morning to night. The headmaster of the school come to pick us up in the afternoon and we went to a shop (run by Italians) that produces echo cream, moisture etc. Then we had a booked visit to Claudio Corallo Chocolate Factory. They say it was a very interesting presentation for over an hour, but since it was in Portuguese, I’m not the right person so make any judgement. However, the tasting was really nice. Quick stop at the hotel before we took off for birthday dinner at Papa Figo. It’s a well known restaurant here in Sao Tomé and the food was excellent. We shared a starter and a main course, and that was more than enough. We had fish again, and I must say, I’ve never tasted as good fish as I have eaten here in Sao Tomé. If you come here, just eat fish! And the fact that all meat is imported makes the fish dishes cheaper as well.
Tomorrow we will check out at 11, and then spend some time in the city and maybe by the pool before we head towards the airport for our flight back home, via Lisbon and Frankfurt.
Thursday 16th of January
No car today, and to be honest, no longing to drive for two hours on bumpy roads. Fernanda was going to the school today, to hold sports lessons. Meanwhile I took some time by the pool, just relaxing.
In the afternoon, we went to some exhibitions for local artists, and we ended up the evening as expected with a dinner. But for the first day here, we didn’t have a caipirinha:-)
So, any findings today? Well, people here doesn’t seem to be starving and the reason for that is that there is plenty of fruit in the jungle and fish in the sea. But we also learned that is not the best food to get all the nutrition you need. And my own conclusion for this being a safe country is that starvation is not a root cause to steal, and since it’s so far away from any other country, no one else is coming here (historically) to try and get a piece of the cake. It’s a peaceful country. We haven’t felt worried even when we walk in completely dark street and being the only white people there.
Internet seems to be expensive, so outside our hotel there are always kids/adults “stealing” a bit of Internet time from our Wi-Fi:-)
Tomorrow we will try to go to a cacao tasting at Claudio Corallo chocolate factory!
15th of January
Today we set out to explore the south part of the island. We took off at around 8ish, and after a stop at a gasstation we drove towards Boca do Inferna. A formation in the rocks (lava) that forms a passage where the water is pushed up. There was a nice man there, turned out he was employed by the government to help tourist. Luckily, we were the only ones there. After some photo shooting and swimming, we headed towards Porto Alegre. On our way down there, we would pass by a Palm tree plantation and also get a view of the Cão Grande Peak. The Pico Cão Grande (Portuguese for “Great Dog Peak”) is a landmark needle-shaped volcanic plug peak. Its summit is 663 m above sea level and it wasn’t until 2016 it was climbed by a couple from Mexico and England. It took them four weeks to reach the top.
Until then, the roads had been perfect, but from now on towards Porto Alegro, it was turning into a nightmare. The holes were bigger that what was left of the tarmac, and it took us a really long time to reach the south peak of Sao Tome. We finally reached the Imhame Resort where we stayed for some time at the beach and for a lunch. As shown on the pictures, it was really calm and hardly any people there. The lunch was really good (yes, fish again). Everything they serve, they catch themselves. But then it was time to head home again (77 km, 2 hours), since we had to return the rental car by 16.00. After some relax, we went to our favorite place for a caipirinha. The the day finished up in a bar, where we had octopus and a burger!!!! It was time to have a break from all the fish:-)
Tomorrow Fernanda is having a class at the Portuguese school and after that we probably will pay the Chocolate Factory a visit.
Tuesday 14th of January
Same procedure as every day, breakfast at 07.00. Today Fernanda visited the Portuguese school to learn a little about how they work with the children. The headmaster gave us some recommendation on places to go, and also set us in contact with a local guide. So we took the car and drove to Monte Café, an old coffee plantage. It’s not as big any more as it used to be, and it’s owned by a cooperative from the farmers growing the coffee beans. It was really interesting to see how the produced the coffee in the “old days”. After the visit to the museum we took off to a waterfall, situated in the middle of the jungle. It took us some 30 minutes to get there, and it was quite an adventure to drive a car (4W though) in something that more resembled animal trails than a road. The waterfall however was beautiful. I had some problems with my drone, since there was no internet connection it refused to go higher up than five meters:-(. Then a 30 minutes drive back (same trail) where we dropped off the guide at Monte Café before continuing to a restaurant in the mountains (Casa Museo Almada Negreiros). They only hade one item on the menu, and that was a four meal course. But what a course!! Everything tasted excellent and with spices and taste that at least I’m not used to. The view was magnificent and the service was really good. We drove back to the guesthouse, relaxed by the pool & bar before we went out again to meet up the headmaster and the English teacher from the Portuguese school. As often is the case, the locals know about good restaurant, and these locals was no exception. We had superb dinner (tuna) and a really nice time before we go a lift back home.
Now time to mention something about the cost of being here. As the minimum wage here is 40 Euro per month, the prices are quite low for a lot of things. Having dinner out however is something most locals can’t afford, so the restaurant prices have adopted to foreigners. But still it’s much cheaper than back home. You get a really good dinner for € 8-12. The four meal course today was € 16 per person. A beer (local) cost between € 1,50 to € 3, for 50 centiliter. A drink cost € 5. So it’s not cheap cheap, but definitely not expensive.
It’s also a very safe country for being in Africa. The teachers told us that they have no fear in walking home in the middle of the night in dark streets (hardly any street lights here).
Language spoken is of course Portuguese, but all kids study English in school, so the younger generation are able to speak/understand English. So even if you don’t have a Portuguese speaking travel companion, you should be able to get along quite well.
Tomorrow we head off early for exploring the south part of the Island.
Monday 13th of January
Early bird as usual, and at 09.00 the rental car arrived. A quick trip to downtown to buy a sim card. Swedish sim card doesn’t work down here so in order to be able to communicate (if you’re not connected to a Wi-Fi), you need to get a local sim card. 6 GB cash card costs €15. By the way, they have ATM’s here, but international card doesn’t work either, so you must have cash for your whole visit here. Euro works fine, but you need the local currency (Dobra) for lower amounts. And of course, it’s a given, credit card doesn’t work anywhere, except at some hotels.
Then we took off to the north part of the island. It’s not a very big island, but driving here takes a long time. And the reason for that is potholes. Everywhere, and they are sometimes really deep. 20 kilometers takes 30-40 minutes, and you will feel shaken, not stirred afterwards! And there are people everywhere! If you stop on the road in the middle of the jungle, there will be someone by the car after 30 seconds. But imagine 170.000 people living on an area of 50×30 kilometers, it will get crowded.
On the far north east side of the island there is a beach called Lagoa Azul (blue lagoon). Apart from some boys selling souvenirs we were alone. When swimming you need to look out for sea urchin though. Temperature in the water, around 30 degrees and crystal clear.
We then set off to a resort (Mucumbli) on the west coast. We met the owner at the airport, and she invited us to come by. We had an excellent lunch, one tuna dish and one squid dish. And taste was superb! We then enjoyed the private beach at the hotel (black sand) before we went back to the guesthouse in Sao Tomé city. Due to the very good and very rich lunch, we had sandwich for dinner (with a caipirinha:-))
Tomorrow it’s time to explore the southern part of the island
12th of January
So, some recap from yesterday! We came to Sao Tomé at 17.30, after a short stop in Accra (capital of Ghana). It took ages before all luggage was on the only belt in the airport, and unfortunately, our luggage was not there. It took about 30 minutes to get help to fill out the form for missing luggage, before we could leave towards the hotel. If we were lucky, our luggage would come the next day, if not Tuesday would be the next time. So we were stuck with jeans and boots in a country with a temperature of 30-32 degrees. Anyway, we checked in, got our room and then went out for dinner. We were recommended a ”restaurant” some 100 meters away from the hotel, just by the sea. It turned out to be a very simple shack with some plastic tables. We ordered a caipirinha to start with and then a local fish, grilled with fried banana. The caipirinha was superb, apart from lime they had passionfruit in the drink! But things got even better when the dinner arrived. The grilled fish was just excellent, and the taste was magic. Probably one ot the best fish dished I’ve ever tasted. We were a bit tired, so we went back to the hotel and took an early night.
Breakfast at 07.00 and then off to see the ”city”! We took a long walk and got to a local market with everything you could possible want to buy. We also went to a supermarket, where we could buy some shorts etc so we could survive the day in the heat. In the evening we got hold of the officer at the airport and he told us that our luggage had arrived, and that it would be sent to our hotel. Once it arrived, we were like kids that got a new toy, just enjoying the possibility to put on some clean clothes. The day was ended with yet another great dinner with fish and octopus. For the upcoming three days we have a rental car, and we will start to really explore the island.
Next stop Sao Tome!
On our way to the next adventure! A one week visit to Sao Tome. Sao Tome is an African country on an island west of Africa outside of Gabon. One of the smallest countries in the world (50×30 km) and a former Portuguese colony. Supposed to be a undiscovered jewel. More to come!
Travel diary 