West Africa Oddysey 2012 - Sao Tomé & Principe

Island Country: Sao Tomé and Principe

April 6-7, 2012

Aboard National Geographic Explorer

St. Nicolau Waterfall

Friday, April 6 we spent the whole day on the largest mountainous island, Sao Tomé, of this island country – the smallest country in Africa. It was our first experience in a dense rain forest. They grow coffee and cocoa and have lots of other lush plants; almost all of them came from the “new world, or western hemisphere.” The whole day was a series of long drives; to see a waterfall way up in the mountains, to see an old coffee plantation, to eat at an out-of-the-way restaurant, and the hit was the Chocolate factory for some sampling and purchases. We experienced a heavy rain shower, which didn’t last more than a ½ hour, but made for a wet entrance to the lunch location.

One stop was to visit the BomBom Church where a special concert by the men's choir had been arranged for us. It was very delightful.
Some went on a birding excursion, but such isn’t our priority. Some got to visit the “Voice of America” broadcast facility, but that wasn’t on our tour. While I went back to the ship Paul went with a few others to visit a market.

Bom Bom Resort

Saturday, April 7 the weather continued hot and humid. We arrived at the island of Principe about 11:00 am, but it took a long time for the officials to come aboard to clear the ship (we find that officials in Africa march to their own drummer, and generally show up to clear us through customs and immigration whenever the mood strikes them despite our prearranged schedule).

 We spent the whole afternoon on the island just relaxing at the Bom Bom resort, which is owned by a wealthy South African citizen who has done his own space exploration. (He has now sent the first private space capsule of cargo to the Space Station.) It was a beautiful site and it was our only chance on the trip to go snorkeling or swimming. While I did have snorkeling gear I didn’t use it. Rikki and I did go out swimming for a short while just to have some time together and hang out. The best thing was that it cooled our body temperature down and made the rest of the afternoon more bearable. 

Returning from soccer game

Paul decided not to get in the water, but he did take the bus ride into the town, a half-hour drive each way. When they got there the town was practically deserted. Soon people started pouring in, coming from the big football (soccer) game between Sao Tomé and Principe. Fortunately, Principe won. There was a market area with lots of friendly people and Paul likes taking those kinds of pictures.

Grace, Richard and Mary Ann

I just hung out and read some of my book and visited with friends. There was a huge downpour for about a half hour and then it was back to a normal somewhat overcast, but hot and humid day.

Happy Hour and a BBQ dinner were supposed to have been on the beach, but they didn’t realize that a full moon high tide would cover most of the beach, so we returned to the ship where they did the BBQ on the back deck.

We had to set our clocks ahead an hour that night. The next two days we were in Cameroon where we will have a chance to meet the “Bagyeli” people (they used to be called pygmies). It promised to be a very interesting two days.

That's it for now. Grace and Paul