Sao Tome Part 6 Vanilla, Coffee and Cocoa

Cows and Vanilla

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Coffee

Cocoa

Cocoa

Sao Tome Part 5

Sao Tome Part 4

Along the way on one of out day trips we spotted  the Man.  Old boy was about to go collect his palm juice. I had heard about this.  Bit like Calou in Seychelles which is  coco nut juice. Well this was similar but from the palm tree.  It could not have been fresher.  We had some empty water bottles so we got them filled up wit fresh juice. Tasted very good.

We watched him climb up the tree using a couple of wire foot straps. Worked really well. 1 bottle which was 1 ½ litres costs 2 dollars.  He poured it out for us and excellent service. Very good buy.

Truth is we did this twice. Check  two different sellers…… Excellent.

Sao Tome Part 3

Well I’ve already told you I did not have a lot of Principale photos.  So off we went down south. I’m going to add about 4 postings with little or no text except to add comments to the photos. Give you some idea of the island.

If I had to describe it.  Its about 50 years behind Seychelles in lots of ways with a lot of poor, read low income, people.  I say poor but when you have a roof over your head, food and no one is hungry or lacks the real basics who am I to say they are poor.  Food for thought (pun intended!).

So here we go… Heading down south to our resort. The roads are small.  In fact there are no roads just A road. One small, rough, poorly surfaced and interesting !!!! Fantastic seeing the washing laid out on the rocks in the river. And lots of pigs. Just wander around. Quite amazing.

Famous high point of Sao Tome

My boys having a day out

The main road

More main road

Road side supermarket

Coastal view

Washing laundry

Local house

More buddies....

Sao Tome Part 2

Difficult place to get to. There are flights but sorting out the visa before departure was a bit strange. Very limited web page info. But finally got it organized. Paid online. Done. But the visa never came through. Strange. Anyway we decided to continue with our plans. So we departed anyway !!! Got visa on arrival.

We had pre-booked the hotel and rental car on line. We chose a hotel in the south of the island. been advised it was an Eco type place and good for relaxing. True but I'll come to that...


We arrived in Sao Tome about 6.30pm.  We were the last ones out of the arrivals hall. Not slow !!!!.............. but it took an hour and a half to process only about 100 persons.  So much for relaxing..... And they turned out the terminal lights before we have all finished.... Bit of an uproar by several travelers so off to a great start. I thinks not.

The car was fine a 4x4 jeep thingy.  Francisco the car hire guy had patiently waiting for us. I got the impression quite quickly that this slow life style was normal....

He asked "where we are going?"
I told him.
"That's 3 hours away if you know where to go.... You won't get here in the dark.  Please find a  small guest house in town and go tomorrow."

As it turned out very good advice.

Found a small guest house. Lovely evening, air con room and a cold beer.  Really good nights sleep. Done.

Up late and big breakfast followed by a quick trip round town. It would be quick however you did it as the place it tiny.

Our first stop was the Church. Very typical Portuguese style with several people inside having a small prayer session. What made it for me was the dog asleep outside.  Sort of typified the island speed of life.......

The Hard Life

Sao Tome Part 1

"Sao Tome ? "
"I know I know."
" Yes you've heard the name but where exactly is it ?  err.... "
" Worry no more.  Its south of Ghana in the west side of Africa.  See the map below.  So now you know. "
""Yes but why and for what would anyone go there?"
"Easy. First off because it's there. And because its nearby and a good place to go and relax for a few days."

Sure enough off we went of a long weekend. Was told by several people it was a great place to visit. And indeed it is a very interesting place. So before I hit you with our trip details, photos etc, here are some facts.

 ......Facts you need to know..... or not !!!! Up to you. :-)