The first question that comes to mind for most people is “Where the heck is Sao Tome?” We certainly had to look it up when we looked at the cruise itinerary. The country is actually named Sao Tome and Principe and is made up of the two islands by those names. Sao Tome is by far the largest, and is located 1 mile north of the equator and 190 miles west of Gabon. Sao Tome is the name of the capital as well as the island. Around 190,000 people live on this island, and another 10,000 live on Principe, which is located 87 miles north-northeast of Sao Tome. It is the second smallest country in Africa, after the Seychelles.
[Disclaimer Alert: what we are going to set forth in this post is based on what our guides told us and what some web sources stated. I have seen differing population figures, accounts of their political history since independence, and economic outlooks. As always, we are posting our impressions gathered from our visit. Cathy and Steve are not exactly the Encyclopedia Britannica. Just so you know.]
The Portuguese “discovered” this island in 1470, although one of our guides playfully suggests that, just because it was uninhabited when the Portuguese showed up, does not mean they discovered it. After all, he suggests, the native peoples on the mainland knew of the island; they just chose not to live there. At any rate, the first successful settlement was started in 1493, and the goal was to raise sugar there because of the climate … and the nearby supply of slave labor on the mainland.
Not only did the sugar industry grow rapidly, but also so did the slave trade. The island became an important depot for slaves being shipped to the New World from present-day Ghana. The slave trade and sugar industry thus grew and declined in lockstep, so by the 19th century, sugar production had peaked. The abolition of slavery in Britain and the rise of sugar production in the West Indies doomed the local sugar industry. Oddly, slavery continued here much later than elsewhere and did not really disappear completely until the early 20th century, although it went by the euphemism “forced labor.”
In 1852, cocoa was introduced as a cash crop, and that eventually supplanted sugar as the primary crop. At one point in the early 20th century, Sao Tome was the world’s largest exporter of this product. More on that subject below.
This had been a Portuguese colony for centuries, and the remnants of such are everywhere. The official and primary language is Portuguese, most of the nation is Roman Catholic, the country enjoys especially close ties with Angola on the mainland as both were Portuguese colonies, the only European destination you can fly to from here is Lisbon, and much of the food and other products that they import is from, yup, Portugal.
Sao Tome and Principe achieved independence in 1975, and elected Manual Pinto de Costa, a leader of the independence movement, who served as president for the next 16 years. Here the literature I’ve read is a little vague, and what makes me suspicious of the vagueness is that one of the guides, Quintino Cabral, described the period as communist. There were no elections. I read other sources that said that the government confiscated all of the plantations that were owned by the Portuguese. Quintino grew up during that period, and said that there was no food, and people were so desperate that they grew to eat fruit that they wouldn’t have touched otherwise. He said it was an awful period.
Another indication was the decimation of their economy, which was based on the export of cocoa. Cocoa production withered during this period, and the country became one of the most indebted per capita in the world. The state took over most of the agriculture as well as any industry (which was mainly the processing of the ag crops). There was also a reference to having developed very close ties to communist countries, and President Pinto de Costa was educated in East Germany.
Why sources as good as Encyclopedia Britannica dance around this period of destruction is puzzling. Suffice it to say that somehow the president came to his senses (probably because he couldn’t keep the place together much longer) and held elections in 1991. Ever since then, they have been on a comeback. They have received huge grants to help stabilize their finances, privatized all agricultural lands and industries, have entered into an agreement with Nigeria to develop the petroleum reserves within their territorial waters, and have made strides to develop a tourist industry.
Our day in Sao Tome began early, as the excursion we were taking, East Coast to Sao Joao Plantation, was scheduled to take 7 ½ hours. The ship anchored out in the harbor and we “tendered” into Sao Tome (the city). Coincidentally, the person piloting the tender was Vladimir, the ship Safety Officer with whom we had dinner a few days ago. We were assigned Bus 11, which turned out to be a 15-passenger van, and we traveled in tandem with a much larger vehicle. Off we went around 8:15 down the east coast of the island. The first thing Cathy commented on was the number of dogs and, indeed, they’re everywhere we go. Miss Eagle Eyes also spots a little boy wearing a Star Wars t-shirt. George Lucas would be proud.
The guide on our van is named Adam Amoriu, and is a young guy who speaks English pretty well. His shortcoming is that he does not understand English all that well, so if you ask a question about A, you might get an answer about B. He has a very engaging personality and you could see right away that is anxious to do a good job for us, so it was easy to overlook that difficulty.
I am going to try to give the itinerary in a logical order, but, because of the language difficulty, we weren’t all that sure what the heck was coming up next or where exactly we were. The road we would be on all day (we returned to the city at 3:15pm) is the main road of Sao Tome, and it goes completely around the island hugging the coast. It is in very good condition, and Adam tells us it was rebuilt around five years ago, driven in part by the attempt to increase tourism. The island is volcanic, with mountains in the center, one of which is over 6,000-feet in elevation. The land slopes very steeply to the coast, and so this road, as good as it is, is one giant hairpin turn after another.
Somewhere in this post, it has to be Random Fact time, and this is as good a place is any. These are some of the subjects that Adam covers [with my comments in brackets]:
- Most everyone is of mixed races because of the long Portuguese history blended with the slaves that came here primarily from Mozambique (another Portuguese colony) and Cape Verde. [I think I may have the Mozambique part wrong, but that’s what he said]
- There are two high schools and one university on the island.
- Primary school is free but high school has to be paid for, although there are many scholarships available.
- There are two rainy seasons: April-May and September-early December.
- There is a large Voice of America radio transmission station on the island that broadcasts in English [Wouldn’t you think they’d be more effective broadcasting in a native language? Just sayin’.]
- There are seven kinds of bananas grown on the island, all for local consumption. Breadfruit and cassava are also grown to be eaten locally.
- Most of the houses outside of the city are built with wood. [Although many of the most modest structures seem to have corrugated steel sides and/or roofs]
- Taxis are yellow – a traditional color said to represent the cocoa pod, which turns yellow when it is ready to harvest.
- Each village was once the location of a plantation. The plantations are gone, but the villages remain.
- The country’s time was one hour earlier than the mainland, but that got too confusing and so they moved the clock ahead on January 1st of this year.
Our first stop is impromptu, as Adam spots a cocoa tree and wants to show us a pod and describe the process of extracting the cocoa. After his brief lecture, we move on for a mile and stop once again, this time just past a bridge over a large rock-strewn stream. What captures our attention is the number of women doing their wash on the rocks in the stream. The clean clothes are then laid out to dry on either the rocky riverbank or on shrubs. We will see this at every brook or stream we cross, and we will see clean wash laid out to dry at almost every house. Wednesday must be washday, as we also see many women carrying big baskets of wash or clothes on their heads as they walk along the road as well.
Our third stop – this one planned – is a village that was actually once a cocoa plantation until independence. It was also the site of a hospital built by the Portuguese, long since abandoned along with the plantation and all its buildings. We stop our buses and kids begin to flock all around us. They are absolutely adorable: smiling laughing kids from four to fourteen, and some adults with them. They are anxious to have their pictures taken, and just love to ham it up for the cameras. These are absolutely the happiest minutes of a day filled with good moments. We spend about twenty minutes there at the abandoned hospital building with the kids and then drive through the village and head south again.
Our driver takes us through a small fishing village off the main road so we can see life there. It is very peaceful, and the view right on the water is breathtaking. That can be said for the entire coastline. If we saw one beautiful tranquil bay with a gorgeous volcanic beach, we saw fifteen or twenty of them. Because the plantations have been virtually abandoned, the forest has taken back the land. Near the shore is lush forest, and it changes to rain forest in the higher elevations. The scenery is stunning, and Cathy and I both are thinking: “This place is absolutely primed for tourist development.” When we ask Quintino (the guide on the other bus) about why tourism is developing so slowly, he mentions that malaria has just recently been eliminated as a danger and the island still carries with it the reputation of a place where it is prevalent. Now that it is under control, and they have a stable government, we certainly expect the word to spread.
Our next stop is a small park where there are a couple of stands and some beautiful rocky volcanic coast to photograph. We are each given a small coconut full of coconut milk as refreshment. It’s delicious. Then Adam shouts “Les Go! Les Go!” to his charges and we board the bus. Next stop is another beach not ten minutes away – Seven Waves Beach. Out of the bus for a fifteen-minute walk on the firm sand as we watch waves crash on the rocks. It is very warm and humid, but there is a nice breeze that helps. The guides collect small fan-shaped seashells to give us as souvenirs (Cathy collects her own, but it does not survive the day intact).
We make a quick stop at the (former) plantation where we will have lunch. This is strictly a bathroom break we find out. Ten minutes later we are back on the bus. At this point, we pretty much don’t know what the heck we’re doing next. We hop off the bus whenever we stop and the door opens, cameras in hand. We board the bus when Adam yells “Les Go!”
In about fifteen minutes, we stop in a town – S. Jaoa dos Angolares, which is one of the provincial capitals (the island is divided into six provinces). At least I think that that is where we stopped. The first building we saw was the primary school. Our arrival is a cause for celebration among the students, who are all let out of their classrooms to greet the tourists. They run up to the wall laughing and smiling and all kinds of excited to see these strangers. Another delightful encounter with the children of the island. Their joy and optimism and innocence are very, very touching, and we all secretly hope that they can retain this buoyant attitude as they grow up. We spend a few minutes wandering around the town and then – you guessed it – it’s back on the bus.
One more photo stop, this one to photograph a huge volcanic cone nicknamed Big Dog (I couldn’t understand the Portuguese name). It’s way, way in the distance, but whatever. We snap away anyway.
Next we go back to the Sao Joao Plantation. This is a working plantation that once grew cocoa exclusively but has diversified. In fact, we see an enormous chicken coop with fenced-in yard full of chickens and pigeons. The main plantation residence is now a nine-room hotel, and we are treated to a fantastic Sao Tome buffet lunch in the open-air dining room overlooking yet another beautiful bay, Baie de S. Joao dos Angolares. Cathy and I are lucky enough to eat with Quintino, one of the guides, and Anna Smith, who is in charge of the Quilt Making activity on board Insignia (guests each make a square, Anna sews all the squares together into one or more quilts, and the quilts are raffled off to benefit the Crew Welfare Fund, which provides extras for the crew). Quintino’s English is flawless. When asked how he learned the language, he said that Peace Corps volunteers offered to teach him, and he jumped at the chance. He is also the person that told us about the communist government of the 1970s and 80s that he lived through. He also clued us into the decline of the once-enormous cocoa crop, which the government is now attempting to bring back through grants to farmers. This man is really, really impressive.
At the end of lunch, unbeknownst to us, we were in for a real treat. Out came a group of musicians and singers. There were three men playing tribal drums, one guy with a maraca and three women singing and dancing. They sang half a dozen very lively West African songs. Quintino danced with Anna, and everybody had a ball. It was great!
After that we toured part of the grounds. They are filled with interesting metal sculptures, and one of the outbuildings houses paintings and sculptures. Quintino takes us for a brief (us Anglos are now dying of the heat and humidity, so believe me, it’s brief) walk pointing out various trees and shrubs, including coffee.
Then it’s off to the races back to the city of Sao Tome, which is about 45 switchback-infested road miles away. Five hundred 150-degree turns and about an hour later, we arrive at the dock. The last tender back to the ship pulls up, and we see a group of big guys with huge suitcases disembark before we board the tender. We find out later that these are the security guards hired by Oceania to be posted on the bow and stern of our ship during the “potential Pirate” period, which apparently has ended.
We are tendered back to the ship and arrive by 4pm. Very soon after that, the ship is underway. We dine in the Grand Dining Room right at sunset, and Cathy asks to be seated so we could watch it, which Evitsa the maitre’d kindly does. We each have an appetizer of scallops and Brussels sprouts and a main course of filet mignon topped with a delicious whiskey sauce. I know we should stop talking about the food, but we just can’t help it!
Before bed, we do get to see the Blue Moon or Super Moon. A special ending to a special day.
