Sao TomePart 3Woke up on our second day in Sao Tome for more locals fishing for breakfast in the ocean below our cliffs:
Today we're heading all the way to the southern point of the island, through villages, jungle, and incredible landscapes.
Leaving town:
Washing machines? Yeah, nah. Not in Sao Tome.
Every river we passed was packed with women and girls doing laundry:
The rivers were also full of little boys running around wearing nothing more than their birthday suits, but I'll spare you those pictures.
A typical house around here:
Red-winged Bishop along the roadside:
Another river...
Collecting water at the communal tap:
Bringing dishes to be washed:
Further south, getting wilder and less inhabited:
One of the most famous landmarks in Sao Tome is Pico Cão Grande, a 1275-foot tall thin volcanic plug pointing up needle-like from the surrounding jungle, often draped in mist:
As we were standing there waiting for the mist to lift a bit, a sudden flash of color caught my eye. I suspected I knew what it was, so I ran into the jungle on the side of the road to try to locate it again. After a merry chase, I was able to get a good look - and a good enough picture to confirm what I thought I saw:
Just a tiny, unassuming little bird, right?
Not so fast. This is a Sao Tome Weaver, and is endemic to this island - meaning it is found nowhere else on earth. When I saw it, less than 400 sightings have ever been recorded of this bird. For a B1RDNERD
TM such as myself, this was an incredible treat.
Sao Tome, being an isolated island, has 19 endemic species - one of the most in the world. In fact, for its size, Sao Tome has the most endemics on earth. I ended up seeing 5 of those, which, considering I wasn't actually birding properly, made me more than happy.
Earlier that morning I had seen - but unfortunately not photographed - the endemic Sao Tome Sunbird. This ultra-rare bird has only been recorded 116 times!
Anyways, enough about birds.
Continuing on, Pico Cão Grande popped out of the clouds for a moment:
Did you know that bananas grow upwards? I always imagined them hanging down as a bunch:
A pair of Common Waxbills:
We finally got to the bottom of the island, to the bustling metropolis of Porto Alegre. The entire "town" is a bunch of hovels grouped together on a small beach:
Traveling through Africa you'll notice two common types of people. In most places - especially in the cities and rural areas - pretty much everyone you see will be working and hustling. Farming, building, shlepping, selling all sorts of wares and trinkets. Even the cripples are dragging themselves around the streets begging industriously (this is not an exaggeration; seeing these guys is not something you forget easily).
On the other hand - and I've seen this the most around small towns - are the professional loafers. People sitting around all day, every day doing absolutely diddly squat. They sit by the dozens and by the hundreds. Sitting, sitting, and sitting.
Look at this picture: two dozen men (and a couple of children) doing absolutely nothing:
Now I'm not judging; in a town like this, in a country as poor and undeveloped as Sao Tome, there can't be too many great career opportunities. But the fact remains that this sort of scene is exceedingly common across Africa. And in many cases, these loafers loaf right next to people working hard. Just to the right of the above scene were a group of people working on fishing nets and preparing to head out to sea:
Not the most amazing of careers, but people working hard to better their lives a bit. And truthfully this is the case for the overwhelming majority of Africans, including here on Sao Tome.
So why are we at this God-forsaken little village in the first place? Because across a couple of miles of open ocean lies a miniscule island called Ilhéu das Rolas, through which passes the equator.
Now let's find a boat to take us there!
Looks good enough to me:
Right away we say this wasn't going to be a picnic... as soon as we hit the open ocean the wind and waves kicked up and our tiny boat was kicked around by the tempest:
...And then our motor died.
After a few minutes of tinkering (which consisted mostly of pulling the starter cord and banging on the motor), it coughed back to life. Until it died again.
Waves, engine dead, banging, engine on, waves, engine dead again... over and over.
How did we feel about all this? Pretty good, actually. We knew exactly what we had signed up for and were getting it in droves. My friend literally pulled out a bottle of champagne from his backpack and popped it during one of our many unplanned stops in the middle of the ocean.
This boat was actually considered a "ferry", and so we had another passenger on board: a woman with an infant strapped to her back. Throughout the entire journey she didn't say a single word or show any expression. She just sat there quietly and took it all as it came.
Finally - miracle of miracles - we made it to dry land. Our co-passenger climbed out of the boat without a word, collected her belongings, and literally just strolled off into the bushes:
The state of the "town" on the island is indescribable. Just amazing that people live their whole lives in conditions like these:
Daily life:
The equator runs through the village, but there's a short hike to an overlook with an elaborate marker just on the other side of town.
In the jungle, locals were felling a tree with machetes:
The hike was maybe 10-15 minutes through the jungle, with no one but this 6" venomous Red-headed Centipede for company:
Location: equator!
Latitude 0.000000°:
Our guide having fun:
As we prepared to leave, another endemic bird made an appearance - the Sao Tome Pigeon:
The return crossing was a lot better - our driver has evidently fixed the motor and the waves were quieter. Approaching the main island of Sao Tome we had good views of its smaller, lesser-known volcanic monolith, Pico Cão Pequeno:
Approaching the town again:
At least the pigs are doing something...:
Heading north again:
One more view of Pico Cão Grande, complete with an I♡NY t-shirt, of all things:
By the time we got back to our apartment it was time for a short rest and dinner, and a final look at the incredible views:
And then it was time to say goodbye to this incredible country.
The airport is shall we say, not the most modern:
We were off on TAP Portugal's flight to Lisbon via Ghana, but today we're actually getting off in Ghana.
The flight was short but they actually served a KSML - some weird flatbread and fruits:
We landed in Accra about 9:30pm, good and tired. But will Ghana allow us entry? All evidence showed that they will not.
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