crab sandwich

I’ve been sitting here for nearly an hour trying to figure out how to write about our trip to São Tomé without resorting to cliché. Five parts heaven and four parts hell? Paradise and purgatory? Bliss and anguish?

Whatever. Clichés, you win this time.

All I can say is that it was a peaceful and idyllic five days followed by one of the hardest weeks ever. And it’s not over yet.

But I’ll get to the hard parts later. For now I’m going to focus on those first five days. Five days of everything we had hoped for: sun, sand, relaxation.

Since there are a lot of photos, I’ll break it up into two parts, starting today. You can click on most of the images below to zoom / comment.

To São Tomé

There are no ATMs linked with the outside world on São Tomé. Only cash will do. That said, bring Euros. Angolan Kwanza are better used as toilet paper on the island.

Almost there …

But Taag needs to work on its English.

We arrived in São Tomé town late afternoon on a Sunday and took a cab to a small hotel that was mentioned in one of the Lonely Planet forums. No (recent) guide books exist and all the websites about the island haven’t been updated in years.

São Tomé town

Flowers are everywhere

The waterfront

Pequeno almoço

The next day we woke up itching to get to the beach. We spent the day trying to get more Dobra (the local currency) through cash advances and by exchanging Kwanza … to no avail. The cash advance wouldn’t work and the exchange rate the street cambios were giving us was well beyond ripoff territory. We’d have to make do with what we had.

So we meandered to the market and negotiated a hiace (taxi van) to take us to Porto Alegro, where we planned to stay in a beach-side cabin at Eco Lodge Praia Inhame. Again: mentioned in the Lonely Planet forum.

We jumped in the backseat with our packs at our feet. More and more people crammed in and we were off (imagine something like this, but with more dents, less smiley faces and about 11 people inside). We tried calling Praia Inhame to book a room … but no one answered. Oh well, it’ll all work out.

Green hills, volcanic obelisks, winding roads. A five-year-old boy sitting in front of us with his mother would gently touch our fingers as we gripped the seats white-knuckled.

Volcanic towers dot the island

Back of the hiace.

A beautiful drive

After a little over an hour, we reached the end of the paved road and continued to Praia Inhame on a pot-holed, rock-strewn driveway. As we stepped out of the yellow van, rain started to pour. We paid the driver under the shelter of the trunk door while a woman called to us from her front porch: “Hey! You’re in front of a cabin. Reception is down the hill.” She let us stash our bags on her deck as we ran through the rain to the “front desk.”

No space available.

You took a hiace? You don’t have transport? Ohh no … hm. There are no more taxis right now.

But we called and no one answered! You have no rooms?!

It’s too late. There is no space.

I glanced at Kelli … She looked none too pleased.

Shit.

Then the guy got a look in his eye and disappeared into the back room. He returned and began telling us his solution. From what we could understand (this was all happening in Portuguese):

You will sleep in my room and I will sleep at a friend’s. You will not pay for tonight, but you will eat here and drink here. Tomorrow you will stay in a nice cabin. Sound good?

We said, “No, no, no. We can’t take your room. We can’t do that!” Yes, yes, yes.

We really had no other option. “OK. Let’s do it.” So we ordered a couple caipirinhas and waited for our room to be prepared.

We ended up sleeping in the laundry room.

Oddly enough, our best night sleep of the week!

Dreams of Sponge Bob

Spin cycle

Adventure is just bad planning.

– Roald Amundsen

That night in the laundry room ended up being one of our best night’s sleep all week (after I offed a huge spider on the wall, that is).

Praia Inhame: Click on any image to zoom.

Waiting for our real room

Praia Inhame

Praia Inhame

Breakfast

Our cabin

Much better than the laundry room

The beach was ours alone

Yup.

Who brought the Coronas?

White sand. White dude.

Cocos Frios brought to us as a surprise.

Road to Praia Jale

Praia Jale: deserted.

Praia Piscina

Praia Piscina

Eco Lodge Praia Inhame

Tomorrow: Part 2 – On the Equator