Sao Tome
- Tara Larkai
- Apr 10, 2017
- 4 min read
Sao Tome and Principe, Africa's second smallest nation situated in the gulf of guinea is rich in history and tropical nature. This two-island nation, was once a leader in Cocoa production but since it's economic decline, it seems the larger island, Sao Tome never returned to its glory. We couldn't care less about its economic state, it's an island and close to the equator, those were good enough reasons for us to visit. My traveling crew was Chloe, Aheni and Meds, it was a 2 night getaway just to get escape the hustle and bustle of Accra, or so we thought. We did not put much work into planning it because after all, all we were after was a beach and a change of scenery. It was an hour flight from Accra via Tap Portugal, about $200. We arrived at night and left at night so couldn't get an aerial view of the islands. I bet it would have been beautiful. The airport was as small as a dot however the arrival process, (although took long due to a few workers) was pretty consistent and standard. We had arranged for transportation to our Airbnb. According to our host, the house is right on the beach and only 5 minutes from the airport but since we didn't know our way around, we felt safer with someone familiar. Our driver literally spoke 10 words of English but nevertheless we were able to communicate in order to get us to the house. The drive started out nicely but took a scary turn. We went from riding on nice paved roads to turning into an alley, a very bumpy road. Come to think of it, it was not even a road, the neighborhood appeared new as there were only a few homes and it seemed they hadn't gotten around to making roads so the locals were pretty much freestyling it with any empty space they found. For the next 10 minutes, while enduring this painful ride, we were just thankful that we had arranged for the ride because even google couldn't have directed us to the house. Google maps didn't show any roads near the house, almost like it didn't exist. In fact , the immigration officers were concerned about us when we showed them the address to the house. They flat out told us that that address didn't exist and wished us luck in finding it lol It all started making sense at this point.
We finally arrived at this mansion with all our body parts in intact surprisingly lol. We were greeted by a gate man and another groundskeeper. They gave us a tour of the mansion which was breathtaking. After going through what we did, we didn't expect to see such a nice house in the neighborhood but it did exist. Before our driver could leave, we arranged for him to pick us up later for dinner because there was no way we would get an uber or taxi to come to the house. I mean how would we direct them there? lol
He took us to a local restaurant near the airport. He claimed that was the only restaurant that was opened at that time. He ordered for us because the waitress only spoke Portuguese. Our first meal was delicious, not sure if we were just hungry or it was really that good but nevertheless, it did the job. Our driver ate for free on our dime of course. We didn't have a choice because he was our back to the house. lol
Our nightmare began when the wifi at the house stopped working, as a matter of fact, did it ever work? Not that I recall. The airbnb listing advertised free wifi so we were furious. How were we supposed to communicate with our families? We took our frustrations onto our driver, he then gave us his personal portable wifi (similar to the ones we use in Ghana), that requires to be topped off with credit whenever they run out. He failed to realize that there were 4 of us and we used internet for pretty much everything, we drained it within an hour. lol
After breakfast at one of the nearby hotels, Vagner, (Our driver), took us on a tour around town. He took us to see the President's house, the many flea markets selling used clothes, the city center, the crowded beaches and more. It was a holiday so it looked like everyone was out chilling at the beaches, shopping at the open markets and just hanging out. It reminded us so much of Accra. So much for trying to get away from it. We weren't pleased with the tour. We felt shorted.
We were looking for the paradise that we had seen in google images when we searched for Sao Tome. It seems the "paradise" we wanted is on the other island, Principe. The only way there is an expensive flight or a long ferry ride according to Vagner. We were SOL! We just decided to really get to know our "mansion" until it was time to leave the next evening since our bill was racking up with Vagner driving us everywhere. This trip was not exactly what we expected but at least we got to experience a new culture. A very familiar culture that is! I wouldn't return but Aheni claims she would return to see Principe in the future.
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