São Tomé & Principe

Today is a tender port. São Tomé is the capital and the larger of two island of this Central African country. It is located 25 miles north of equator.
The country was founded in 1493 by Portuguese. The island was uninhabited before 1470 and Portuguese came in search of land to grow sugarcane.

2,000 Jewish children, eight years old and under, were taken from the Iberian peninsula for work on the sugar plantations. Most of them died, the rest mixed with the nearby African Kingdom of Kongo that eventually became a source of slave labor as well.

I booked a private tour for 6 people. We took first tender boat and around 8:30am met out guide. So far, so good.
Then we saw his car…. It could accommodate six people, but very tight. In addition, four of 6 were very big tall people. Oh well, may be with air condition it will be not too bad. Soon we found out that there is W4-40 air conditioning only (4 open windows - 40 km/hour).

The tour was basically driving around and stopping in few places to take pictures.
We saw lots of children in school uniforms. The birth rate is 6-7 kids per woman. Island has very young population, like most of African countries.

The island has small production of cocoa and makes very good chocolate.
Our last stop was a chocolate store. Beautiful pastries, gelato and chocolate (also air conditioned store). Suddenly it felt like we are in a different country…somewhere in France. The illusion was short lived, back in the hot 🥵 sun and hot car.
After we came back onboard, I crashed on the couch and for 30 minutes could not move. Cold shower later made it a little better.
At 4:15pm there will be a big crossing equator celebration on the upper deck. This is our third crossing on this cruise, but only first time the ship was giving a permission for big gathering.Read more