The resort, Pestana Ecuador, is by far the largest source of income on the island. However there is a small village whose inhabitants collect bananas, coconuts and other forest products, seem to grow a few crops in surrounding fields, and take their fishing boats out from the village pier (behind the straw-thatched shelter, above). The village only has a handful of inhabitants, so it’s really about the resort, which itself doesn’t have the highest occupancy-rates you could imagine: if you need a completely relaxing vacation in a lovely and really rather luxurious setting – though my standards are not those of the average American tourist, Pestana Ecuador really does a fine job in my estimation – go now. Most of us wonder how long the resort can keep going with such low occupancy and really quite reasonable rates! Below: the village church and other views.
For a better view of the lighthouse itself — built in 1928 and renovated-modernized by the Portuguese Navy in 1994, if I’m reading the plaque correctly — scan down a bit. If you look closely at the sunrise view of a hill beyond a bay, below, you’ll see the red-and-white nub of the lighthouse tower rising from the lower saddle of Ilheu Rolas’s hill. Above: the path through the village.
Poonam tells me that every year some 150 people are killed worldwide by falling coconuts. (She and her family – husband Owen and kids Leila & Billy helped keep me from feeling actually too isolated on Rolas by letting me join them for meals and the occasional ping-pong or dominoes game.) We all agreed that after the well-advertised risks of the streets of Lagos & Port Harcourt, falling coconuts were a welcome risk. Here you also see one of the culprit fallen coconuts in the flesh, rapidly taking root and reaching for the sky in hopes of begetting further dangerous falling objects for future visitors…
Remember that my daily life in PHC hardly exposes me to the natural world. So I reveled in these little elements of the natural world encountered on my meanderings around the island.
Above: a highly unflattering self-portrait, but how many chances does one have to photograph oneself literally straddling the equator? So I shall swallow my pride, and post it nonetheless. Below: the equator monument on the hill, with Sao Tome’s coastline in the background, and another view of the village pier.
Sao Tome City & Island Views
Ilheu Rolas sits off the southern tip of Sao Tome, larger of Sao Tome e Principe’s two main islands. The airport is just outside the eponymous capital and largest city. Sao Tome became the second Portuguese-colonial city I’ve visited — after Macau in 1983 when it, like Sao Tome, had that ineffable beauty and faded charm that somehow comes with genteel, unpretentious colonial architecture that’s grown a tad dilapidated from years of tropical rain and sun. Above, the cathedral; below, various street scenes and bay views. The entire country has maybe 300,000 inhabitants, I think; the city perhaps 60,000 — so it’s a far cry from Port Harcourt and Lagos!
There’s roughly a two-hour drive to get one from the northern side of Sao Tome, site of both the airport and the eponymous capital city, down to the southern tip whence the boats for Ilheu Rolas depart. Both coming and going, I tremendously enjoyed the trip with its views of rubber, cocoa and coconut plantations; steep cliffs diving dramatically to lovely bays and coves; verdant landscapes with volcanic plugs looming sharply in the distance (see below); and small villages, with village women (above) doing their washing in rivers & draping it to dry on any available flat surface (I so wish I’d managed a shot on one of the flat road verges or rocky river banks literally carpeted in clothing laid out in the sun to dry — rather like a huge bank of solar panels, only a bit less high-tech…). Both going and coming, it made a fine transition from the crowdedness of Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Nigeria to the peace and relative isolation of Ilheu Rolas.
…and a few parting shots for your enjoyment: Sao Tome seen from one of the small beaches on Ilheu Rolas, Sao Tome (immediately above) seen from the boat as I left the resort (look closely and you’ll see the volcanic plug, which looks a good deal less dramatic with the other hills and mountains in front of and behind it); and, below, parting views of the resort and of the whole island. Farewell, oh blissful retreat. 🙂
(so much world, so little time....) 