Today, Saturday, Jared and I had the opportunity to get out of the city and into the interior of the island a bit. Click here to see all the photos from our day.
The bat researchers from Cambridge that we met had a friend, Laura, fly in on Friday morning to give them more equipment and then they left that afternoon for Equatorial Guinea. Anyway, Laura is stuck here for a week because the TAP flight to Lisbon only leaves once a week. So, we all decided to explore the island together. (She has a rented car and can drive a stick-shift!) We also invited Polly, another American who is here in ST until July working with the NGP Step-Up to start a micro-finance program. Did you get all that?!
Anyway, the four of us went to the center of the island to the second largest city, Trindade (which is actually quite small!). Trindade is really important to the history of ST because it was the place of refuge when pirates raided the main city, and because two of the biggest revolutions/revolts started in Trindade and came down the mountain to the main city. The ride to Trindade was beautiful and much cooler temperature-wise that down the mountain in the main city. The tropical forests were amazing! Anyway, after Trindade, we went to Cascata São Nicolau, a waterfall further up the mountain. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! We took a ton of pictures! We all had our bathing suits, but it was so cold there that only Jared dared to wade into the pool at the bottom. The road to the waterfall was horrible! Rocky and bumpy – and the car we were in is the worst car in the world! Nothing works on it, except the engine! We named it Beast, because it is one! Poor Laura! – It had no power steering, so she had to crank Beast around every turn!
After the waterfall, we stopped into the Rossa, Monte Café. A Rossa is an old plantation. The island had several of them and now they are little villages all of their own. The people who live on the Rossa’s were born there and their families have always lived there. This Rossa was really busy with lots of people. All the old colonial building are still there along with several newer ones. Every Rossa has a school and a hospital, and this one had a soccer fields, homes, and restaurants/café-type places. Everyone was very nice to us and let us take all the pictures we wanted. A really nice man gave us a guided tour – which I do not think is normal, but Laura bought some São Tomean coffee from him, so this might be why we got the special treatment. The Rossa was amazing! It was like stepping into another world! Some of the Rossa date back 150 years or so, but I am not sure how old this one was.
It was such a wonderful day! The interior of the island is all jungle and volcanic mountains, and I had never seen anything like it! I can’t wait to get back out of the city some more! Tomorrow (Sunday), the four of us are going to a beach at the most southern tip of the island! (A 3 hour drive over horrible, bumpy roads – inside Beast to boot!) Should be a blast!
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