{maique}

💰 Money on the island is still a messy thing. There are no ATM to get it, and some people have not been warned about that fact. That should be easy to fix, as most other countries on earth have done so, but somehow it’s not the case here. A real issue when a country is so poor, and so dependent on foreign money.

🏖️ I had a perfect beach day with tinyMovieStar, and a couple of friends. Sunday, movieStar at work, we spent the whole day on the cool Banana Beach, swimming, building sand castles, swimming, having lunch, swimming, having a beer, swimming. It was one of the best moments of the trip.

⏸️ The feeling of life being in Pause while, at the same time, in overdrive. That is something I can only get here. I don’t worry about anything back home, nothing bothers me. And we’re always experiencing life as I feel it should always be: basic, happy, in love. I feel privileged a lot of times, but that feeling is much stronger here. Days seem to go on forever, but filled with excitement, not boredom.

🎉 tinyMovieStar’s first real birthday party (attending one), with lots of kids, happened here. She had chocolate cake (and hates chocolate), she had her first lollipop (and she always refused to try those), and she had tons of sugary juice. The result was not great.

👨🏻‍🏫 Workshop time! A lot less people than expected. As it often happens here, lack of communication was the main culprit. Even so, I believe I got some information across, in the limited time we had. People can’t get away from work with the guests, even if they really wanted. Sad, but somewhat unavoidable.

🏊‍♀️ Before the workshop we had time for out final swim at Margarida Beach. It’s a very small, cosy, beach, next to one of the hotels. We spent a couple of hours having fun at the deserted beach, then walked back to the hotel, had lunch, and João drove me up to Roça, the venue for the workshop. No more beach for us.

🥘 Later in the day we visited Romar for our farewell dinner. We took a few friends along, and fish was grilled. Since Armazém, the place where most people have their meals these days, was closed, the restaurant was packed. So much so that latecomers were greeted with a “Sorry, no more food”. In a way it felt like the old Príncipe, where you really had to plan ahead.

✈️ Morning came, coffee was drank, and Filipa picked us up for the short drive to the airport. Fitting, since she was the one doing the transfer a couple of weeks ago, and also one of the people we always miss the most. We went through the airport formalities, and managed to check in with a couple of friends who were also flying to the big island. That helped with the luggage weight, since they’re only spending a couple of days before going back and had small bags. We didn’t get charged for our heavy bags this way. The tiny plane is not a great experience for some, and one of our friends felt sick for a few hours. movieStar made it mostly ok, the little one suffered a lot with the crazy heat inside.

🌴 Back at Omali, back at the pool, and back at the comfort of the hotel life. Great food, dinner with the friends that came with us, and a late night. The chocolate mousse is still the greatest in the world, and I might have eaten a bit too much. In fact, I always do, as I never know when I’ll be back.

🚗 On our last day in São Tomé we got a car and went south. Jonathan hadn’t seen this island yet, and we didn’t get the chance for a late checkout anyway, as the hotel is full. So, instead of spending the whole day lounging in the pool, we went for a drive. Rain and thunderstorms setting the mood, we went looking for Pico Cão Grande, the most recognizable landmark in the country. Road is ok up to a point, then turns into an adventure. It took us over two hours to get there (60km!), and the cloud cover didn’t make it possible in the end. We drove back, and spent the rest of the day at the pool bar, waiting for our time to go. We got a takeaway pizza, it helped a lot during the long wait at the airport.

⌛️ Our time was up. We boarded our plane, ready for our flight back to Portugal. The girls got their upgrade, I did not. There were two available seats, not three. We had a marvelous time, and tinyMovieStar loved her time there. That was the whole point. She grew up quite a bit, got used to the rougher situations, the lack of her usual food, the amount of new people, overcame her shyness. and had to spend whole days away from movieStar, with me as her only company. She did awesome, and we’re very proud of her. I’m sure we’ll be back.