{maique}

Hey hey, we’re back in Principe, after a short stay in the bigger island.

🏝️ Trouble started as soon as we landed, but not before an epic welcome from the immigration officer.

We got our bags, and walked to passport control, where we were supposed to ask for a provisional work visa, and not the regular tourist one. We get 15 days with no visa, but are staying longer, and would probably work (movieStar for sure, that’s why she’s here). We’re doing things by the book.

I expected things to take a while.

The officer was very accommodating, asked what company we were working for, and directed me (girls had left for bathroom) to the immigration office. There was a HUGE policeman there, who picked up our passports, and said: “I’ve heard a lot about you, sir”!

I was surprised, very much so. This is not the smaller island, where everyone knows us, but the big one. He continued “Aren’t you coming to take some photos”?

“Ah!! Rosa spoke to you”, I replied, after a short moment. It had to be that. It was that! Rosa is the HR officer at he company. And he laughed!

The girls arrived at that time, and movieStar stood there for a second, wondering why we were both laughing already.

Welcome to São Tomé.

Trouble came right after that, as movieStar got her phone out of airplane mode.

There are two companies flying to the small island. The state owned one, with daily flights, and another one, with twice a week connections.

This second one is newer, and in the past everyone was stuck with the state airline. It fails. Often.

The plane is small, and always full. And it does fail a lot. We had tickets on both companies, as we couldn’t find seats for the three of us on the same flight. movieStar would fly out on the first morning (flag airline), and we’d join her the following day (private company), after a relaxing day by the pool.

My wife’s plane had a mechanical issue on one of the wheels. We knew this much before coming over, and our fingers were crossed. They could fix that while we flew in. Sure.

Of course they did not, and are now expecting a full week of no flights. People are stuck at both islands!

Adding to the mess, we’re here because one of the hotels is opening, after years of renovation work. Lots of (quite important) press is coming. They have no way to get to the island, if this mess isn’t sorted.

I, and tinyMovieStar, looked at giving away our tickets, and stay on the big island for a week, while MovieStar would try to go ahead without us.

Or not!

Woke up the following morning and, as it usually happens, things miraculously got fixed while we slept. The state owned company chartered another plane, from an Angolan airline, to fly the stranded passengers back and forth.

We had trouble boarding, obviously, as a computer kept acting up, and our bags were over the weight limit. Worked out in the end.

We ended up flying over after one day of R&R in São Tomé, at the lovely Omali, AND we stayed 5 days at the refurbished BomBom, the nicest hotel on the small island. Working, but still…

Back at Bom Bom, now that Bom Bom is back. First day was ok. I had to shoot a bit.

Happy I got those photos straight away, as the weather turned, and shooting was pretty much done. We spent the rest of the time just lounging around, mostly at the pool, with the occasional dip in the ocean.

tinyMovieStar is improving SO quickly, she now swims a whole length of the pool, and jumps into the deep end without fear. Love her!

I helped test new cocktails, and drank some more of my favorite beer from the island.

Slept with sound of waves crashing, five meters from our door.

Swimming in the sea as soon as I wake up is one of my favorite things to do here.

On the fifth day we finally left the hotel. First a ride to the airport, dropping people off, and picking people up. Then over to the city, finally.

We got in pretty late already, with just enough time to run around town trying to find butter, get some supplies, have dinner at the very expensive Armazém (in fact everything is wildly expensive here, as this is an island’s island, and prices go up accordingly).

First night spent with rain, the usual power outage, and music from the bars outside.

I also managed to take care of the local SIM card, and I’m now connected. Not so important when we’re staying at the hotels, but very much so when we’re living in the city.

And that’s it for our first week. Bring on the next one!

🗺️ As I usually do around here, I’m trying my best to update OpenStreetMap. New places popping up, others closed for years, double POI, you name it. Let’s see how much I can get done.

🔐 A 1Password / Bitwarden war is going on, for me. I would love to drop the expensive 1P sub, and replace it with a decently priced Bitwarden Pro plan, but the looks of Bitwarden kill me!

I have been adding Passkeys to 1P, left and right, trying to persuade me that it’s worth it. Of course you can do the same in Bitwarden, but my brain can ignore that.

🗞️ New Reeder is out.

🤮 I deleted my Twitter account. Finally. Wasn’t using it, just kept it around to help save the username. The hell with it.

♻️ {micro maique} is now {maique}. Take that. Why? Felt nicer.