{maique}

Still here, on the island. This one started on a Friday 13th, and jinxed the whole week. Lost a watch, fried a charger, and broke my glasses. Things had to improve after that. Thankfully, they did.

🏝️ We enjoyed the final day of Brazilian musicians on the island, with one scavenger hunt. We needed to find a specific local musician. Of course, being such a small island, the hunt was over pretty quick. We got to the general area we were told he lived in, and were talking to him not five minutes later. Got to hear him sing, and play. A few minutes of chatting, and we were off to the next stop.

We drove to Terreiro Velho, but Cláudio, the chocolate man, wasn’t there. He’ll be on the island soon, though, so we’ll probably visit again.

Home of the best chocolate in the world.

Seems like his Roça is being renovated, which is very welcome news. We shot a couple of photos on his property, and soon we were gone.

I had absolutely no food until 8pm. And drank a couple of beers, and a taste of schnapps. Not too wise, but really did not find the time to eat. A lot of things going on.

Having tinyMovieStar with us, while both of us have to work, is not easy. There is no babysitter, and we have to run back and forth a lot, juggling the days away. Later in the week Raquel (an 8 year old friend) would visit, and tinyMovieStar did the same, went to her place for dinner.

The day ended with a private concert at the hotel, after dinner. Before that there was time for a last meet with musicians, well after sunset.

Of course, being Friday 13th, the charger for missQ stopped working. Blew up. I’m Leica-less for a month now. Merde! (More on this later, less merde, with a stroke of luck).

Following day, another mess. Not a single photo taken until close to sunset. And I only did the one because it would feel immensely strange to go without photos for a day.

I stayed home with the little one all day, but we did end up getting a ride with the staff jeep, and went to Bom Bom for a swim.

Broken glasses. Bam.

New day, new group of people: HTSI photographer on the island, and a video crew as well.

First day with the whole gang had a great way to start. Julian, the FT photographer, also owns a Q, and said he could leave his charger behind. I’ll make sure he gets it back when we go back home. I wasn’t expecting this, but he is a very nice person.

We later found out the did set photography on a show that we enjoyed a lot, and inspired movieStar to start planning our 2018 trip to Asia. Fancy that!

We drove to the airport, to pick up the video guys. I waited at the baker across the street, but no bread came before we had to leave. The boy there kept saying “in two minutes”, but thirty had already came and gone. We left.

Drove to Roça, they dropped their (multiple) bags, and we drove the other way around, heading to Bom Bom. On the way, we tried the baker again. He had bread already. And a Black Sabbath t-shirt. Julian asked for a photo. We all did that one.

We had a great time,

Beach boat ride to the beaches. We were supposed to visit the Bay of Needles, but the weather was so bad we had to delay the departure. When it cleared up a bit, it was too late for that one, so we ended up going the other way. It was very nice, and I got to visit Praia Boi. It’s my favorite beach in the world.

There was no cell network and, as a result, no wi-fi as well, for the whole day. Woke up the following morning with the same issue. Network comes on, you try to send a message, it hangs. A minute later, it’s gone. Can’t call, can’t message, can’t browse. Or upload. This is even worse than having no power. At least, when that happens, we still have the cell network in operation, the internet helping us kill time.

Went to sleep, expecting a full day to start as soon as we woke up. And, boy, did we get it!

Had the most delicious talk with a gentleman, while I waited to be picked up. 83 years old, started talking to me as soon as I sat down on the bench, next to him. People are always surprised when they learn I’ve been coming here regularly. He remembers the colonial times very well. Going to school (still remembers all the rivers from Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique), started working at 14, long life of hard work, and now retired. I hope I get to see him again, but he lives well off the beaten track, and was in town to get his pension, and pay some bills.

My drive showed up immediately afterwards, and we moved to a fisherman’s village. I acted as fixer/translator, and soon we were shooting. I made what will probably be my favorite photo from this whole trip. Then it started raining, heavily. We got VERY wet.

Talking to the fishermen, laughing with the guys. Really nice bunch we have, with the two American video guys, the British photographer, and Joel driving us around.

And, newsflash, video takes forever! We spent hours at the beach, then moved to a lookout point, where we shot some more. We were already running late, we had a boat to catch but still needed to have lunch. A quick tandoori chicken toast at the hotel, with a beer, and we left for the hotel by the sea, boat was already waiting for too long.

The captain was not too keen to take us. He was afraid we might take a while to shoot, into the night, and the cell network wasn’t working. No way to get help if something happened. We went anyway.

Flying! We were soaking wet from the waves flying over the boat in under a minute.

OMG. Blood!! Both video guys have sustained injuries, cuts on their fingers, when trying to remove the battery of a drone who wouldn’t quit. On a boat. Rocking with the waves. Not nice.

We raced back to the hotel, after emergency treatment was provided by the captain. Good thing the company trains all staff in First Response. All of them.

I then had another day at home, cooking, taking care of two girls, then off to Bom Bom for final hours of the day. We all went to dinner at Sheira, with Manuel and Joel. A local restaurant. By now we had two Canadians with us, the party getting bigger.

Julian left the following morning, his charger now with me. Batteries are charged. missQ is back.

First place the camera visited? São Joaquim, and O Que Daniel in the morning. São Joaquim is the poorest Roça on the island, I think. And so far from the city. Takes almost an hour to get there, on the awfully bad road. Beautiful landscape, of course, and lovely warm people when you get there. But they live so isolated from everyone else.

We spent a while, then moved to the next stop, and were ready to eat lunch at 2:30PM. We had endured hours of back breaking roads, had removed trees from the way, and had forgotten our water bottles at home. We were starved, and dehydrated.

Didn’t do much later, as the sun was about to set when we finished lunch.

Another day, another fishing village. This time it was Praia das Burras. We had sailed past it in one of our boat rides. We went by car this time.

Awesome hours at Praia das Burras, a fishermen’s village. Gentle people, fun people.

Women were getting ready to party, as this is the day that celebrates the San Tomean women. Men were having beer. We did as well.

We watched them as the fishing boats were coming back, danced with them, had a few good laughs, and then left.

Drove back to the city, and went to Mira-Rio. movieStar had been there earlier, with the little one, and they had fries! It was almost 3PM, and I had skipped breakfast. I could not miss the fries, first time I saw them in almost a month.

📺 Still watching, drip by drip, Slow Horses. Also started Bad Monkey, as I needed something to keep me busy while patiently waiting for the new episodes of the other show. Watched a couple of episodes, and believe I’ll watch a few more.

📚 Almost done with Spook Street. Liked it, but now I kinda know what’s going to happen on Slow Horses.

📱 First week with iOS 18. Still have to explore a bunch (everything). I’ve been testing Passwords, downloaded Email Me, is anyone using this one? I kinda like getting things by email. I could use Drafts for pretty much the same, but this one lets me send images and voice notes. Kinda neat.