November 17. Sao Tome & Principe. Soggy Saga. We anchored in Ana Chaves Bay and waited with great anticipation for the ship to clear, the lifeboats (tenders) to drop and to go through the ticket trading in the Constellation Theater for our bus number. This is the only tender port on the entire itinerary, quite good news, as tendering tends to be a series of hurry up and wait situations. We were asked to be in the lounge at 9 am for our tour - Bird Watching and Sao Nicolau Waterfall. I know, I know... how geeky is that? But after our Safari a few years ago, where we had an expert guide of our own and a dugout canoe to cruise the Chobe River, I've been hooked and the African birds are magnificent.
Our departure was delayed about an hour thru no fault of the ship or crew - the local immigration officers were asking for a face to face with passports which delayed things... whether this was the result of the Paris attack, or if Sao Tome is always this cautious with visitors, I'll never know.
When it was finally time to get up and go, I was again impressed with the crew, their patience, caution and caring for each passengers' safety. How they were able to get everyone aboard the tender between the swells. A dicey situation with canes, walkers and even wheel chairs, the boarding process was amazing. It's pretty much a hand-off as you are passed from ship to the tender.
Of course, getting off the tender ashore in Sao Tome had its challenges as well! The wharf's old concrete stair steps that has seen better days. Luckily, they were wide enough to accommodate two across, they were also deep, but certainly not ADA height. I was sure a few of us were going swimming, but everyone made it! We passed two of the ship's pursers holding our passports; collected ours, and stood in line for our "face to face" examination. What a hoot. There was not a uniformed officer in sight; the "Immigration Officer" was dressed in a striped shirt and jeans, he would examine your passport photo, look at you, back at the photo, making sure you were who you were, then handed the passport off to an older woman of undetermined age, who took it behind the drapes into another room... I think Voodoo was involved. This repeated itself hundreds of times until we were all thoroughly examined and thought to be acceptable tourists!
Our 9:00 am tour is finally getting underway at 10:30 am... over the river and thru the woods to the rainforest we go. Sao Tome seemed to be a more prosperous island than our previous ports... but John didn't agree. I saw more completed houses, two stories, freshly painted, some with "gingerbread" decorations; he saw as much poverty as before; corrugated, tin houses with dirt floors, but there seemed to be less than on previous stops. The roads were in rough shape with gaping pot holes at the most inopportune times. Slowly we climbed the mountain, into the clouds, which should have been a big hint... The road continued to worsen as we slowly progressed, eventually driving on rocks, boulders and dirt. We stopped to pick up two bird "experts" and continued up the mountain until we arrived and stopped about 1/2 mile from the Sao Nicolau Falls. I did not bring my iPad, which I've been using to take the photos, as I was concerned about it getting wet, but John brought the little camera and we'll see what we can do to get the photos to you eventually.
The falls were beautiful; cascading down the mountain with rocks that jutted out catching the water as it fell and adding even more waterfalls. There was a group of local teenagers having a grand time cavorting in a water pool below the falls. A primitive wooden staircase delivered you to the water's edge. What had started as a hot, humid day at the pier, quickly changed as we climbed, making it delightfully cool and refreshing. As we exited the bus there was a gentle shower; for once Patti was prepared. I had my tennis shoes on, my Boston Red Sox hat on, long sleeves and long pants. Ha. After we had oohed and ahed over the falls, we got serious about birding... and in turn the gentle sprinkle turned to rain. And from rain to a steady down pour, and from a steady down pour to a deluge... like a cow pissing on a flat rock! There was no escaping wet. We continued to look for the birds, but those smart little critters knew better than to stick their beaks out in this weather! Fools that we were, we soldiered on continuing our hunt... look up there! At the top of a tree, a brave feathered something! There were 10 sets of eyes focused our our prize. The guide looked it up in the book, showed us all what it was, my little binoculars couldn't really see it well, but the gentleman with the super duper long range lens focused in and took his shot and then announced it was a bunch of brown leaves... my queue to bail... I was now soaked, and I do mean soaked to the skin. Actually, as much as I hate tennis shoes, my feet were the only part of my body that was dry! By the time I made it back to the bus, water was running down everywhere; I was my own waterfall... at least my fanny was dry so when I sat down it wasn't too soggy. If I could have taken off my shirt, I'm sure I could have wrung it out and gotten a quart of water! Drowned rat doesn't begin to describe my state. Although I had turned back, there were those that trekked on, and on, and on... while the majority of us were in the bus, there were still 4 hearty souls, two bird guides and our ship escort Kathryn that continued - for another 30 minutes. There were grumbles from those that didn't or couldn't read the description of the tour, "upon arrival you will spend over two hours in the area".
There was a charming little boy that brought a bunch of beautiful tropical flowers and stood by the bus in the rain. We finally relented and a number of us gave him $1 each for one of the bouquets, which I'm pretty sure made his day.
Eventually the die-hard birders made it back, the bus driver immediately turned on the air-conditioning and just like that we were freezing! That quickly corrected with a request to turn off the A/C, we back-tracked and headed to the pier. A bird! We finally spotted a bird! Just as we were approaching the pier, a chicken was leading her 7 chicks along the side of the road! Finally, success! One for the books!
Arrived at the pier and waited for a tender. One came and folks piled on until it was filled to the brim; we waited for the second one, made it down the decaying stairs and claimed our seats. Always remember, last on, first off. But no one was left behind, and the hand off from tender to ship was without incident. But we did finally spot a bird if you agree that a chicken qualifies as a bird!
Back on board, Victor the Restaurant Manager, greeted us all as we boarded with the wonderful news that all the Veranda and Pool Grill were open for us... our 9:00 am, 3 1/2 hour tour had turned into a 6- hour soggy saga. Believe it our not, I had air-dried out in the interim, and was quite content to dine as I was.... the rose wine was lovely!
5:32 pm local time, we crossed the Equator, this time as a "Shellback" and have a certificate to prove it! Our friend, Jim, excused himself from our cocktail hour and reappeared fifteen minutes later with a grand surprise in keeping with an old seafaring traditions of crossing the Equator. A surprise is a surprise - nuff said!
Lovely dinner, as always and for once John and I actually made the show! Tonight's entertainment was Laszlo and Claudia, a virtuoso violin duo entertained a mesmerized audience with their beautiful music from Bach to Bacharach, classical to pop. The highlight of the evening was a medley of the music from Phantom of the Opera.
Three days at sea await! Life is good!
A voyage is not just a journey, it's a period of time when the impossible can happen - Unknown
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