Today we had a tour of São Tomé which is the capital and largest city of the island and Central African country of São Tomé and Principe. Here is a link to a wikipedia page about the country click here. Like many West African countries the first European occupants of the island were Portuguese in about 1470 and eventually replaced by Dutch and then English. The Portuguese brought slaves to the islands from nearby African mainland countries and that is the source of todays population. As you can see throughout the photos below fishing is an important sourcce of food, while cocoa and chocolate are a major export. Portuguese is the primary language and most of the population are nominally Catholic although various belief systems such as voodoo were brought to the islands by the slaves. We were "entertained" by two voodoo-style dances today, though it was hard to tell the extent to which these were anything more than tourist entertainment.

As you can see from the photos São Tomé is a poor city with roads and buildings generally in a poor state of repair. This report that I found while researching the place highlighted a high level of poverty and hunger. In contrast to this grim situation Nina and I found the people warm and curious.

The visit today certainly made me think about the luck of being born in a first world country; and I think the next few countries will emphasis that thought.