São Tomé alone

The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe sit on the Equator like brightly-coloured birds on a telephone line. I had never heard of them. "Think of the Cape Verde islands," said the travel agent who sent me there, "ex-Portuguese off west Africa, but hotter and greener and further." He promised insanely beautiful empty beaches,

Tourists are really not entitled to judge the mentality of a small, poor country — but I have never been to a more relaxed place or met so many invariably amiable people. Many speak French as well as the official Portuguese or Creole. Even the few pimps, beggars and hustlers must be the politest in the world. São Toméans have a characteristic expression: lévé-lévé. A rough translation would be "no worries." Their strongest description of bad times is complicado.

I stayed first in the capital city of São Tomé, then headed south to the former plantation of Roça São João, turned into a handsome guest house and an eco-tourism centre and a gourmet delight by its owner, João Carlos Silva, a celebrated TV chef. Delayed by an airport strike (to remind me of home?) I flew to the smaller island of Príncipe and stayed at the luxury resort of Bom-Bom (translation, goody-goody), an exquisite private tropical paradise island, with its own brilliant chef and an agonising choice of beaches and rockpools. From there, I travelled back to São Tomé and then onto to another luxury resort, the Pestana Equador, on an even tinier island called Rolas, which is cut by the Equator itself.

The city of São Tomé was the most laid-back capital I had ever visited — until I saw São Antonio, the capital of the smaller island of Príncipe. It has a fine museum in an old fort, whose main exhibits contrast the opulent and tasteful life of the colonial Portuguese plantation owners with the miserable condition of their workers. There is also an imposing cathedral, whose services are packed with worshippers. For hymns they not only sing but dance in the aisles. The city has fine buildings in unexpected places, colourful murals and whimsical statues.

The nightlife was perfect for a veteran party pooper like me — pretty negligible. Restaurants and cafés serve excellent local fish and chips (usually banana not potato) and strong local beer for around £8. Street food is wonderfully cheap: corn on the cob, exquisite jackfruit (like a wimpy pineapple) and the weird safu, which, grilled, tastes like a cross between a squid and an artichoke. Typical entertainment is watching a Portuguese football match, a Brazilian soap opera on a communal television or local people dancing to kizomba music: their steps are intricate and intimate.

All these things had their charm but the best moments were outside the capital: hiking through the dreamlike rainforest, straining to see the endemic birdlife pointed out by the local guide, bathing in sudden waterfalls Plantations with elegant, sometimes decaying, Portuguese houses, reminiscent of antebellum mansions in the American South Mardi Gras in the village of São João de Angolares, and watching a travelling performing troupe whom I dubbed Six Guys Named Moe. Three were screaming drag queens. They performed a long dialogue play in Creole with music. It got a lot of laughs and I sensed that parts were distinctly risqué.

And those beaches — so many with the standard ingredients of golden sands, palm trees and tamarinds, translucent turquoise water, skies painted by tropical sunrise or sunset. One, Banana Beach on Príncipe, was used to sell Bacardi rum in a long-running TV commercial.

Another, on São Tomé, earns its hackneyed name of Blue Lagoon. The Bom-Bom resort offers diving at some of the finest sites in the world. The snorkelling was the best of my life. Simply lolling in the shallows (the temperature of a warm bath) offered an endless parade of multicoloured fish, including a strange charcoal grey specimen with a permanent fake smile. I named it the politician fish.

Rolas had its share of great beaches but its most magical place was the Equator monument left behind by the Portuguese. It is a simple amphitheatre, with a mosaic map of the world and a white obelisk sitting right on the Equator. Like a child you dart from one hemisphere to another, or bestride them like a colossus.

Any downsides? Heat (around 90 degrees Fahrenheit in real temperature) — but why go there if you don't like heat? The humidity can make all effort on land exhausting. Excursions are expensive for lone travellers but taxis are very cheap if you don't mind sharing with livestock as well as people. Roads vary from poor to atrocious. Power cuts are frequent. My mobile phone did not work. There are no ATMs and very few places accept credit cards. There are limited souvenirs other than world-class coffee and Corallo chocolate (90 per cent of the islands' export is cocoa).

Awareness of poverty is often acute. But this country still earns its title of undiscovered tropical paradise. Only half the size of Greater London, it still has more things for me to discover next time — birds, orchids, turtles breeding, whales migrating and two unique dance/drama performances, tchiloli and Danço Congo. I might even learn the dirty jokes in the Carnival play.

DETAILS
THE FLIGHT
TAP flies from Heathrow to São Tomé via Lisbon from £680 return.
www.flytap.com

THE PACKAGES
São Tomé Travel has 13 nights on both islands for £2,314pp full board with transfers.
www.saotometravel.co.uk