Banana beach

This banana shaped beach is indeed called Praia Banana (Banana Beach). That’s original.

It is the most beautiful beach I have seen and, I am not sure I want to say where it is … well ok, it is located in the Island of Principe.

A mountain more than Starbucks

Visiting Monte Café (Mountain of Coffee) I tried to capture the perfume of the flowers of coffee, unable to achieve my purpose, I bring the fruits instead.

Amazing spider

From up the montain into the forest of the smallest country in Africa, this amazing spider, a very unique spiny orb-weaver a Gasteracantha sanguinolenta C. L. Koch, 1844 (Africa, São * Tomé Socotra).

Free Willy

I was able to catch this little fish after an ingenious trap setting; my 2 year son sent it free soon after. We called the fish - Willy, :o).

A mention to the excellent camouflage. Can you immediately spot the 3 fishes in the picture?

The bridge

Oh, that way ... really.

Puppy the fighter

The puppy and the pig face each other ready to a mortal combat ... suddenly the fearless killer machine jumps over a vanquished big pig …

In the end, it really looked like the pig was having a lot of fun at the puppy expenses…

Tidal death trap

In a tidal pool a drama occurred, probably a few hours before my arrival. A fish trapped in a tidal pool, lacking of oxygen was caught by a Sea anemone and was being devoured right in front of my eyes.

The revenge of the hermit crabs

Yesterday was a public holyday, celebrating the National women’s day, and as my family is leaving for some months, we took the afternoon off and went to the beach, we always have fun there and of course it is always a place full of blogging opportunities (I will be posting some amazing stuff over the next few days).
I decided to look for hermit crabs, and did take some shots … until I started feeling itching on my legs. It started growing in my body until I realize it was not some insect bite but actually a skin allergy, maybe of something I stepped over while distracted by the hermit crabs. This morning I felt like I had been bitten by 1000 mosquitoes. I am on hydrocortisone and antihistaminic pills but can only think that maybe in some way the hermit crabs got a little revenge over the title of this blog. Well, I really need to go scratch myself now …

Love of one day (amor-de-um-dia)

These beautiful flowers, possibly from the family Asteraceae, last only for one day and at the sunset fade away, to be replaced in the next morning by another flower. Locals call it the love-of-one-day …

Numbers telling stories (cholera)

Today was one of those days were I couldn’t leave the office building ... one of the tasks I needed to do was ensuring that proper reporting was prepared for a cholera related project. Not to be limited to data from Sao Tome and Principe I went and googled Cholera in the web and found this information from WHO (http://www.who.int/) that I compiled in the table that follows:
FYI in this 150.000 people country we had more cases of cholera than Europe, North America, Oceania and Asia altogether. It would be almost comic if it wasn’t a terrifying reality.

Blowing 50 balloons is almost fun

Well I have to say that blowing over 50 balloons is quite an amazing experience, it fills the ground with balloons and all around with light spots … the outcome was fun even if half of them popped before the party.

Just to kill time I have googled popped ballons and found this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/05/15/nosplit/eaquestion115.xml

Hitler … really?

Just yesterday an electrician came to install a lamp in a new meeting area. You wouldn’t be able to guess the first name of this young man - Hitler. Has I inquired him about his name he simple told me: “well my parents didn’t know who he was and enjoyed the sound of the name”. Oh my …

Touch-me-not (não-me-toques)

Well, you’ve probably heard about this plant, the Sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica L.).This plant is sitting in the backyard of my office, and it still amazes me. Here goes a demonstration with the help of my good friend, Daigo, and his finger.

You can find information about the Sensitive plant and some interesting links at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_plant

Scary night … running for your life.

Rafael is not only a good friend he is also a guard in the compound where I live. He is a strong and brave fellow and an incredible storyteller.
This story was told to me last night, following a discussion about the frequent robberies in the country. I was amused by telling him that one of the guards, on a previous office I worked in, was chased away by robbers, Rafael looked at me and told me: “I have to confess, I also once had to run”.

These events took place over 15 years ago, when Rafael was still the guard at the old city market. One night he heard noises inside the market and he went in to check it … when he entered the enclosed market there was an almost shadow like old men sitting on a wooden wheelchair. Staring at him, this figure started to slowly advance in his direction … he knew that it was impossible for that old man to be inside the walls … but the creaking wooden wheels sound advancing in his direction precipitated the only decision possible … Rafael started to run and only stopped 5 km away inside his home. He only came back at the sunrise never to see that old man again.

This story and photo were published with the permission of Rafael Barros. I am sure I will be posting more than once based on his stories.

stealing from a hermit crab

Just the other day, I stopped by the beach to have a sandwich for lunch, and as I was leaning to pick up a nice shell, it started running from me … I was amused finding that both me and this hermit crab had similar tastes on shells.

The cows but not the goats

I was sitting in this amazing beach in Sao Tome and Principe and suddenly …