the globe says
São Tomé and Príncipe
Fly via Lisbon — a straight shot to Africa's second-smallest country, sitting on the equator.
A converted cocoa-plantation roça guesthouse in the misty interior.
Crumbling colonial plantations swallowed by jungle, chocolate from tree to bar, empty volcanic beaches, and a Creole ease nobody outside Lisbon has heard of.
Tour a working roça, eat calulu with the workers, and buy chocolate made a hundred meters from the tree.
June to September
Léve-léve — take it easy; the national philosophy.
Equator by Miguel Sousa Tavares — the colonial novel set on these islands.
Príncipe, the other island — even smaller, even greener, a UNESCO biosphere.
Infrastructure is thin and flights are few — build slack into your connections.