Sao Tome & Principe

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Trip Report – October 2024

Sao Tome & Principe

This trip was really challenging – pretty much anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Having said that, Exotica STP, who we hired as a guide for a few days were excellent. Laudino, who came with us was fantastic!

Our first challenge was that Derek got really sick with a bacterial infection when we arrived which required a hospital clinic and drip and copious amounts of antibiotics!

The second challenge was that the guide we had originally hire – Antonio was a complete nutcase and didn’t speak any English.

The 3^rd problem was that our small prop plane flight to Principe took off OK, flew all the way to Principe, circled the island twice and returned to Sao Tome because it couldn’t land as the pilot couldn’t see the runway due to low clouds. Not a major issue until you realize that we now had no hotel, no money ( you cannot access money here as there are no ATMs and nowhere accepts Mastercard, only Visa!) and there were no taxis at the airport.

The 4^th challenge was that our flight out of Sao Tome back to Accra got cancelled due to technical issues, and there was no technician on the island to fix it. So we left a day late and that meant we missed our flight home.

BUT we got pretty much all our life birds in the grounds of our hotels so that made life easy.

There seems to be a fair amount of disagreement as to which species here are sub-species versus full species. I am listing both here.

Sao Tome

We stayed at the Club Santana about 30m minutes from the airport. It was a very comfortable hotel and the people were lovely, really helping with Derek while he was sick.

In the grounds of the hotel we saw:

Sao Tome Prinia
Black-capped Speirops
Giant Weaver
Sao Tome Cinnamon Dove
Newton’s Sunbird
Sao Tome Bronze-naped Pigeon
Sao Tome Thrush

We then moved to Monte Carmo where we stayed at Roca Sao Joao Angolares. ( Not recommended) but the gardens were quite birdy – lots of Sao Tome Weavers.

On the way, a couple of stops gave us Golden-backed Bishop, Sao Tome Paradise Flycatcher, Principe Seedeater, Sao Tome Green Pigeon, Chestnut-winged Staring & Sao Tome Spinetail,

A morning spent hiking in Monte Carmo was quite challenging but we enjoyed 5 new species. Sao Tome Oriole, Giant Sunbird, Sao Tome Scops-owl, Sao Tome Ibis and Sao Tome Grosbeak. Because my husband had been sick we didn’t try for the Sao Tome Fiscal and were quite happy with what we had seen.

Next was a morning at Bom Successo – we stayed at the Casa  Museu Almada Negreiros which has a very nice restaurant. With very few potential lifers we took it fairly easy and managed both Sao Tome White-eye and, surprisingly, great view of Harlequin Quail.

Principe

Getting to this island was very challenging. But when we finally got here it was beautiful. We stayed at the Sundy Praia and, despite Derek still being sick, we got some great birds:

Principe Blue-breasted Kingfisher
Dorhn’s Warbler
Principe Malachite Kingfisher
Principe Golden Weaver
Principe Speirops
Principe Sunbird
Principe Green Pigeon
Principe Cinnamon Dove

We didn’t try for the Thrush or the White-eye and the Principe Starling evaded us but considering we hadn’t left the hotel property we were quite happy!

Hotels

Principe:

Sundy Praia – expensive but very nice

Sao Tome:

Club Santana – very good

Sundy Omali – good – right in town.

Roca Sao Joao Angolares – terrible!

Casa  Museu Almada Negreiros – fine

Guides & Resources

Guides:

Exotica STP – great guides!

Antonio Alberto – I never like to trash guides because I appreciate that it is their livelihood but this guy is dangerous – he is emotionally unstable and I also heard that he left a client in the forest overnight because he was lost. DO NOT USE THIS GUIDE!

Field Guide:

Field Guide – The birds of Sao Tome & Principe – a photoguide – Leventis & Olmos

Bird Lists: