Principe: Santo António
You can’t claim you have seen São Tomé and Principe until you explore the smaller island of Principe. A short airplane hop through the clouds and you land on a spectacular tropical paradise of an island. Santo António is the capital, a historic town founded in 1502, it was actually the capital of the whole archipelago for about 100 years in the 18th century, as Portuguese built about half a dozen of massive cocoa plantations here – called rocas. Santo António is pretty small, just a few streets facing the ocean – but architecture is beautiful, and the white and blue church in the center of town is quite stunning, framed by mountains in the background.
