It was just after dawn when we arrived in São Tomé & Principe, an island nation 140 miles off the coast of Gabon, West Africa and located in the Gulf of Guinae. The vegetation on this island, being at the equator, is more similar to islands in the South Pacific than Africa.

São Tomé sits just 0.3 degrees north of the equator and if you wish to place one foot north and one foot south of the equatorial divide, you need to take a ferry from the southern tip of São Tomé to the tiny island IIheu das Rolas where a monument marks this line.

The Island of São Tomé has an interesting past, and was the subject of one of our enrichment series talks, by guest lecturer, Tony van Maanenbert.

San Tome was uninhabited until the Portuguese explorers: Joao de Santarem & Pedro Escobar came across it in 1470. By 1493, Sao Tome was established by Alvaro Caminha, having been granted the land by the Crown. Early attempts to attract enough settlers to this equatorial hot and humid environment, plagued by mosquitos and other wildlife proved difficult. So 2,000 Sephardic children ages eight and under were brought from the Iberian Pennisula to work the fields. With sugar cane demand far exceeding production, Slaves were brought from the continent. As time went on and production was thriving, although built on slave labor, slaves were given more freedom and land to live and grow their own crops and raise livestock. Families intermingled, and lived a freer life than most sugar cane production plantations. It was not until later, that the Portuguese King became uncomfortable with their status and yanked the carpet from beneath them.

This is one of the many reasons Meredith & I enjoy Crystal so much. Their Enrichment Program is a University at sea.

This marks the fourth time we have crossed the equator–– once by air when we flew from Vancouver to Auckland, NZ and the rest have been by sea aboard this splendid ship, Crystal Serenity.

Our initial excursion had been cancelled, so we opted to take the tender, where shuttle buses would drop us off in town. After Angola, and São Tomé being not much different, we walked around taking in this busy little port town. Locals were trading, bartering and zipping about–where everyone was going in a hurry seemed like a game of musical chairs, that when the music stopped–– you were out.

We ducked into a few shops, made our way through the busy markets and then along the waterfront and back to the town square where we waited for a shuttle to take us back to our tender.

This is not the kind of place you want to get stuck in, so when eight passengers on an NCL line were left behind in São Tomé, back in March of this year, it makes for a crazy story. Hard to say who was at fault, but I’m sure Crystal would have handled this much differently. This is why it is always safer to take the cruise line excursions, where they will not leave passengers behind and if they have to, will assume all responsibilities, expenses and address any issues.

Speaking of a dress