We were up early to make sure we didn't miss anything at breakfast. Unfortunately they didn't have the fresh coconut today, but the rest of breakfast was excellent.
It was one of the shortest transit days we've had - it's only a 30 minute drive from Praia Sundy to Roça Belo Monte. We checked out (were able to pay with credit card) and then the Praia Sundy folks drove us over to the Belo Monte. As we found out later, it's quite common for the hotel guests to have day trips to the other hotels, so showing up in a Praia Sundy vehicle wasn't considered odd.
Normally guests arrive via the morning flight, so our room wasn't quite ready. We had a coffee on the terrace, overlooking the bay of Santa Rita and Bom Bom in the distance. It's a beautiful setting. It's a former plantation that's been restored and has great atmosphere. Jannie, who helped us with our bookings and who we met at Loango, was the project manager for the restoration, and is quite well-known on Príncipe.
Both Jacques (another person from Africa's Eden who helped with the bookings) and Minette dropped by to chat and discuss the excursions we wanted to do over the next few days. So now I had met four of the Africa's Eden folks (Jacques, Jannie, Mathieu, Minette) who I had been emailing with to organize the trip. I had pictured them all working in an office in Portugal but in fact they're all on the ground actually running the places - no wonder email responses were sometimes slow!
A rain storm poured down while we finished our coffees, but the plantation is designed to handle rain and we sat comfortably on the terrace watching the storm.
Our room was ready so we checked it out. We had booked room 102 which is one of two rooms with a view of the ocean. It also has a window to the courtyard so it gets a nice cross-breeze. We had booked for four nights so it would be nice to spread out and not repack all our stuff every day.
I had been checking the forecast for Príncipe, and according to my iPhone it was a high of 22C and low of 19C every day. I figured the data source was whacked, but it turns out that is the climate here!
We had lunch back on the terrace. The sky was clearing up so decided on a guided quad bike (ATVs) excursion to see some of the other beaches nearby.
It was the first time riding quad bikes for both of us. A quick lesson in the parking lot and we were off! The dirt road was pretty muddy from the rain and our clothes didn't stay clean for very long.
It was fun riding the quad bikes, and probably the best way to get around to some of the sights. The dirt road was in bad shape in spots. Saw a couple beaches including Praia Boi which was one of our favourites.
Came back to the Belo Monte and cleaned up for dinner. Handed our clothes to be laundered overnight - first time I've had a hotel offer overnight laundry while traveling! Dry fit clothing helps with the drying.
Dinner was on the terrace, with kerosene lanterns adding to the ambience. We were more tired from the quad biking than we had expected. Overall it was a pretty good transit day.
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