During the raffle draw at the second edition of the Akwaaba Travel Market, I was angling for a return ticket to Europe or any part of the world, but I ended up getting a one week stay at Pestana Equador, at the Rolas Island in Central African country  of Sao Tome and Principe.

I had been to Sao Tome once, but not to Pestana Equador, so, I decided to take up the prize. It turned up to be one of the best vacations I have had as a travel journalist.

At the Sao Tome Aero Porto (airport), There was the resort’s jeep waiting to take us to the resort, a more than one hour trip from the country’s capital. I and the other guests were ferried across the Atlantic to Rolas Island where Pestana Equador is located.

Crossing the ocean, the next experience for us tourists was a pleasant welcome ceremony. Island girls came meet us individually, with a chilled coconut fruit  cut open at the head and with a straw to sip the juice from. ‘Welcome to Pestana Equador Resort on Rolas Island,’ they chorused. The ceremony looked like a scene lifted from the hit movie of the 70’s and early 80’s ‘Fantasy Island’.

All around that humid night, fragrance of fresh flowers was thick in the air, while lulling noise of ocean wave lapping on the was ever present. Our luggage was taken by the potters to our chalets.

Surprise, the chalet were built with wood, but the rooms were absolutely exquisite in terms of taste. Both the floor and the ceiling are also of polished wood, but the floor are elevated by wooden pillars. This, I think , may be to stop little insects and rodents from creeping into the rooms. It has both airconditioner and ceiling fan. The door is glass but with thick curtain to protect lodgers privacy.

Pestana Equador Resort, is the perfect high away in the literary sense of the word, aA two hours journey from Sao Tome. One cannot get to the place without any previous booking arrangements and also giving the resort managers details of one’s itinerary. We had informed them through the e-mail on our date of arrival so right form the Sao Tome airport, they were there with a jeep to convey us to the resort. Even along the way, the driver was keeping in touch with the resort so that the boat will be their on arrival.

So here we are in this island paradise that one could only dream about. But the journey was long, having travel from Nigeria on a two-hour flight to Sao Tome and another two hour to Rolas Island. I could only lie down and sleep, hoping to explore the island the next day. 

I woke up very early to have  a look round the island. First, the high tide of the previous night has subsided in the morning, leaving the beach clean and inviting.

I moved along the clean, beautiful sandy beach barefooted, feeling the sand on sole of my feet. I picked some sea shell. There was an incredibly large amount of crabs on the island. they are in different shapes and sizes, from the huge black craps with long whiskers to the yellowish jelly craps that quickly scurry away on sensing  a human presence.

At the back of the island ws jutting black stones volcanic rocks. There must have been a volcanic eruption here not too far in the past because I could see the lines of the hardened sulfuric rock. I saw an island boy  hunting for octopus and craps. He had a palm front to beat the craps into water, while for the octopus, on sighting them, he would make for the place and used his and to draw them out of the holes. He said it was  for the family’s breakfast.

After the beach walk , I went to swim in the beautifully designed swimming pool. It was not the conventional swimming pool , but built in a serpentine fashion that wooden bridges are constructed to help people cross from one side of the pool to the other.

In Pestana Equador Resort,   the only thing I could do was to relax. Lagos was a distant nightmare. Well, I will be at the next Akwaaba Travel Fair and hopefully, another win and another trip.