Backpacking in São Tomé and Príncipe 🇸🇹: Top 4 Sights In Trinidade

“Would you stay on standby? Because I need another alibi” – Shed Seven.

Whackpacking at São Tomé away probably changed my life; again. Well, firstly there was my excellent Writer’s Lair at Casa De Ferias with my host Bernilda, and almost getting stranded in Africa again. I got through it and returned to the calm of Europe after visiting the exact centre of the world. Another milestone…

Also in the capital city, Sao Tome, at Casa De Ferias, I met Marek Bladowski. Marek is a real man, a proper backpacker, a hardcore Polish backpacker, biker and overall top man. I had the pleasure of 4 days in his company in my 6 days in São Tome E Principe. We hung out together chatting and touring. We visited the football stadium, the chocolate “factory”, Bobbo Forro (by mistake), the national museum and the town of Trinidade…plus a lot more fun times on the island. I’ll be writing a lot more about those tours soon!

On the morning of my day 2, we decided to head to the town of Trinidade. I couldn’t even pronounce it properly, ended up just pronouncing it the same as the first word of the country Trinidad And Tobago. We actually came here just after Bobbo Forro, another small village we were in. In Trinidade, there are about 16,000 people yet on this day, the town seemed so empty.

This was a swift drive that was only 20 minutes or so away from the capital city, São Tomé, on São Tomé Island. Once here, and realising it was easy to backpack all the sights, I slammed a nifty top 4 into an afternoon jigsaw.

1.Trinidade Cathedral

Of course, as a country which was colonised by Portugal, the Catholic church remains strong and Trinidade has a huge central Cathedral atop a hill on one side and some steps on the other side.

2.Trinidade Main Square

Towns like this often just have a main square that is like a meeting place. It was quiet and calm here, yet it somehow reminded me of Guasca and Santa Ana Alta in Colombia! The flag and city memorial sit in the gardens and square and lots of motorbikes are nearby.

3.Trinidade Central Market

This is a very typical African style market but a lot smaller than those I have seen in the bigger cities of course, nowhere near comparable to those in Abidjan, Douala or Lome but worth a quick walk. It was mostly vegetables, fish, meat, fruit, household goods and clothes.

4.Fish Lunch at Bar Maravilha

We craved some decent fish and rice and headed to Bar Maravilha. Unfortunately the fish wasn’t great and took 2 hours to arrive. At least we enjoyed a few drinks in the sun. Marek and I were joined here by the same two Spanish backpackers from Burgos who we met in the hostel. This was actually a wild coincidence but then again when we looked around Trinidade, this was the only bar or restaurant that seemed open at mid-day. Anyway, Marek and I chatted and ate the fish which came with banana chips, tomatoes and cucumber as they had no rice (!). I had a Guava Juice here too.

You could add in a fifth sight if you want, the cemetery which we drove past a few times and decided not to go in. This cemetery is significant because of the Batepá massacre, a brutally crushed rebellion way back in February 1953, where hundreds of inhabitants of Trindade and nearby Batepá were killed. Other than that, we saw most of what Trinidade has to offer. There are some places to dance here at night but we were there by day.

Here are some of my videos from our short trip backpacking in Trinidade: