MAGICAL PRAIA BANANA

MAGICAL PRAIA BANANA, a photo by André Pipa on Flickr.

Watching Príncipe from the air is like preparing to enter an ancient world: extinct volcanoes, lush forest and desert forest-lined beaches. This one is the wonderful Praia Banana (Banana beach) on the northern coast of the island

Príncipe is the northern of the two major islands of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa, on Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of 136 km² and a population of approximately 6,000. The island is a heavily eroded volcano over three million years old covered with luxuriant tropical jungle. Príncipe rises in the south to 948 metres at Pico de Príncipe, in a thickly forested area wich is believed to be the last virgin primary rain forest of Africa. The north and centre of the Island were formerly plantations, formed under Portuguese Empire. These concentrated initially on producing sugar and later on cocoa, becoming the world's greatest cocoa producer. Since independence (1975) these plantations have since largely reverted to forest. Roça (plantation) Sundy, here in Príncipe, was the site where colonialists Einstein's Theory of Relativity was experimentally proved successful by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington and his team during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 191