Pico Basilé

About two-thirds of the way up the island of Bioko sits a mountain known as Pico Basilé, which I have to say is an interesting place on at least a couple of counts. The first is that it's the rather majestic view that I get on a daily basis from the only window of my little office. It works out well for me not just for the beauty of it all, but also to be able to judge the cloud cover on any given day. Some days, I can see the entire mountain; on others, the clouds are so thick that the mountain disappears from view. The second item of interest: this is no small mountain. It's 3,011 meters high, or just call it 9,878 feet, which in my mind makes it plenty high, especially for an island this size.


So for our adventure this past Saturday, we took a trip to the top of the mountain. It took a while, with its being something like 12 miles of road to get there. But the road is fabulous, presumably the work of one of the many Arab-run road crews. It looks like it's brand new, but it could very well have been there for a while, just without a whole lot of traffic around to cause it any wear and tear. I mean, it's just not exactly part of the beaten path around here. But when tourism takes off here, they're definitely ready to make the trip to the highest point on the island part of the paid tour.


The view from up there is impressive, as is the drop in temperature and humidity. You'll just have to take my word on the temperature and humidity. But here are a few shots from up there...