The capital of Príncipe – the smallest city in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records – is little more than a collection of dilapidated houses and shops in pretty pastel colours along the sluggish Papagaio River, with yawning gaps between them, slowly eroded by the salt air and choked by trees. In the town centre, only the church, the government building and a handful of other pretty 19th-century colonial buildings found around the central square have been restored. Pay a visit to the new Centro Cultural opposite the market, it has a library and offers a chance to meet ambitious and educated locals.
