Sao Tome and Principe

The Bombom resort in Principe Island is seen from an airplane Nov. 8 2006. The resort was recently bought by a Dutch businessman who intends to plug the island into the boom in vacations to unspoiled natural areas now spreading across West Africa. Principe is the smallest of the two islands of Sao Tome and Principe, an island nation in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.

The empty beach of the Bombom resort in Principe Island on Nov. 8 2006.

Children run on the beach as people look on at Sao Tome on July, 18, 2005. The tranquil scene is one of many to be had in palm-fringed Sao Tome and Principe, a remote pair of volcanic islands on the equator whose attraction lies in what this undeveloped corner of the world lacks: No mass tourism. No traffic. No terrorism.

A boy plays on the beach Nov. 4, 2006, in Sao Tome, the capital of Sao Tome and Principe. Development of the tourism industry is gathering pace in this island nation in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.

A tourist couple enjoys the banana beach by themselves Nov. 8, 2006, in Principe Island. Few tourists reach the island just north of the equator that largely fits the bill of a tropical paradise.

A man goes fishing on a makeshift canoe in Sao Tome on July, 18, 2005.

A five-star hotel and casino belonging to Portugal's Pestana Group is under construction Nov. 6, 2006, in Sao Tome, the capital of Sao Tome and Principe, an island nation in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.

The banana beach is seen from a plane Nov. 8, 2006, in Principe Island.

Two young women sit in the shade of trees Nov. 6, 2006, by the beach in Sao Tome, the capital of Sao Tome and Principe. Development of the tourism industry is gathering pace in this island nation in West Africa's Gulf of Guinea.

CBS

Discovered and claimed by Portugal in the late 15th century, the islands' sugar-based economy gave way to coffee and cocoa in the 19th century -- all grown with plantation slave labor, a form of which lingered into the 20th century.