Seychelles

11/25/12
Today is the day I reunite with David after 51 days. I'm excited to see him and begin the next phase of my travels and curious to find out how we will travel together. For my part, I've been learning for 51 days how to offer him more patience/tolerance/understanding and freedom to be the way he is. It is interesting how when you travel with people you hardly know, you work so hard to please them and accept and accommodate their habits while altering your own so as to make less impact (and they are doing the same). After being married for 13 years, I have some pretty hefty expectations that my husband be able to divine my every thought, need, desire and whimsy. I am happy to have had this opportunity for a reality check, as I suppose David will be too...

Spendy Seychelles
I've had Seychelles on my radar for about 25 (ouch) years. An island paradise with amazing diving... what else does one need? Honestly, I didn't know much more than that before adding it to my itinerary. From previous research, I knew that travel costs/distances from the US were unreasonably expensive/far for me to visit as a 1-2 week vacation destination so I was totally pleased to realize that the little specs on the map northeast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean were, in fact, the Seychelles. Still, the return flight from Johannesburg to the main island of Mahé was $840 plus $110 return for the ferry to Praslin and you can't find accommodation for less than $100 per night. Ouch. Don't get me started on the food! $30 for one lunch plate of vegetable curry. It was adorable that the waitress offered to let us share that curry dish so it would be less expensive. Ummmmm...(we opted for smooshed bananas and a granola bar instead). Suffice it to say that we ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Our first place had a kitchenette so we cooked a couple of hot meals from sparse provisions found at the local market. You know, the old standby: garbanzo bean spaghetti. Actually, we created an impressive lentil, potato, onion, eggplant, coconut milk curry with masala spice as well. In 11 nights we ate out twice: we shared a plate of fries one day ($8) and splurged on personal pizzas for dinner one night ($30). Eating those pale 8" inch cardboard discs with tomato droppings reassured us that pb&js were the better option.

The best value on the island was the public bus which takes you around the entire island for 5 Seychelles rupees (38¢) per ride. That bus took us to/from Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve, the inter-island boat jetty and several different snorkel sites.

Vallée de Mai is on the UNESCO World Heritage List because it contains 6 species of endemic palm trees in forest that remains largely unchanged since prehistoric times. The most famous, coco-de-mer, produces a double nut which is the Seychelles' mascot and contains the largest seed in the plant kingdom. We also saw the rare Seychelles black parrot which only lives in that park. Strangely, it is only listed as vulnerable (not endangered or critical) even though there are only thought to be 200-300 birds left in existence.

Vallée de Mai

Coco-de-mer seeds

We took a ferry to and spent the day at La Digue, the 4th largest of Seychelles 115 islands (Praslin is 2nd). You have probably seen the beach we went to: Anse Source d'Argent. This is supposedly one of the most photographed beaches in the world. It is really striking due to the dark granite rock formations popping up through the pretty sand which is sandwiched between the lush greenery spilling out from the hills above and clear calm ocean waters below. We split our time on the island between laying in the shade at the beach and feeding and photographing the Seychelles' Giant Tortoises kept there.

La Digue

feeding Seychelles tortoise

We made various snorkeling attempts on Praslin. I can't claim to be impressed by what I saw (except for my hammerhead sighting). I know that the 1998 El Niño event caused massive amounts of coral bleaching but why are articles still being published siteing Seychelles as a top snorkel and dive destination? Is this the new best? I'm beginning to believe that it is. : (  Scaling back my expectations to a more realistic level, I can say that I did see some live and colorful corals. There was a lot (A LOT) of sea grass/plants posing as reef. What I mean is, when you look at the water from the beach, there are alternating dark and light patches and you (I) get excited... you hope the dark patches are coral reef... it is disappointing to snorkel over them and find out they are just plants in the sand. Of course, all is not lost because plants in the sand is an excellent place to find little things. It is a nursery for juvenile fish and home to other sea creatures. I would float in one spot in a foot of water with plants tickling my belly and see how many little guys I could count. All in all, I did see lots of fish. Pretty fish, plain fish, big schools of little fish, little schools of big fish. A turtle. Pufferfish. Sting rays. Eagle rays. Eels. A zebra turkeyfish. A pipefish. Yeah, I guess it was pretty good snorkeling, global warming considered. The best spot was probably Cocos Island, like everyone said, but I'm not sure it was worth the cost of the boat ride out there. My brand new underwater camera died mid-Seychelles so there won't be anymore water photos after this. So sad I didn't get a shot of the gorgeous turkeyfish or of this adorable group of 5 little yellow fish that followed our footsteps at the shoreline.

We dove 3 different sites: South Marianne, Avé Maria and Booby Island. My top memory is of the dive master in training grabbing onto a coral head to have a look at something nearby. (for those of you who don't know, this is like a mass murder) My top good memory is of a GIANT humphead parrotfish. It must have been pretty old to be so big- maybe 30 years? We also saw reef sharks, rays, turtles, an octopus and large schools of fish and a great variety of fish.

I think Seychelles is a nice place to visit if you have a ton of money, if you are French and just looking to tan on gorgeous beaches (as the French seem inclined to do) or maybe if you can sail yourself around the islands. I do know it is the most stunning airport I've ever flown into.

Bucket list: Seychelles: done

Cocos Island

Black Parrots

Anse Kerlan

Anse Georgette