The time came for our second trip.  After considering the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Seychelles, we decided on Seychelles.  Etihad, the UAE national airline, advertised a holiday getaway including accommodations and airfare and that sealed the deal.  I was only vaguely aware of Seychelles before coming to the UAE, so I did a little homework to educate myself and prepare for the trip.  Here are a few of the basic details about the country, and a few other fun facts:

• Seychelles is a republic comprised of 115 islands (mostly uninhabited) in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. It has been independent since 1976.  The total land area is only about 459 km², or 177 square miles, but covers an enormous area of about 150,000 square miles.
• Victoria on the island of Mahe is the capital and largest city (but the smallest capital in the world) at ~26,000 people. The total population of the islands is about 94,000.
• The islands span a range between 4 and 10^o south of the equator, about 1100 miles north-northeast of Madagascar and 900 miles east of the African continent.
• There is no entry visa required to enter the country, but they don’t want vagrants. Immigration officials ask to see your return ticket, your hotel voucher, a statement of good health.
• Bird Island is home to the heaviest land tortoise in the world, the Esmeralda, which can weigh up to 670 pounds.
• The islands are the native home of the coco de mer tree, also known as the sea coconut. This tree produces the largest seed in the world, weighing up to 33 pounds. It is also displayed on the official passport stamp.
• Seychelles has a per capita Gross Domestic Product of $30,486, making it the richest country in Africa on a per capita basis. Unemployment is 1%.  Still, wealth is not evenly distributed, and poverty is evident in many sections.
• Seychelles has competed in the Olympics since 1980 but has never won a medal.
• Almost half of the area in the islands is given over to national parks and reserves.
• Round Island was once an isolated leper colony.
• French, English, and Seychelles Creole are all considered official languages. 93% of the inhabitants are considered Creole.
• Catholicism is the dominant religion, but there are also Anglican, Protestant, Muslim, Hindu, and Bahai communities that live in harmony.
• The islands are divided into two groups – 73 outer coralline islands and 42 inner granitic islands. The granite islands are remnants of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana and have a high elevation of 905 meters.  They are the only granite sea islands in the world, and the oldest islands in any ocean.
• In 2014, Seychelles had the highest incarceration rate in the world at 779 per 100,000 people, Given the size of the country, this equaled out to 762 prisoners. 6% were female.

We headed out on the morning of February 23 to Abu Dhabi. We don’t fly out until tomorrow morning, but we don’t want to overly rely on the timeliness of Emirate transportation.  We have a rental car now but have so far still elected to take the bus to Abu Dhabi.  The ride costs us 35 dirhams each, about $9.50, for the 150-mile ride.  This frees us from urban driving in Abu Dhabi and having too make airport parking arrangements.  The bus ride is comfortable enough.  We read, sleep, and listen to podcasts.  I also do some of my trip research and writing on the trip.  A small can of lightly salted potato sticks at the Tarif bus station about half way to Aby Dhabi has become a staple.

We spent the night at the Premier Inn at the Abu Dhabi airport to make for an easy exit the next morning.  This was a good plan.  They have a nice rooftop pool we didn’t use on this trip, but it might be good in the future.  Cost about $90.

We had an easy flight to Seychelles – Etihad airline still gives you a hot meal included in the air fare – and arrived in Victoria in a light drizzle.  We were met at the airport by a shuttle service we had pre-arranged that took us straight to our hotel, Hilton Northolme Resort.  Before leaving the airport, I changed some money at the airport ATM.  I hadn’t done my homework and had no idea how much the local currency was worth.  When the machine queried me whether I wanted 500, 1000, 3000, 5000, etc. without even saying in what currency, I had no idea what I was getting and I deferred to the lowest amount  – 500.  Turns out this was in Seychelles rupees (SCR).  Each is worth about 7 cents, so I had only taken out about $40.  Oh well, it was a start.  We moved on to the hotel.  This 100-year-old resort is comprised of 40 quaint, wood sided villas.  Ian Fleming stayed at this hotel in 1958 while writing “For Your Eyes Only”.  The room had hardwood floors with a 4 poster bed and our own private infinity pool on the back porch, quite a luxurious stay, certainly not what we are accustomed to from years of travelling with the kids.  We relaxed a bit, then took a walk up the street to a local market to provision our refrigerator for the stay.  I bought a six pack of SeyBrew, the local island brew for 144 SCR (~$11), and Lynn picked up some of the local island rum, Takamaka.

Lynn had studied the maps and it looked like most places were quite close and we would be able to walk.  That wasn’t quite right.  The distances and elevations weren’t bad, but the roads were a harrowing experience.  Narrow, twisting – usually with no shoulder, and cars blazing by. Still, we headed into town, looking for a break in the granite boulders to work our way down to the beach, Beau Vallon.  We made our way into town and enjoyed the sights for a bit before going to eat.  Preparations were underway for marathon the next morning, and street vendors sold all manner of grilled fish, sausages, coconut drinks etc.  We settled for dinner at the La Plage restaurant where I enjoyed a seafood linguine and Lynn had grilled snapper.  The total was 1010 SCR, I asked the waitress to add 150 for the tip.  She struggled with this, at first I thought it was the machine, but then I realized it was the math she was struggling with.  Bless her heart.  We had a lovely sunset, the best we were to have on a trip with frequent cloud cover.  It was the end of the rainy season for them.

The following morning, February 25, we had the first of three fantastic breakfasts at one of the hotel restaurants.  They had a wide variety of fruit, bread, cheese, eggs to order, a juicer, and local homemade yogurt.  We debated our plans for the day, and decided against a mountain hike for a shorter, low elevation hike – 1.5 km from Danzil to Anse Major, where there was a nice beach.  At the start of the hike, we passed “The Batman”, a local Creole who had a pet fruit bat.  He said he had had it for 22 years, and they can live for 40-45 years.  The bat was indeed well trained and quite peaceful.  Tapping a stick would prompt him to walk to it, where he was rewarded with a piece of fruit.  We each fed him a grape, paid Batman a 100 SCR for the opportunity, snapped a few pictures and were on our way.

We continued our hike.  Only 1.5 km, but with the slow rock picking took it still took us well over an hour.  We enjoyed a brief stay.  Our plan for returning to Beau Vallon by water taxi failed when we found he didn’t run on Sunday.  So we made our way back, making a little better time on the return.

We walked down the hill towards Danzil, hoping to catch a bus, but ready to get a cab.  Good fortune smiled on us, and we found a bus at the base of the hill just getting ready to start his route.  These buses are ancient Indian Tata buses. They are cheap – 7 SCR (~50 cents) will get you anywhere the bus goes. I told the bus driver where we wanted to go, but he didn’t speak English and we wound up in the Victoria Central Bus Station.  No matter, I needed to take out some more money from the ATM, and very shortly we were on the next bus that took us directly to our hotel.  And I had wanted to experience the loud, noisy Tata buses anyway.

We had another late lunch/early dinner at the Hotel.  It started raining, but no matter, at the equator it is always warm and we went for a delightful swim in a small cove adjacent to the hotel and horsed around making goofy selfies.  We retired to our room and watched a James Bond movie we got from the front desk, “Live and Let Die”.

We got up on the morning of February 26 and had another breakfast that couldn’t be beat.  I had heard of avocado toast but had never had it; topped with a poached egg, it was indeed mighty fine.  Our agenda for the day was a “Teddy’s Glass Bottom Boat” excursion, about a six-hour trip to and around some of the smaller islands off the northeast coast of Mahe in the Saint Anne Marine National Park.  We headed out to Moyenne Island first, stopping for a time to feed the fish.  When we landed on the island we were greeted by a group of Esmeralda tortoises, the largest at up to 670 pounds and among the oldest with some living more than 180 years.  They were friendly, looking for handouts from the tourists (the guides provided appropriate local vegetation for this).  A pen nearby contained a bunch of juveniles just a few months old – very neat!  We enjoyed a nice walk around the island learning some of its history and enjoying the scenery.  This island was bought by a Britain who maintained it wild during his life, and on his death deeded half the island to the government to maintain wild and the other half to the Rotary Club with the same directive.  As we enjoyed our walk around, Lynn stopped for a break at a bench.  A big tortoise came ambling up and proceeded to try and crawl under Lynn’s bench.  He was far to big to make it, but we had a good laugh watching him try.

From there we went back out on the boat to the coral reefs for a snorkeling session.  We spent about an hour and saw lots of colorful fish, but sadly, about 75% of their coral has died from increasing ocean temperatures.  We returned to shore and had a barbeque lunch of fish, chicken, and local side dishes.  Our last event of the day was a free swim period off Round Island before returning to Victoria.  The total cost for this trip was 3060 SCR, or $229 for both of us.  I felt we got our money’s worth.  We talked to Teddy on the drive home.  He had been in the business for 35 years, and had trained probably 20 guides over the years, only to lose them to visiting European sweethearts.

For our last night, we had pork dishes (ribs for me, crispy pork for Lynn) since we were heading back to the UAE.  We watched another James Bond DVD, “For Your Eyes Only” in honor of Ian Fleming writing it while staying at our hotel.

Our last morning, we enjoyed another great breakfast before checking out.  Our taxi back to the airport cost 800 SCR ($58).  Our cab driver was a friendly fellow and agreed to let us out at the Botanical Gardens for an hour.  We wanted to stop there and see the Coco de Mer.  The coconuts themselves are huge, up to 33 pounds, and the nut itself without the husk has a unique shape.  I was glad we got to see it.  From there we went on to the airport.   Although it is an international airport, it is quite small.  Only four outbound flights were scheduled that day.

Total costs for trip, including hotel in Abu Dhabi before and after leaving was $5275.