Mahe, Seychelles

One hundred and fifteen tropical islands, with gleaming white beaches fringed by gently swaying palms, lapped by turquoise waters beneath an azure sky.  A dream world for most but a reality for those fortunate enough to visit these pearls of the Indian Ocean.
No one knows who first set foot on these islands, but they were probably visited as early as the 7^th century on by pirates and traders alike. The Portuguese were active in the region in the 15^th century and a British East India Company ship called here in 1609, but still no permanent settlement was made in spite of the favorable reports.  By then, however, the islands were being used regularly by pirates, and even today there is still a search going on for buried treasure.  In 1742 the French, who owned Mauritius, sent a group from there to do some reconnaissance.  Their leader named the largest island Mahe after the governor of Mauitius, and twelve years later the tri-color was raised and the islands claimed for Louis XV, though they were named after his finance minister Jean de Seychelles.  The first settlers arrived on the island of Sainte Anne in 1770.  Ninety percent of the island’s 70,000 live on Mahe, which is 17 miles long by four miles wide.  Port Victoria, where the ship berths, is Mahe’s capital, the largest and most important island in the Seychelles group.  With a population of 23,000, it is the only real town; scattered hamlets, fishing villages and the occasional tourist development make up the rest of the island, though thick tropical vegetation on the slopes of 3,000 foot mount Seychellois, prohibit habitation. The government: Republic, Currency: Seychelles rupee, Language: English & French (official), Creole, size: Approximately 172 sq miles (about 2 ½ times the size of Washington, DC.

Gary & David D. were picked up at the ship at 8:45 to go diving. They would be finished by 11:30.  Barbara, David & I hired a cab for 2 ½ hours. We had a tour of the island, did some window shopping, took several pictures then went to the hotel where we would meet Gary & David after their dive.  There wasn’t much to see on the dive and Gary was disappointed.  We thought there would be some beautiful coral reefs but, unfortunately, all the coral seemed to be in the shops.  They saw some beautiful fish, but the dive was just OK.  We were going to swim at the hotel, but they offered no shade and on top of that were not very accommodating wanting to charge us $100 per person to use their facilities.  We, of course, declined and thought we would just have lunch but decided to go elsewhere.   The island was really spectacular with aqua water and white sand beaches.  A lot of the tourism has stopped due to the pirates.  The only ship that stops in Costa and that is once every two weeks.  They have a nice airport and do get some Europeans on vacation.  But that is also down significantly. 

Today is our Anniversary and Gary also invited everyone that was at the party last night to have dinner with us at our table in the dining room.  It was a lot of fun with everyone singing and jumping from one table to the other (again, there were 14 of us) as we were too many to all sit at 1 table.  Wonderful memories!