2 - Arrived safely in the Seychelles!

September 29th, 2011 -

It was long journey, but I have finally arrived to the Seychelles ! After a 5 hour layover in Paris, I had to take a 10 hours plane ride, and I couldn’t sleep much. We landed in the Victoria airport at about 7.15am, and it was beautiful. The airport is right on the ocean, literally if there is a wave too high it will splash the runway. I was sitting at a window so I got the chance to take some shots:

At the airport I met with two girls who are also doing the program to share a cab to our hotel, La Louise. GVI only picks us up tomorrow to bring us to the base, and they advised us to come a day or two earlier to get adjusted to the country and the time difference. Well that was a good advice, it is now only 1.30pm here and I feel like it’s already 6.00pm. Anyways, I met with Emily, who is also staying 5 months, and Emma, only staying 5 weeks. They are both from the UK but Emily now lives in Dubai. We also ran into a couple other participants, and one of them had no luck and both her bags as well as her wallet are missing! Thankfully I got all of mine, even though I had to wait for ever to get my suitcases and started imagining what I would do if they were lost. It’s not like I can go to Target.

We exchanged a couple of roupies, the currency here since it’s needed for the small purchases, such as the supermarket or drinks. Then off we were in a cab to La Louise. I haven’t figured out yet which language I should take to the Seychellois here. I switch between French and English a lot, but I feel like people really appreciate when I talk to them in French. I also picked up a couple of Creole words already, such as “gran merzi”, which means thank you very much. Creole is basically easy, phonetic French.

La Louise is a very nice bed and breakfast on the side of a hill overlooking the bay of Victoria. Check out the view I got from my window:

We arrived a little early there and our rooms were not ready but we got a chance to chat with other members of the expedition that had already arrived. However, most of us are exhausted from the jetlag. Some girls are coming from Washington State, so they have I think 7 or 8 hours difference, and it took them about 48 hours to travel. The group of guys that had arrived the days before decided to go down to the beach, but Emily, Emma and I wanted to take a break and SHOWER. Never has a shower felt so good. 

After that, we took the bus to Victoria, which is approximately 20 minutes away. It was a little hectic but we finally got there. We didn’t have a map so we strolled through the alleys and came upon the big market, where they had so many fruits I didn’t even recognize, and HUGE fishes – but that broke my heart. They also sell a lot of spices, sea shells, peppers and many more. It was pretty nice to randomly come upon that.

We then wanted to grab a bite but we could not find any café or restaurant to sit down! So we went into the biggest supermarket of the country (the size of your hometown Walmart) and it was such a mess. We legit waited 45 minutes to pay. Also, people here have no personal space. There was some lady touching my back while we were waiting at the check-out counter. Lady, it’s already 35°C outside, I do not need your body heat on top of that.

Anyway, I still cannot believe I’m here! It’s crazy. Alright, now I off for a nap. Apparently there is a big dinner between the volunteers being organized tonight, but I’m not sure by whom and where. We’ll see! Tomorrow at 9am, we’re getting picked up by the GVI staff and brought to our research base in Cap Ternay, our home for the next 10 weeks.

xxx,

C.