15 – A weekend of island hopping - Curieuse, Praslin & La Digue

November 8, 2011

With the arrival of the newbies, we were given three days off this past weekend, and a small group of us decided to leave Mahé and discover the rest of the country a little bit. We left very early on Friday morning to take the 730am ferry to Praslin. Once there, we met with one of our buddy who is a water taxi driver, and he drove us to Curieuse Island, which is right in front of Praslin and it is also where GVI has its other research base. The island is home to thousands of land tortoises, and it is one of the rare island where you can see tortoises in the wild.

We probably spent 3 hours with the tortoises; it was an amazing experience. You can touch them, pet them – which they love - and even feed them! The oldest guy was 148 years old, and weighed around 260kgs!

We then hiked to the GVI research base. The place is absolutely beautiful. It is right on the beach and it’s very chill and quiet. I would want to live there if diving was possible (the ban is still in place). We could get in the water but only 1-2m offshore, not more, but that was enough. We were in there the whole afternoon, or on the hammocks for a good nap! We all got really tan from that day. I didn’t think I could get any tanner but it happened!

At 300pm our buddy came to pick us up in his boat and drove us to La Digue. He let a couple of us sit at the bow of the boat, and it was probably the best feeling ever. I thought I was flying. We arrived in La Digue, dropped our bags and walked around. We went to a 5-star hotel right on the beach to watch the sunset, and it was beautiful! Friday was probably one of the best days I have had so far here!

On Saturday we rented bikes and just traveled around the island, to beaches like Anse Source d’Argent, one of the most famous ones, and Grand Anse. La Digue is very pleasant. It’s much smaller and quieter than Mahé, and there are virtually no cars around. We met so many locals just because we would see them all the time. The weather was not as good as Friday and we even got some rain, but it did not stop us from swimming or laying in the sand the whole day.  That last photo is actually what taxis are on La Digue! In the evening, we went out to the one and only club on the island. It was basically us in the club and some locals. But it was so empty we were able to dance barefoot, and we all had a blast!

We spent Sunday on ferries, or on the beach in Praslin before heading back to camp. Overall it was really a great weekend, very refreshing and relaxing. I am really glad I got to see these islands, and I was actually sad to leave them. Now we are back in top shape for the next 5 weeks and we’re in for some good times!