Steve's Seychelles Page

Hello, I am Steve Jankowski and I'll be your host for today's edition of "Where the hell are Laura and Aaron now?" I had the privilege of basking in the glow of our favorite world travelers for several weeks. Melissa and I caught up with the hip tripsters at their swank flat nigh on the Bastille. The weather was bleary, but spirits were high. After some looking, walking, eating, shopping, and talking, we fled the City of Lights for the balmy Seychelles Isles ...

First you notice the intense equatorial Sun. Then you notice the heat and choking humidity. Then you spontaneous rip all clothing from your body and you're still hot. Let's get this over with. It was hot and humid. Laura and Aaron have experienced worse in Asia. For Melissa and I, coming from dry California and cool Paris, it was oppressive. I felt like I was covered with Post-It note glue. Put on sandals, shorts, t-shirt, and stick a credit card to my arm and I'm ready for the day. My body never adjusted to the heat, but I started to forget about the discomfort.

The Seychelles is an island group in the Indian Ocean, east of Kenya, north of Madagascar. We stayed on two of the islands and visited a third. Our first stay was on Mahe, the largest and most populated. Our hotel was on Beau Vallon on the less populated Northwest side. A dive shop located next door served as base camp for Laura, Aaron, Raul and Ashley. They completed 6-8 dives while on Mahe. Melissa and I did some snorkeling, walking, and sleeping between meals of grilled fish and pizza.

Seychelles specializes in French Creole cuisine. Their best dish seemed to be grilled fish with creole sauce. The sauce is basically tomatoes, onions, garlic and peppers. Everywhere we went, fish creole was the best dish. Except maybe the curry fish stew Aaron and Raul shared on Praslin. If the bowl weren’t so deep, Aaron would have licked it clean. Pizza? I'm sure you're thinking us quite gauche. But there were few restaurants to chose from near the hotel. The pizza joint offered sandy floors, slow service, bitter lemon (yummy drinky), and tasty smoked fish. One evening we dined on flat pizza while serenaded by a guy singing Neil Diamond and Paul Anka hits. He neglected the Eagles, so we tipped him many rupees.

The highlight of our stay on Mahe was the diving and snorkeling. We arranged for an all day dive and snorkel excursion with our favorite Seychellois and Dutch couple; the driver and dive masters of the local dive shop. They took us out to the western tip of the island and into the Baie Ternay National Marine Park. Basically, it's a small bay (almost just a cove) that you aren't supposed to fish in. The underwater scene was packed with colorful fish. And we even spotted a ray and several turtles. Sadly, the huge expanse of reef that blanketed most of the bay was completely killed by El Nino. The shift in ocean current brought the temperature up 3 degrees; just enough to cook all the soft and hard corals. The fish are making short work of the remains. Some areas are just a jumble of broken coral branches. We saw some enormous coral heads that must have been spectacular when they were alive. With all our worry about global warming and ocean pollution, it's good to know that the environment can be killed by suicide. That takes a load off the oil company, "Feh! Emission controls are silly, El Nino will come along and kill it all in another 100 years anyway."

Anyway, nature will find a way. The corals are returning ... slowly. There was a fair amount of soft coral growing here and there. We spotted a nice 10x10' carpet of soft coral in one place. And if you look carefully, you can see little sprigs of white and pink hard corals growing. Come back in a 100 years and it will be good as new! So, the divers dove and Melissa and I paddled around. For lunch, we moored the boat in a small cove off the bay and our driver became chef. He put some rocks in a circle, threw some coconut husks and charcoal down, and called it a BBQ. Kebabs of fish and veggies were followed by grilled whole fish. With creole sauce, of course. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in the warm waters of the cove. Later, we did manage to rouse our selves long enough to snorkel the cove to find some barracuda and an octopus.

After four days on Mahe, we jumped island and took passage to La Digue. This island of 2000 is a quiet little paradise. It hosts some of the best beaches in the world, six cars, and the (in)famous ox-carts. We skipped the local transport and hoofed it to our rooms just down from the dock. The day was drawing to a close when we discovered that we did not have rooms for the night. The lady at Choppy's Beach Bungalows had not received confirmation or deposit for our rooms so had let them out. Raul had set up the rooms, but had extreme difficulty phoning or faxing Choppy's. It seems the manager had been on vacation and her help had let everything slide until her return. She had rooms for us the next night, so we stumbled next door to the Sunshine cottages and plunked down for the night. Melissa was reaching to close the bathroom window when she saw the silhouette of a gigantic spider on the shower curtain. The biggest spider Aaron and I have ever seen (even bigger than the one in Asia). But, Aaron was an old pro, "I'm going in, close the door behind me. No matter what you hear, don't open it." The waste basket lid proved a formidable weapon and the monster was subdued with just two whacks. It was a big-big hairy spider, really.

La Digue does not have many AirCon devotees, so our first night was fitful and plagued by bug dreams. After breakfast, Melissa and I checked into the La Digue Island Lodge where you can pay big bucks for a four star room with a five star AirCon shrine. We slept comfortably after that.

We spent one day at "The Most Photographed Beach in The World"; Anse Source d'Argent. It was stunning. Trees overhanging the beach provided shade while the islands did their best to show off rain sculptured granite and cyan waters. The reef line was 300 feet off shore. Between the waves, and us the bottom was alternately sandy and coral, but never more than five feet deep. At high tide we snorkeled the reefs and chased the fish. At low tide, Melissa spotted a leaf fish. It looked exactly like one of the leaves that fall from the trees, except it moved when you got too close. The granite rock forms provided fun photo and walking adventures. Security was provided by a beach dog that adopted us for the day. He chased fish in the shallows and barked at strangers walking past our towels. We noticed that all the dogs we met were very mellow and friendly. They seemed to be fed leftover fish and we never saw the locals mistreat them.

That night we enjoyed a lovely dinner at Villa Authentique, where Raul and Ashley were staying. The Villa is run by a local couple. She is the gracious hostess and he is the fantastic cook. We were served several courses on heaping plates. Creole seafood of all kinds, various salady vegetable dishes, and I think some chicken too. "I could naw ea' nother bite." The atmosphere was tropic "authentique"; a table out in the garden lit by candle and moon light.

The next day we jumped back on the schooner ferry for a day trip to Praslin, the second biggest island. We arranged for a couple taxis for the day to cart us to the Vallee de Mai and Anse Lazio. The Vallee is home to the Coco de Mer palm, a rare species that grows only on three of the Seychelle islands. The fruit of the palm elicits snickers from visiting tourists; the nut takes the form of the female pelvis and the stamen is, well, quite well. The nuts can grow for seven years before falling from the tree at a head-cracking 40+ lbs. The valley is a dense tropical forest that had many photo opportunities for me. Sadly, the light beneath the canopy was fairly dim and I did not have my tripod with me. No wonder real photographers carry a mountain of gear; if you don't have the right equipment you can't capture the image. We next enjoyed a drive around the perimeter of Praslin to see many an anse (beach). Our final destination was Anse Lazio at the end of Chevalier Bay. It was lunchtime so we relaxed at the beach-side Bon Bon Plume. This is where Aaron and Raul had the divine curry stew. The other attraction was the vanilla shake. Not really a shake by our definition, more like a milk cooler. But Praslin is home to some large, very tasty, vanilla plantations. The rest of the day was spent in a calorie-overloaded daze.

By the end of our stay we had racked up six ferry journeys and multiple boat trips. The seas were fairly calm for us, although the divers had a miserable return trip one day when the weather turned foul. On our final passage, Poseidon decided to kick up a fuss. We were on a big catamaran ferry back to Mahe, but even this was no match for the swells. The ship pitched and rolled and yawed, and passengers heaved and ralfed and yakked. Or so we were told. Everyone in the first class cabin kept their lunch, but the steward raided the empty seats for more barf bags to distribute to the general passengers down stairs. Melissa and I barely hung on for the hour long trip. The previous crossing, they showed Jurassic Park on the TV. That would have been a welcome distraction. This time we were treated to the complete video anthology of one of the Seychelles less talented singers. Gaaah.

Laura and Aaron had one more day left on Mahe before flying to Johannesburg, South Africa to begin the final exotic leg of their trip. The last I heard, they were doing well. Ashely, Raul, Melissa and I hopped on Air Seychelles back to Paris where the weather had shifted to sunny and warm. I have plenty of valuable memories from the Seychelles. One that stands out is the bats. These aren't the little flappy bats that hunt insects in California. No, these are large fruit bats. They come out after sun down and cruise the treetops looking for their favorite sweet fruits. They fly like graceful birds, gliding long distances and catching thermals from the cooling sand and roads. It was a little creepy at first, but I soon looked forward to seeing them at sunset.

That's all for now. I am Steve Jankowski, guest host for this edition of Aaron and Laura: World Tour 2001. Please direct all enquiries about this presentation to Steve Jankowski; Laura and Aaron take no credit (ha!) or responsibility for my words.

Mahe

The photographer is given in [brackets].

 

Aaron and Steve on the diving and snorkeling day trip [Laura]

Melissa and Ashley looking pretty as a picture [Laura]

At the Baie Ternay Marine Park the mermaids enjoy protection from hunting [Aaron]

The gang after one fine fine day [dive master]

See, we can look very nice when we try. Laura is wearing fashions by Melissa of Fifth Avenue. [Aaron]

Sunset from Beau Vallon [Steve]

Praslin

Laura and Aaron get in the mood with fruits of the Coco de Mer

La Digue

Next, Laura and Aaron will be sailing around the world [Steve]

The most photogenic world travelers on the most photographed beach [Raul]

Scenery at Anse Source d'Argent [Steve]

Where's Aaron Ritchey? [Aaron]

Our guard dog [Steve]

Villa Authentique [Laura or Aaron]

Pucker up for the camera! [Laura]

Paris Flat

I (Steve) did a photo shoot of Laura and Aaron in their Paris flat. Here's a selection of those pictures captioned with the couple's favorite catch-phrases from their travels. If it seems like I'm straining for humor, you're right.
Verbage at rue Castex