La Digue, Seychelles

Monumental Tropical Granite


incredulous brigade
Visitors to La Digue underwater capturing the incredible cliffs of Anse Source d'Argent.
blue shadow
Woman photographs the turquoise waters of the north coast of the island.
Big anse
Wave rolls on the coral sand of the east coast of La Digue, the hardest hit by the Indian Ocean.
Bye!!
Thomas and Yencel return to La Passe after catching octopus and cuttlefish in the low waters of Anse Gaulettes.
cyan green
Tropical cove in front of the village of Patatran.
tropical rest
Friends relax by the sea at Anse Source d'Argent.
easy fishing
Thomas and Yencel display their catch of the day.
Heart of stone
Isolated cliffs in the waterlogged jungle northeast of La Digue.
In a geological balance
Granite boulders stand out from the idyllic beach of Petite Anse.
sweet glimpse
Dazzling colors from another of La Digue's east coast coves.
Welcome to Grande Anse
Owner of a bar at the entrance to Grande Anse de La Digue, he is getting ready to grill fish.
You have been warned!
Large poster clarifies visitors to La Union about taking care of local turtles.
Tropicality juices
Juice seller at the stand usually managed by her brother.
Of departure
Trawler about to leave the port of La Digue.
underwater life
Fish surround the bathers who remove the sand from their territories.
Homes. On vacation
Houses on the forested hillside around the dock where ferries dock.
bozoo
Guide in a golf cart, greeting acquaintances.
Flower & Stone
Creeper fits the predominant granite in La Digue and the Seychelles in general.
Granite Heart
Large granite block inside La Digue.
Marina
Sailboats fill the marina at La Digue, next to the ferry dock.
Beaches hidden by lush jungle, made of coral sand washed by a turquoise-emerald sea are anything but rare in the Indian Ocean. La Digue recreated itself. Around its coastline, massive boulders sprout that erosion has carved as an eccentric and solid tribute of time to the Nature.

Until some time ago, car ownership was not allowed on the small island.

Today, they are still rare.

Daniel was waiting for us at a golf club, the most popular type of vehicle in La Digue, side by side with the bicycle. He welcomes us as we leave the dock where the ferry from Praslin is moored and invites us to board.

With us installed, inaugurates the short trip from the west to the east coast. We advance along a path made of cement blocks that the vegetation wraps around and makes it dark.

Daniel meets all the non-foreigners he comes across, also driving golf carts, bicycles or on foot, and greets them alternately. He greets some with a simple “Allo”, others give a “bozo”, the local creole for “Hello".

La Digue, Seychelles, Road

Guide in a golf cart, greeting acquaintances.

Still others see them so regularly that they give them only a sketch of a nod. Five minutes later, we arrived at the lush entrance to the Grande Anse.

Having overcome a persistent hesitation, we agreed on the time when he would pick us up and set out on the short trail that, between coconut trees, led to the beach.

The Wild Beaches of East La Digue

A plaque marks its end and the beginning of the true coastline. The warning it broadcasts alarms as much as it can, in white and red and in five different dialects, starting with Seychellois: “Atansyon: Kouran three dance".

Still, what catches our attention the most is the beauty of the huge beach that stretches both north and south, the white sand, the crystalline sea bathed in blue gradients that fits perfectly into the bay.

La Digue, Seychelles, Beach next to Patatran

Bather leaves the turquoise sea off Patatran.

And the small peninsulas covered with cliffs that enclose its length, from the sea, which is now without foot, to the verdant edge of the equatorial jungle, which the natives call “pointes".

We had been in the Seychelles for a week.

After the sister islands Mahé and Praslin, such rock formations weren't exactly new. They had, however, an unprecedented harmony of shapes and lines that, together with some intrepid coconut trees and shrubby vegetation, made them unique.

La Digue, Seychelles, arrow signposted Petite Anse

Trail indication for Petite Anse.

Grande Anse was just the first of the deserted, wild and seductive beaches we explored on that radiant sunny morning. To the north of this, lurked the Petite Anse.

Beyond this minor was Anse Coco.

punchline after punchline, the Perfect Anses of La Digue

Once the sands of each one were finished, the access to the next followed trails that went through small wetlands and climbed to the top of new ones "pointes” both through the rainforest and among the sharp rocks that stand out from it.

Wherever we went, the dampness remained oppressive and, however much water we drank, it slowly distilled.

The jungle grew so unrestrained that it was not always possible to conquer the top of these “pointes” guaranteed us unobstructed views of the bays below. More than once, to achieve them we had to perform stunts on the sharp rocks, sometimes in really precarious balances.

When, finally, we reached points free of rocks or coconut palms, the panoramas of the “handles” rounded, with its colonies of granite pebbles, the blue sea and the bright green jungle left us awestruck.

La Digue, Seychelles, East Coast

Dazzling colors from another of La Digue's east coast coves.

We went down to the sandy beach of Anse Cocos soaked in sweat.

A sign similar to the one on the Grande Anse signaled more treacherous sea currents, but cooked as we were by the hot chlorophyll of those latitudes, we couldn't resist.

We chose a corner with no apparent abnormalities in the coming and going of the sea and bathed ourselves as that small island in the Seychelles deserved: in absolute ecstasy.

Urged on by the shameful delay that we already had in view of the agreement with Daniel, we completed the return to the Grande Anse in a fifth of the time.

Delayed return to the village of La Digue

When we got there, I had already returned to the village of La Digue.

We recovered our energy in a Creole beach bar in contact with the owners and with a crazy fifty-year-old foreigner who seemed to return there after a few years and who, to the trio's astonishment, treated them as if they were intimate.

La Digue, Seychelles, Bar in Grande Anse

Owner of a bar at the entrance to Grande Anse de La Digue, he is getting ready to grill fish.

Daniel appears with a calm but resigned air. Once again on your ride we return to the almost urban center of the island. In La Passe, we changed from the golf cart to two bikes without gears, as stiff as possible, possibly the worst on the island.

Even in whining mode, we cycled up the north coast.

Cyclists, La Digue, Seychelles

Residents share bicycles in the small village of La Digue.

Right on the first ramp, we saw why several other tourist-cyclists were driving their bicycles on foot.

It is on foot that we reach the edge of the local cemetery, a conglomeration of tombs and white crosses colored by flowers that followed one another over the grass to the highest area of ​​the forest.

Anse Severe and the Urbanized Coast of La Digue

The first French settlers from La Digue landed on the island accompanied by African slaves, starting in 1769.

Many returned to France, but the names of several others can be found in the oldest tombstones we had before us, as in the surnames of the current inhabitants, descendants of the settlers who remained, the slaves that were freed in the meantime and the Asian emigrants who joined them.

We went down from the cemetery again to the Anse Severe's seafront.

We stopped to examine that semi-hidden beach in the shadow of a mighty army of takamaka trees with branches that invaded the sand.

Underneath one of these trees, we found a juice vendor set up behind a stall covered with colorful tropical fruits that she had decorated with pink hibiscus flowers.

A Refreshing Get-together with Dona Alda dos Sumos

We asked how much each juice cost. Alda, the lady, answers us ten euros as if it were nothing. We explain to him that we cannot spend twenty euros out of the blue on two juices.

The lady recognizes that the price is exaggerated and resorts to a plethora of explanations: “you know it's not mine, it belongs to my son and it was the price that he and his wife decided.

La Digue, Seychelles, Juice Seller

Juice seller at the stand usually managed by her brother.

Contrary to what most people think, the fruit here in La Digue is expensive, it comes from Mahé at very high prices.” In the meantime we introduced each other. Alda comments what intrigued us the most: “it's not that easy for us to plant fruit around here.

Land is very expensive throughout Seychelles. Each of us has minimal spaces around the houses. What we manage to plant is for the family to consume.” We spent half an hour talking to the lady who relieves us of half of her life's problems.

Sensitized by the company, it offers us the juices we drink, given to more conversation. After the drinks, we return to the bicycles and the winding cement road.

We pedal hard but rehydrated as we reach the tight meander of the far north of the island and go from Anse Severe to Anse Patates.

La Digue Seductive from Patatran to Southeast

Around the village of Patatran, the coast of La Digue, there much smoother than the one facing the great Indian Ocean on the east coast, gets better again.

Dress up in a fabulous palette of navy blues and cyans lingering over the sky. Vertical white skeins cross the sky and above and hide the far horizon.

On the plane below the balcony we could enjoy this fabulous, unique tropical panorama, although comparable to the “The Baths” from the Caribbean island of Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.

A reflective white emanated from the sand that the waves of decoration could not wet.

Coconut trees, thirsty for freshness, lean over the sea and leave their silhouettes on the sand, once again delimited by "pointes” elegant granite.

As we skirt the coast from north to west, La Digue's coastline derives little from this pristine setting.

La Digue, Seychelles, Silhouette in Cyan

Woman photographs the turquoise waters of the north coast of the island.

Thomas and Yencel's Mad Fishing

Already pedaling at Anse Gaulettes, we stopped to peek at the activity of two natives who searched the sea, with the water up to their knees. We gestured to them with our curiosity. They tell us to wait a bit. They spend just a minute lying in the water.

When they get up, they show us the result of their demand: an octopus and a cuttlefish freshly caught.

Satisfied with the almost instantaneous prize, they walk out of the water. Even before they leave, one of them still manages to surprise us: “Wait there! They thought it was over.

La Digue, Seychelles, Fishing

Thomas and Yencel display their catch of the day.

There's still more.” Dip your hands in the water and remove them already holding a small turtle. “If you want to photograph, be quick!

They get stressed if we hold them out of the water too long.

OK, I'll drop it!" Thomas tells us with Yencel's agreement, sharing easy, sunny laughter as they struggle with the turtle's biting attempts and with the waves that, even measured, unbalanced them.

La Digue, Seychelles, Turtle

Turtle in a hurry to return to the Indian Ocean that bathes La Digue and the Seychelles.

We leave them to pack the shellfish and continue to pedal ahead. We don't get any further when we drop a bottle of water and have to pull over to the curb.

As we pull ourselves together, the duo walks past us with great fuss. Thomas rides on a pink kid's bike that looks like it came out of some Barbie promotion.

The two wave "goodbye" to us with huge smiles and "bye” shrill below a cloud with a mascot look and misplaced at low height. Thomas shouted at her, showing his big, perfect teeth, even whiter by the contrast to the black skin.

La Digue, Seychelles, Cyclists

Thomas and Yencel return to La Passe after catching octopus and cuttlefish in the low waters of Anse Gaulettes.

So comical and surreal, the scene reminds us of part of one of those historic Malibu rum TV commercials shot in the Caribbean.

La Digue and its Hyperbolic and Near Jurassic Turtles

We continue down the east coast until we reach the “punchline” from Anse Caiman that separated us from Anse Cocos where we had finished our morning walk.

There, we return once more to the starting point of La Passe, buy groceries at a grocery store that is about to close, and point to Union's now historic copra farm and factory.

La Digue, Seychelles, turtle care

Large poster clarifies visitors to La Union about taking care of local turtles.

In times, this property concentrated the main production of La Digue, coconuts.

Today it is an informal theme park.

It houses the largest and one of the oldest granite boulders on the island, 700 million years old, forty meters high and said to have an area of ​​4000 m.2 and, at its base, a smelly, noisy colony of giant tortoises from Knife.

La Digue, Seychelles, Granite and Coconut Trees

Large granite block inside La Digue.

Also libidinous, we must say.

La Digue, Seychelles, Turtles in copulation

Old turtles from La Digue caught in full sexual activity.

Anse Source d'Argent: a La Digue Monumental

We peeked at them and also at the old local cemetery.

We proceeded to the farm outside and arrived at the most famous of the beaches of La Digue: Anse Source d'Argent. We enter its even more eccentric granite stronghold through some of the rocks that so characterize it.

On the other side, we found the low tide as it would be perfect if it were. We enter the sea with care, among corals and submerged algae banks.

And when we get far enough away from the waterfront, we notice the sumptuousness of the scenery ahead.

We see it made up of successive striated and striped rocks, some perched on top of others, the lower ones crowned by coconut palms and surrounded by lush and thriving forest.

La Digue, Seychelles, Anse d'Argent

Visitors to La Digue underwater capturing the incredible cliffs of Anse Source d'Argent.

During all the time we admire and photograph the landscape, a family of round batfish swims around our legs, checking what they could take advantage of from the turbulence we were causing on the seabed.

La Digue, Seychelles, Anse d'Argent fish

Fish surround the bathers who remove the sand from their territories.

Sunset was coming and the ferry to Praslin was leaving in an hour.

Without a scheduled stay in La Digue, we ran to the beach, picked up the bicycles still attached to coconut trees and pedaled at the speed that those pastry shops allowed towards the La Passe dock.

We took the ferry smoothly and still with enough light for one last look at some of La Digue's amazing granite artworks.

Praslin, Seychelles

The Eden of the Enigmatic Coco-de-Mer

For centuries, Arab and European sailors believed that the largest seed in the world, which they found on the coasts of the Indian Ocean in the shape of a woman's voluptuous hips, came from a mythical tree at the bottom of the oceans. The sensual island that always generated them left us ecstatic.
Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands

Virgin Gorda's Divine "Caribbeans"

Discovering the Virgin Islands, we disembark on a tropical and seductive seaside dotted with huge granite boulders. The Baths seem straight out of the Seychelles but they are one of the most exuberant marine scenery in the Caribbean.
Male Maldives

The Maldives For Real

Seen from the air, Malé, the capital of the Maldives, looks little more than a sample of a crammed island. Those who visit it will not find lying coconut trees, dream beaches, spas or infinite pools. Be dazzled by the genuine Maldivian everyday life that tourist brochures omit.
Cilaos, Reunion Island

Refuge under the roof of the Indian Ocean

Cilaos appears in one of the old green boilers on the island of Réunion. It was initially inhabited by outlaw slaves who believed they were safe at that end of the world. Once made accessible, nor did the remote location of the crater prevent the shelter of a village that is now peculiar and flattered.
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

Not all tropical coastlines are pleasurable and refreshing retreats. Beaten by violent surf, undermined by treacherous currents and, worse, the scene of the most frequent shark attacks on the face of the Earth, that of the Reunion Island he fails to grant his bathers the peace and delight they crave from him.
Mauritius

A Mini India in the Southwest of the Indian Ocean

In the XNUMXth century, the French and the British disputed an archipelago east of Madagascar previously discovered by the Portuguese. The British triumphed, re-colonized the islands with sugar cane cutters from the subcontinent, and both conceded previous Francophone language, law and ways. From this mix came the exotic Mauritius.
PN Tortuguero, Costa Rica

The Flooded Costa Rica of Tortuguero

The Caribbean Sea and the basins of several rivers bathe the northeast of the Tica nation, one of the wettest and richest areas in flora and fauna in Central America. Named after the green turtles nest in its black sands, Tortuguero stretches inland for 312 km.2 of stunning aquatic jungle.
PN Tortuguero, Costa Rica

Tortuguero: From the Flooded Jungle to the Caribbean Sea

After two days of impasse due to torrential rain, we set out to discover the Tortuguero National Park. Channel after channel, we marvel at the natural richness and exuberance of this Costa Rican fluvial marine ecosystem.
Jabula Beach, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa
Safari
Saint Lucia, South Africa

An Africa as Wild as Zulu

On the eminence of the coast of Mozambique, the province of KwaZulu-Natal is home to an unexpected South Africa. Deserted beaches full of dunes, vast estuarine swamps and hills covered with fog fill this wild land also bathed by the Indian Ocean. It is shared by the subjects of the always proud Zulu nation and one of the most prolific and diverse fauna on the African continent.
Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Music Theater and Exhibition Hall, Tbilisi, Georgia
Architecture & Design
Tbilisi, Georgia

Georgia still Perfumed by the Rose Revolution

In 2003, a popular political uprising made the sphere of power in Georgia tilt from East to West. Since then, the capital Tbilisi has not renounced its centuries of Soviet history, nor the revolutionary assumption of integrating into Europe. When we visit, we are dazzled by the fascinating mix of their past lives.
Boats on ice, Hailuoto Island, Finland.
Adventure
Hailuoto, Finland

A Refuge in the Gulf of Bothnia

During winter, the island of Hailuoto is connected to the rest of Finland by the country's longest ice road. Most of its 986 inhabitants esteem, above all, the distance that the island grants them.
Tiredness in shades of green
Ceremonies and Festivities
Suzdal, Russia

The Suzdal Cucumber Celebrations

With summer and warm weather, the Russian city of Suzdal relaxes from its ancient religious orthodoxy. The old town is also famous for having the best cucumbers in the nation. When July arrives, it turns the newly harvested into a real festival.
Hué, Communist City, Imperial Vietnam, Imperial Communism
Cities
Hue, Vietnam

The Red Heritage of Imperial Vietnam

It suffered the worst hardships of the Vietnam War and was despised by the Vietcong due to the feudal past. The national-communist flags fly over its walls but Hué regains its splendor.
Meal
Margilan, Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan's Breadwinner

In one of the many bakeries in Margilan, worn out by the intense heat of the tandyr oven, the baker Maruf'Jon works half-baked like the distinctive traditional breads sold throughout Uzbekistan
Culture
Cemeteries

the last address

From the grandiose tombs of Novodevichy, in Moscow, to the boxed Mayan bones of Pomuch, in the Mexican province of Campeche, each people flaunts its own way of life. Even in death.
Sport
Competitions

Man: an Ever Tested Species

It's in our genes. For the pleasure of participating, for titles, honor or money, competitions give meaning to the world. Some are more eccentric than others.
Tokyo's sophisticated houses, where Couchsurfing and your hosts abound.
Traveling
Couchsurfing (Part 1)

Mi Casa, Su Casa

In 2003, a new online community globalized an old landscape of hospitality, conviviality and interests. Today, Couchsurfing welcomes millions of travelers, but it shouldn't be taken lightly.
Tatooine on Earth
Ethnic
Matmata Tataouine:  Tunisia

Star Wars Earth Base

For security reasons, the planet Tatooine from "The Force Awakens" was filmed in Abu Dhabi. We step back into the cosmic calendar and revisit some of the Tunisian places with the most impact in the saga.  
sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Natural Light (Part 2)

One Sun, So Many Lights

Most travel photos are taken in sunlight. Sunlight and weather form a capricious interaction. Learn how to predict, detect and use at its best.
Cable car connecting Puerto Plata to the top of PN Isabel de Torres
History
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Dunes of Bazaruto Island, Mozambique
Islands
bazaruto, Mozambique

The Inverted Mirage of Mozambique

Just 30km off the East African coast, an unlikely but imposing erg rises out of the translucent sea. Bazaruto it houses landscapes and people who have lived apart for a long time. Whoever lands on this lush, sandy island soon finds himself in a storm of awe.
St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

In the 4000th century, Orthodox religious took their inspiration from a hermitage that a monk had erected at an altitude of 5047 m and perched a church between the summit of Mount Kazbek (XNUMXm) and the village at the foot. More and more visitors flock to these mystical stops on the edge of Russia. Like them, to get there, we submit to the whims of the reckless Georgia Military Road.
Cove, Big Sur, California, United States
Literature
Big Sur, USA

The Coast of All Refuges

Over 150km, the Californian coast is subjected to a vastness of mountains, ocean and fog. In this epic setting, hundreds of tormented souls follow in the footsteps of Jack Kerouac and Henri Miller.
savuti, botswana, elephant-eating lions
Nature
Savuti, Botswana

Savuti's Elephant-Eating Lions

A patch of the Kalahari Desert dries up or is irrigated depending on the region's tectonic whims. In Savuti, lions have become used to depending on themselves and prey on the largest animals in the savannah.
Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

Lost among the snowy mountains that separate Europe from Asia, Sheki is one of Azerbaijan's most iconic towns. Its largely silky history includes periods of great harshness. When we visited it, autumn pastels added color to a peculiar post-Soviet and Muslim life.
hitchhiking at the sea
Natural Parks
Maui, Hawaii

divine hawaii

Maui is a former chief and hero of Hawaiian religious and traditional imagery. In the mythology of this archipelago, the demigod lassos the sun, raises the sky and performs a series of other feats on behalf of humans. Its namesake island, which the natives believe they created in the North Pacific, is itself prodigious.
khinalik, Azerbaijan Caucasus village, Khinalig
UNESCO World Heritage
Chinalig, Azerbaijan

The Village at the Top of Azerbaijan

Set in the rugged, icy 2300 meters of the Great Caucasus, the Khinalig people are just one of several minorities in the region. It has remained isolated for millennia. Until, in 2006, a road made it accessible to the old Soviet Ladas.
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Characters
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Unusual bathing
Beaches

south of Belize

The Strange Life in the Black Caribbean Sun

On the way to Guatemala, we see how the proscribed existence of the Garifuna people, descendants of African slaves and Arawak Indians, contrasts with that of several much more airy bathing areas.

Composition on Nine Arches Bridge, Ella, Sri Lanka
Religion
Yala NPElla-Kandy, Sri Lanka

Journey Through Sri Lanka's Tea Core

We leave the seafront of PN Yala towards Ella. On the way to Nanu Oya, we wind on rails through the jungle, among plantations in the famous Ceylon. Three hours later, again by car, we enter Kandy, the Buddhist capital that the Portuguese never managed to dominate.
Executives sleep subway seat, sleep, sleep, subway, train, Tokyo, Japan
On Rails
Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo's Hypno-Passengers

Japan is served by millions of executives slaughtered with infernal work rates and sparse vacations. Every minute of respite on the way to work or home serves them for their inemuri, napping in public.
Sentosa Island, Singapore, Family on Sentosa Artificial Beach
Society
Sentosa, Singapore

Singapore's Fun Island

It was a stronghold where the Japanese murdered Allied prisoners and welcomed troops who pursued Indonesian saboteurs. Today, the island of Sentosa fights the monotony that gripped the country.
Casario, uptown, Fianarantsoa, ​​Madagascar
Daily life
Fianarantsoa, Madagascar

The Malagasy City of Good Education

Fianarantsoa was founded in 1831 by Ranavalona Iª, a queen of the then predominant Merina ethnic group. Ranavalona Iª was seen by European contemporaries as isolationist, tyrant and cruel. The monarch's reputation aside, when we enter it, its old southern capital remains as the academic, intellectual and religious center of Madagascar.
Devils Marbles, Alice Springs to Darwin, Stuart hwy, Top End Path
Wildlife
Alice Springs to Darwin, Australia

Stuart Road, on its way to Australia's Top End

Do Red Center to the tropical Top End, the Stuart Highway road travels more than 1.500km lonely through Australia. Along this route, the Northern Territory radically changes its look but remains faithful to its rugged soul.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.
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