Praslin, Seychelles

 

The Eden of the Enigmatic Coco-de-Mer


Eden Cove
Bather explores the translucent coast of the Indian Ocean off Anse Lazio.
juvenile sea coconuts
Juvenile sea coconuts. At the height of their growth, they can reach triple the size.
Indian Ocean and Granite
Two children lost in the expanse of granite and turquoise water of Anse Lazio beach.
The "aphrodisiac" coconuts
Specimens of sea coconuts exposed in the Vallée de Mai nature reserve, where the palm trees that generate them continue to grow.
Valley of May
A group of visitors explores the Vallée de Mai nature reserve, still dotted with coconut palm trees, in the heart of Praslin.
faithful in passing
Passersby passes in front of the Protestant church of Sainte-Anne.
a funeral meeting
A group of ladies inside the church of Sainte Anne on the occasion of the death of a friend.
Anse georgette
Sunbathers enjoy another of Praslin's perfect beaches, Anse Georgette.
The corner
Inhabitants of Sainte Anne rest against the facade of a shop in the village.
at God's door
Man on the front facade of the wooden church of Sainte Anne.
Fresh water and old granite
Water from a river that flows into Anse Lazio beach.
little stream
Curved stream carries fresh water from the highest lands to the Indian Ocean.
Large Leaves
Palm leaves that fill the Valée de Mai reserve.
lizard, lizard
Lizard on a stem of one of the plants that make the Vallee de Mai verdant.
2 ride
Sunbathers enjoy another of Praslin's perfect beaches, Anse Georgette.
Light on sight
Vallée de Mai, the UNESCO-listed reserve and protected for being filled with coconut palm trees,
Seychelles Black Parrot
Specimen of the rare black parrot, national bird of the Seychelles.
Sea Coconuts on Land
Sea coconuts in different stages of maturation exposed on a bench in the Reserva Vallée de Mai.
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.

As soon as he appeared ahead of us, we realized that Dave's night had been longer than advised. That he had risen up with annoyance and effort.

The boy was from Mahé, the mother island of the Seychelles. He had moved to Praslin some years ago, allegedly because life was quieter. The justification was not in keeping with his rally driving, which was not long in coming, we had to stop.

Instead of taking what he suggested and immediately crossing the national park and the lush interior of the island to the north coast, we convinced him to go around the entire south and the jagged east, without any great hurry.

We wanted, with that much broader itinerary, to have a comprehensive idea of ​​what we could expect from Praslin. We soon realized that we had landed in another of the lost paradises just below the equator, in the vastness of the great Indian Ocean.

From Anse to Anse through Praslin Island's Tropical Eden

Almost always between an emerald sea and a dense tropical forest, we cross the Grande Anse bay and reach the confluence with the neighboring Anse Citron. Between the two sands, the road forks. Proceed to the section Dave had suggested earlier.

The other branch becomes a coastal road at the foot of a slope, also winding and undulating, since then so narrow that in certain parts it prevents the passage of two vehicles simultaneously and threatens to follow the sea or into the jungle.

The appealing coves were repeated one after the other bathed by waters circumscribed by a barrier reef off the coast. A series of others followed "handles” (coves) suggestive.

Eden Cove

Bather explores the translucent coast of the Indian Ocean off Anse Lazio.

St. Sauveur, Takamaka, is named after the colony of these almost crawling trees that lend it much more greenery and shade than mere coconut trees.

Anse Cimitière and Bois de Rose followed, then Consolation and Marie-Louise, all of them privileged beaches. Until we reach the urbanized area of ​​Baie Sante Anne and, past the port and the adjoining village, we cut to the north.

We soon found Anse Volbert.

The corner

Inhabitants of Sainte Anne rest against the facade of a shop in the village.

This is the island's main housing and bathing nucleus, facing long stretches of sand that are also caressed by an almost immobile sea, semi-dammed by reef barriers that are farther away from the coast than those to the south.

With Praslin's return already halfway past, we were convinced of its preserved beauty. At the same time, we knew there was better. Eager to get back to bathing on one of the stunning beaches of the Seychelles and the Indian Ocean, we convinced Dave to proceed to the far northwest of the island.

Anse Citron and the Pink Granite That Brings Out the Indian Ocean Turquoise

Twenty minutes on a dirt road later, we were facing a calm sea, festively translucent and in different shades of blue, cyan, turquoise, and an almost lapis lazuli.

In the vicinity of the leafy coast, the tide held high, dotted with a colony of granitic pebbles of a polished pink.

Indian Ocean and Granite

Two children lost in the expanse of granite and turquoise water of Anse Lazio beach.

In view of this view, under the blazing sun of almost eleven in the morning, we took off for the coral sand, climbed two or three massive rocks and, from there, took some pictures. Shortly thereafter, we dived into the water and celebrated the moment with delicious swims and floats.

Before returning to Dave's company, we had a peek at two or three other small coves, increasingly sunk in dense vegetation, out of which coconut palms stretched out horizontally over the ocean.

Cocos of the Sea: a Mystery that Comes from the Confidence of Navigation

Today, only conventional coconut trees are found in Anse Lazio and along the coast of Praslin.

This was not always the case.

In the middle of the discoveries, the Asian peoples and, meanwhile, the European sailors and adventurers who made contact with them, had never seen palm trees that generated coconuts the size of some found in the sea and beaches of the Indian Ocean, which reached 60 cm in diameter and up to 42kg.

juvenile sea coconuts

Juvenile sea coconuts. At the height of their growth, they can reach triple the size.

Some Malay sailors are said to have seen them “fall up” from the seabed.

The belief then spread that they were produced by trees that grew in the depths of the ocean.

From the Palms of the Deep Sea to the Seductive Hips of Women

In yours "colloquia”, Garcia de Orta went further. He assured that they were born from palm trees that had been submerged by a great flood when the Maldives archipelago broke away from Asia.

The Malay people believed that these trees provided shelter for Garuda, a species of giant bird that captured elephants and tigers. Garuda is, even today, the name of the national airline of the Indonesia.

African priests also believed that at times coconut trees rose above the ocean, that the swells they generated prevented vessels from proceeding, and that powerless sailors were devoured by the Garuda.

But the richness of the imaginaries created around coconuts did not end there.

The big walnuts that were found in the ocean and on the beaches had already lost their shell (that's the only way they float) and looked like the hips of women.

These floating hips and tails were being collected on ships and sold for fortunes in Arabia, Europe and elsewhere.

The "aphrodisiac" coconuts

Specimens of sea coconuts exposed in the Vallée de Mai nature reserve, where the palm trees that generate them continue to grow.

In the Maldives, any coconuts found were supposed to be handed over to the king. Keeping them carried the death penalty.

The Monetary, Therapeutic and Even Surreal Literary Value of Cocos from the Sea

In 1602, Dutch Admiral Wolfert Hermanssen received a coconut from the Sultan of Bantam (now Indonesia), for having helped defend the capital from the Portuguese sultanate of the same name.

It is also known that Rudolf II, an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, tried in vain to acquire it for 4000 gold florins.

It is also believed, as described by João de Barros – one of the first Portuguese historians – that walnuts had other extraordinary powers.

They would serve as an antidote to poisons, poisons and illnesses. Probably due to the inhibiting action of the Inquisition, Garcia de Orta never dared to mention its famous and alleged aphrodisiac power.

As, for the same reasons, Camões never did Lusiads where Canto X is:

 

“On the islands of Maldiva, tears are born

In the depth of the sovereign agoas

Whose pommel against urgent poison

He was considered an excellent Antidote"

Camões portrays this power in Lírica, his work that most approaches the theme of love and passion. There, he resorts to abundant lexical artifices in order to avoid unpleasantness coming from the General Inquisitor (Cardinal D. Henrique) and the Inquisition's censors.

Passage Through Anse Volbert and a Church in Full Funeral Service

We had a feeling that Dave, too, would scold us if we stayed much longer at Anse Lazio.

So we went back to the van pointed to Anse Volbert, where we did some casual shopping at a Hindu-owned grocery, dark, stuffy and reeking of spice.

faithful in passing

Passersby passes in front of the Protestant church of Sainte-Anne.

On another visit to Baie Sante Anne, we stop and examine the town and its life. We entered a small, pyramidal Protestant church of worn red wood.

Inside, we come across several native ladies, descendants of African slaves brought by the French to the Seychelles in the XNUMXth century.

a funeral meeting

A group of ladies inside the church of Sainte Anne on the occasion of the death of a friend.

We found them in a pleasant chatter sitting on the benches. The end of all the benches along the aisle is decorated with white and pink satin bows, so we are convinced that a christening is about to take place.

We get into conversation with the ladies who are willing to correct it. “No, it's not a christening. Before it was. It's a funeral for a friend of ours. The ties? We have a tradition of using them at funerals. Their color depends on what motivated the death. These that you see correspond to a cancerous disease.”

The surprise leaves us speechless but there we collect ourselves, apologize for the mistake and leave with the best English-speaking expression of regret we can remember.

Incursion into the Protected Tropical Forest of Cocos of the Sea

Leaving the church behind, we walked a few kilometers and penetrated into the forested heart of the island. Shortly thereafter, we entered the nature reserve reception area and UNESCO World Heritage Vallee de Mai.

The Vallée de Mai preserves a palm forest that once covered a large part of Praslin and other islands in the Seychelles, as in the case of the neighbor La Digue.

Valley of May

A group of visitors explores the Vallée de Mai nature reserve, still dotted with coconut palm trees, in the heart of Praslin.

In fact, in times of the supercontinent Gondwana covered other vast areas of the Terra.

Praslin is, like the Seychelles in general, considered a micro-continent, as it does not have a volcanic or coral origin like almost all the other islands in the Indian Ocean, but rather granitic.

And prodigal in endemic fauna.

Praslin Island, Cocos from the Sea, Seychelles, Vallee de Mai, Black Parrot

Specimen of the rare black parrot, national bird of the Seychelles.

We managed to rescue Dave from his hook-up conversation with a native girl at the reception, we walked along the dark and damp paths of the park, fascinated by the leafy beauty of the vegetation, in particular the Loidocea Maldivicas, the endemic palm trees that produce coconuts.

We were also enchanted, like the sailors of the Age of Discovery, the dry specimens that the park administration displays along the tracks.

Praslin Island, Cocos from the Sea, Seychelles, Vallee de Mai,

Sea coconuts in different stages of maturation exposed on a bench in the Reserva Vallée de Mai.

Now that we think about it, young Dave's courtship had something to do with a no less comic myth that Charles George Gordon, a British general, arrived at in 1881.

The Garden of Eden Theory and Sea Coconuts Instead of the Problematic Apple

Three hundred and seventy-eight years had passed since, already circumvented the Cape of Storms, Vasco da Gama became the first European to sight and sail off the current Seychelles archipelago – on his return from India – and dubbed him Admiral in his own honor.

Sixty-nine years passed after Great Britain conquered it from France.

According to the theory he arrived at through a Kabbalistic analysis of the Book of Genesis, the Vallée de Mai would be the Garden of Eden and its palm trees were the tree of wisdom.

They represented both Good and Evil while, due to the imagined aphrodisiac properties, the coconut-do-mar would correspond to the forbidden fruit. Gordon even pointed out Paradise's exact location on the island's map as the Coco-do-Mar Valley.

Praslin Island, Cocos from the Sea, Seychelles, Vallee de Mai

Vallée de Mai, the UNESCO-listed reserve and protected for being filled with coconut palm trees,

This exotic postulation of his was challenged by another writer, H. Watley Estridge, who confronted Gordon with the slim probability that Eva had managed to bite a coconut shell through its four-inch-thick shell.

Gordon never responded.

Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles

From Francophone "Establishment" to the Creole Capital of the Seychelles

The French populated their “Etablissement” with European, African and Indian settlers. Two centuries later, British rivals took over the archipelago and renamed the city in honor of their Queen Victoria. When we visit it, the Seychelles capital remains as multiethnic as it is tiny.
Mahé, Seychelles

The Big Island of the Small Seychelles

Mahé is the largest of the islands of the smallest country in Africa. It's home to the nation's capital and most of the Seychellois. But not only. In its relative smallness, it hides a stunning tropical world, made of mountainous jungle that merges with the Indian Ocean in coves of all sea tones.
La Digue, Seychelles

Monumental Tropical Granite

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.
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.
Zanzibar, Tanzania

The African Spice Islands

Vasco da Gama opened the Indian Ocean to the Portuguese empire. In the XNUMXth century, the Zanzibar archipelago became the largest producer of cloves and the available spices diversified, as did the people who disputed them.
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.
Maupiti, French Polynesia

A Society on the Margin

In the shadow of neighboring Bora Bora's near-global fame, Maupiti is remote, sparsely inhabited and even less developed. Its inhabitants feel abandoned but those who visit it are grateful for the abandonment.
Maldives

Cruise the Maldives, among Islands and Atolls

Brought from Fiji to sail in the Maldives, Princess Yasawa has adapted well to new seas. As a rule, a day or two of itinerary is enough for the genuineness and delight of life on board to surface.
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.
Île-des-Pins, New Caledonia

The Island that Leaned against Paradise

In 1964, Katsura Morimura delighted the Japan with a turquoise novel set in Ouvéa. But the neighboring Île-des-Pins has taken over the title "The Nearest Island to Paradise" and thrills its visitors.
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.
Felicité Island and Curieuse Island, Seychelles

From Leprosarium to Giant Turtles Home

In the middle of the XNUMXth century, it remained uninhabited and ignored by Europeans. The French Ship Expedition “La Curieuse” revealed it and inspired his baptism. The British kept it a leper colony until 1968. Today, Île Curieuse is home to hundreds of Aldabra tortoises, the longest-lived land animal.
Esteros del Iberá, Pantanal Argentina, Alligator
Safari
Iberá Wetlands, Argentina

The Pantanal of the Pampas

On the world map, south of the famous brazilian wetland, a little-known flooded region appears, but almost as vast and rich in biodiversity. the Guarani expression Y bera defines it as “shining waters”. The adjective fits more than its strong luminance.
Braga or Braka or Brakra in Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 6th – Braga, Nepal

The Ancient Nepal of Braga

Four days of walking later, we slept at 3.519 meters from Braga (Braka). Upon arrival, only the name is familiar to us. Faced with the mystical charm of the town, arranged around one of the oldest and most revered Buddhist monasteries on the Annapurna circuit, we continued our journey there. acclimatization with ascent to Ice Lake (4620m).
Bertie in jalopy, Napier, New Zealand
Architecture & Design
Napier, New Zealand

Back to the 30s

Devastated by an earthquake, Napier was rebuilt in an almost ground-floor Art Deco and lives pretending to stop in the Thirties. Its visitors surrender to the Great Gatsby atmosphere that the city enacts.
Full Dog Mushing
Adventure
Seward, Alaska

The Alaskan Dog Mushing Summer

It's almost 30 degrees and the glaciers are melting. In Alaska, entrepreneurs have little time to get rich. Until the end of August, dog mushing cannot stop.
MassKara Festival, Bacolod City, Philippines
Ceremonies and Festivities
Bacolod, Philippines

A Festival to Laugh at Tragedy

Around 1980, the value of sugar, an important source of wealth on the Philippine island of Negros, plummeted and the ferry “Don Juan” that served it sank and took the lives of more than 176 passengers, most of them from Negrès. The local community decided to react to the depression generated by these dramas. That's how MassKara arose, a party committed to recovering the smiles of the population.
Tiredness in shades of green
Cities
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.
young saleswoman, nation, bread, uzbekistan
Meal
Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, The Nation That Does Not Lack Bread

Few countries employ cereals like Uzbekistan. In this republic of Central Asia, bread plays a vital and social role. The Uzbeks produce it and consume it with devotion and in abundance.
Culture
Markets

A Market Economy

The law of supply and demand dictates their proliferation. Generic or specific, covered or open air, these spaces dedicated to buying, selling and exchanging are expressions of life and financial health.
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.
Devils Marbles, Alice Springs to Darwin, Stuart hwy, Top End Path
Traveling
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.
António do Remanso, Quilombola Marimbus Community, Lençóis, Chapada Diamantina
Ethnic
Sheets of Bahia, Brazil

The Swampy Freedom of Quilombo do Remanso

Runaway slaves have survived for centuries around a wetland in Chapada Diamantina. Today, the quilombo of Remanso is a symbol of their union and resistance, but also of the exclusion to which they were voted.
View of Fa Island, Tonga, Last Polynesian Monarchy
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
Got2Globe Portfolio

Exotic Signs of Life

Vesikko submarine
History
Helsinki, Finland

Finland's once Swedish Fortress

Detached in a small archipelago at the entrance to Helsinki, Suomenlinna was built by the Swedish kingdom's political-military designs. For more than a century, the Russia stopped her. Since 1917, the Suomi people have venerated it as the historic bastion of their thorny independence.
Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cape Verde, Landing
Islands
Santa Maria, Sal Island, Cape Verde

Santa Maria and the Atlantic Blessing of Sal

Santa Maria was founded in the first half of the XNUMXth century, as a salt export warehouse. Today, thanks to the providence of Santa Maria, Sal Ilha is worth much more than the raw material.
Correspondence verification
Winter White
Rovaniemi, Finland

From the Finnish Lapland to the Arctic. A Visit to the Land of Santa

Fed up with waiting for the bearded old man to descend down the chimney, we reverse the story. We took advantage of a trip to Finnish Lapland and passed through its furtive home.
silhouette and poem, Cora coralina, Goias Velho, Brazil
Literature
Goiás Velho, Brazil

The Life and Work of a Marginal Writer

Born in Goiás, Ana Lins Bretas spent most of her life far from her castrating family and the city. Returning to its origins, it continued to portray the prejudiced mentality of the Brazilian countryside
Camiguin, Philippines, Katungan mangrove.
Nature
Camiguin, Philippines

An Island of Fire Surrended to Water

With more than twenty cones above 100 meters, the abrupt and lush, Camiguin has the highest concentration of volcanoes of any other of the 7641 islands in the Philippines or on the planet. But, in recent times, not even the fact that one of these volcanoes is active has disturbed the peace of its rural, fishing and, to the delight of outsiders, heavily bathed life.
Mother Armenia Statue, Yerevan, Armenia
Autumn
Yerevan, Armenia

A Capital between East and West

Heiress of the Soviet civilization, aligned with the great Russia, Armenia allows itself to be seduced by the most democratic and sophisticated ways of Western Europe. In recent times, the two worlds have collided in the streets of your capital. From popular and political dispute, Yerevan will dictate the new course of the nation.
Natural Parks
glaciers

icy blue planet

They form at high latitudes and/or altitudes. In Alaska or New Zealand, Argentina or Chile, rivers of ice are always stunning visions of an Earth as frigid as it is inhospitable.
One against all, Sera Monastery, Sacred Debate, Tibet
UNESCO World Heritage
Lhasa, Tibet

Sera, the Monastery of the Sacred Debate

In few places in the world a dialect is used as vehemently as in the monastery of Sera. There, hundreds of monks, in Tibetan, engage in intense and raucous debates about the teachings of the Buddha.
Earp brothers look-alikes and friend Doc Holliday in Tombstone, USA
Characters
tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

Silver veins discovered at the end of the XNUMXth century made Tombstone a prosperous and conflictive mining center on the frontier of the United States to Mexico. Lawrence Kasdan, Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner and other Hollywood directors and actors made famous the Earp brothers and the bloodthirsty duel of “OK Corral”. The Tombstone, which, over time, has claimed so many lives, is about to last.
amazing
Beaches

Amberris Caye, Belize

Belize's Playground

Madonna sang it as La Isla Bonita and reinforced the motto. Today, neither hurricanes nor political strife discourage VIP and wealthy vacationers from enjoying this tropical getaway.

Djerba Island of Tunisia, Amazigh and its camels
Religion
Djerba, Tunisia

The Tunisian Island of Conviviality

The largest island in North Africa has long welcomed people who could not resist it. Over time, Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs called it home. Today, Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities continue an unusual sharing of Djerba with its native Berbers.
End of the World Train, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
On Rails
Ushuaia, Argentina

Last Station: End of the World

Until 1947, the Tren del Fin del Mundo made countless trips for the inmates of the Ushuaia prison to cut firewood. Today, passengers are different, but no other train goes further south.
aggie gray, Samoa, South Pacific, Marlon Brando Fale
Society
Apia, Western Samoa

The Host of the South Pacific

She sold burguês to GI's in World War II and opened a hotel that hosted Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper. Aggie Gray passed away in 2. Her legacy lives on in the South Pacific.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Fishing, Cano Negro, Costa Rica
Wildlife
Caño Negro, Costa Rica

A Life of Angling among the Wildlife

One of the most important wetlands in Costa Rica and the world, Caño Negro dazzles for its exuberant ecosystem. Not only. Remote, isolated by rivers, swamps and poor roads, its inhabitants have found in fishing a means on board to strengthen the bonds of their community.
Napali Coast and Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Wrinkles
Scenic Flights
napali coast, Hawaii

Hawaii's Dazzling Wrinkles

Kauai is the greenest and rainiest island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is also the oldest. As we explore its Napalo Coast by land, sea and air, we are amazed to see how the passage of millennia has only favored it.