FRIDAY, APR 2ND--MAHE, SEYCHELLES

Last nights “Jimbo’s Truck Stop Diner” was so much fun.. The cruise staff had decorated half of the La Veranda restaurant and made like a truck stop. Jamie, our cruise director, was Jimbo (owner of the truck stop). Some passengers had great costumes also. I just wore jeans and a plain white T-shirt with sleeves rolled up even more. Buffet featured items like meat loaf, ribs, hamburgers, turkey, pizza, etc. I took several photos. This morning we went on a 4 hour tour. It was so hot!!! Actually only 85F but humidity was 88%. First stop was at the botanical gardens where we viewed several different types of palm trees, flowering trees, bread fruit trees, and coco-de-mer trees. The Seychelles is the only place in the world where the famous coco de mer is found. It’s the world’s heaviest nut. Also at the gardens were about 20 giant Aldabran land tortoises. They were 3 to 5 feet in diameter. Next stop was at a beach hotel for sodas and time to swim in the ocean if you wanted. Then we continued our drive around the northern coast to see some other beach areas and granite rock formations on some beaches. We arrived back in the town of Victoria where we took a short walking tour of the city. We saw Seychelles’ most famous landmark, an old clock tower. Well, certainly the islands and waters are very beautiful, but unless you just like to lie on the beach, dive, or snorkel, it could get boring here very fast. Not much else happening here and it is expensive. We were tired and drained by the heat by the time we got back to the ship for lunch. I was suppose to do a “Spice and Coral” tour this afternoon that involved a catamaran ride but decided not to go as I had had enough heat this morning. Will go to the gym instead. The internet has been down all day but just came up so hopefully I can get this post made. I write them on Word and cut & paste them onto blog later. Tonight there is a barbeque buffet under the stars up on the pool deck but we do not do eating in the heat. Tonight we will dine in Compass Rose (dining room) with Barry from St Louis. He served during Vietnam as an officer in the Army and has some interesting stories. No show tonight. Movie instead. At 4am tomorrow the ship will move 25 miles to the island of Praslin where we will spend the day. I will be uploading photos of these two islands after we leave Praslin. Satellite coverage in this area is limited so if you do not hear from me, that is the reason.