Entries this day: Seychelles back_onboard

Seychelles

7:15pm SCT Sunday 15 January 2006

Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands basically east of Madagascar. We stopped on Mahe at Port Victoria for a total of like 11 hours, giving us about 8.5 hours to explore. Therefore, I did not allow any time in an internet cafe. (( Mombassa is an overnight port, and only three days away, so I'll wait. Although I will be basically busy during our stay, I assume I'll be able to get to a cafe. ))

Today we walked to the main part of town, but most things were closed cause it's a Sunday. Took a taxi to "the beach," "which beach?" "we don't know," and ended up where everyone else ended up: Buffalo, er, make that "Beau Vallon" I believe. We were dropped off just several meters from the beach and even fewer meters from a dive shop, so we immediately got hooked up with snorkling and scuba diving utensils. $10 to snorkel (with $100 deposit) and $50 to dive. Glynis (sp) is quite friendly and immediately learned my name, which made me smile inside.

I met Paul, an experienced diver who lives in the area, and he gave me a few tips and stories as we waited for everyone to get their shiznit together.

14 divers, 3 dive masters went out on our little adventure to Group Point (I think) and dove in two groups of 6 plus a dive master, and 2 in buddy system, then 1 person to move the boat to our pickup location.

I dove alone-ish, mostly tagging along well behind our group. Didn't keep up cause I was caught up in taking pictures of Francois with fish. I had a bit of trouble going down, though we used the anchor rope. I got down to perhaps 15 meters. Used 150 bars of air in about 40 minutes.

Found myself floating up near the end of the dive, though I had released all the air from my vest (and hadn't dropped my weights, or anything) ... My theory is that since I only had 50 bar left in my tank, it was super floatier than it had been.

I had some sinus blockage problems near the end, which turned out to be loads of blood from my sinuses. Once I was back on the boat, I spat out gobs of blood snorted out the back of my sinus. Nice.

- - - -

Found Carla, Laura and Lisa at the end of their meal and I cleaned up the remains of Laura's lunch. Hung out on the beach watching some beach boys do gymnastics. They seemed obviously self-taught.

- - - -

Once we had about 1.25 hours until boarding limit, Nick, Phil and I began heading back. Glynnis (sp) drew a flawless map for us. I walked barefoot back to the port (3 kilometers); Nick and Phil paired up with GET T girls and hitched rides.

On my way back, I met Freda, who gave me fried bread fruit slices; also met Rie who gave me some black currant drink, and Rie's friend who gave me some cookies. I gave them some of the bread fruit.

back onboard

12:25am SCT Monday 16 January 2006

I arrived back on the ship at 16:15 or so, 15 minutes before boarding limit. Laura was sought by those whose job it is to make sure we are all onboard. She was on, but her card hadn't been scanned.

Hung out with the 3029 girls (*) until dinner at 17:30.

(*) 3029 is their room number; there are 3 women living in that room.

We departed during dinner; I ate too much, then went down to Topaz and ate again; I had actually just gone down because I wanted the dessert, but ended up eating the whole meal, just because. The service in Topaz Dining is really fantastic. I was the *last* person in before they close the doors, and the *last* person out. But they made me feel like the first person in, and that I never had to go out.

At that point I planned to just collapse into bed, but Nick was going to check Lisa's party on top deck (though he said it was supposed to start in her room; I chose to forgo that part) so I went to top deck.

1. found Tony and Yuuka lying face up, watching clouds and stars.

2. lay down between them and watched

3. was happy when Rei came up

4. Tony went to hang with the hip hop kids

5. Rei came and sat down

6. Yuuka left for a meeting at 9pm

7. I happily chilled with Rei and sang her songs

8. We traded stories and back massages, but nothing else

9. I determined why the hip hop kids' radio was bleeping periodically.

10. Rei agreed it was due to the radar, which we could visually confirm its rotation corresponded with the bleeps.

11. I went to the meet Peter's Band, except for Peter workshop because she was CCing it.

12. I fell asleep a lot during the workshop.

13. Lost track of Rei after the workshop.

14. I've got to go to bed and sleep sleep sleep.