Today is the first day that we got to touch our feet to the ground, beginning our vacation. After flying 28+ hours from Canada, we actually are not as exhausted as we thought we would be. I believe that our excitement over-ruled the sleep that our bodies so badly needed.

We landed in Johanessburg, South Africa on Sunday night. We then caught a flight to the Seychelles Islands at 11:55pm and arrived on Mahe/Victoria by 6am. Once I was able to grab sight of the island while walking off the plane, the vast amount of greenery almost seemed overwhelming; We were literally surrounded by rain forest terrain. The humidity hit us like a ton of bricks and it didn't take long before sweat escaped the body.

We went to the baggage claim in hopes that our luggage arrived (it didn't in Johanessburg), and unfortunately it didn't. We then caught a taxi to the ferry terminal as our next destination was to hit up La Digue Island, 1.25 ferry ride. Since we had about 3 hours to spare, we walked from the ferry terminal to downtown Victoria to get Kurtis a shirt and pair of shorts to compensate for the missing luggage. He bought himself an ugly bright blue with yellow Hawaiian-looking shirt, a shirt to clearly point out that he was a tourist. He was super happy with his purchase, meanwhile I found it a bit embarassing... we then went for breakfast nearby. After a relaxing breakfast we then walked back to the ferry terminal, and at this point the sun beam down very hot. Soon we were able to board the ferry to La Digue, which I found freezing cold due to the air conditioning. I tried to have a quick snooze but found it difficult since I struggled to keep warm. I also found that half-way through the ferry ride I was starting to get very queasy--I didn't think I was going to make it. Somehow though, I was able to survive the fast ride and eventually got to thaw out when it was time to transfer to a smaller boat that took us to La Digue. This ride was much more smooth and was also out in the sunlight-- a sunlight that eventually burnt my face and arms to a crisp. This is the first time that I ever experienced a burnt chin!

The view of La Digue Island from a distance was absolutely breath taking. The water was crystal clear, the tree's were the perfect shade of green and the sands were pure white. Immediatly Kurtis and I rented some bicycles, which was going to be our main form of transportation on the island as the only vehicles that existed were work trucks. In order to get about, bicycle rentals or ox and cart were the only forms. To me, this was a perfect way to force adventure onto any tourist who chose either transportation. Next on the list was to buy sunscreen since ours was packed in our missing lugagge. After converting from Seychelles rands we determined that our 50 SPF sunscreen cost us between $40-$50 CDN... ouch! But what hurt even more was the sunburn that only seemed to get worse as the day progressed.

We then rode our bikes to our bed & breakfast. We were greeted by a very pleasant woman who said she will be our host for the next 2 days. We were shown our room which consisted of 2 twin beds that were pushed together, a closet and a bathroom and of course, a mini-fridge. It was very simple and had a fan as well as an air conditioning. We also were provided a mosquito net in case we wanted to sleep with our windows open.

After dropping off some of our belongings we wasted no time to scoop out the island. We rode our bikes a long ways to one of the beaches, which proved to be the one with the strongest currents. We had fun jumping over the waves and gulping in some of the salt water (didn't enjoy that bit at all, actually) and exploring all of the crazy rock formations that surrounded the beach. Unfortunately though, I got knocked over badly by a wave and sliced my left food open on a rock. It looked bad enough to need stitches, and it stung incredibly due to the salt water. It made walking thru the sand extremely difficult and not to mention the bike ride back a bit a struggle.

Once we got back to our room we showered off the salt water but were unable to wash our hair since our shampoo was in our missing luggage, as well as my hairbrush. We managed to pass out on the bed at 6:45, causing us to miss supper, since we didn't wake up until 8pm. Walking in the dark was not an option since there are no street lights on the road or restaurants nearby. We went to bed without supper and slept soundly through the night.