TBD: Curieuse

The day after Christmas, I got to go on a "business trip" to Curieuse Island, where the other Seychelles GVI base is located. Curieuse is a small island just north of Praslin and a national marine park. Currently the only people allowed to spend the night on Curieuse are GVI staff and volunteers and park rangers with the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA). Everyone else has to leave the island by 5pm, so it is pretty isolated (and incredible). GVI runs terrestrial programs on Curieuse, monitoring turtle nests and coco de mer trees and the base is actually an old leper colony, which is a lot less creepy than it sounds. We helped out with maintenance and repairs, toured the island, held baby tortoises and went on a couple turtle walks looking for nesting turtles. Though we didn't actually see any nesting turtles, we did lots of turtle tracks and actually got to see hatclings coming out of the nest and making their way to the ocean, which was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life (and will post about separately). It was an incredible few days and lots of fun to see the other base and meet the other GVI staff, including Digby, the GVI base dog. On the way back, we stopped at the Valley de Mai on Praslin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to a large concentration of coco de mer trees - the place looks like a prehistoric tropical rain forest. I was waiting for a dinosaur to jump out, but no such luck - just small geckos and birds.