La Digue, Seychelles - 2 of 3

We saw the Takamaka evergreen tree that is very shady with its wide leaves and is used for timber, medicines, and the resin is for treating wounds. Not to mention, it is used to make overproof rum which is 69% alcohol (70% is the cutoff for being able to ship it). We also saw the large shady Terminalia Catappa, otherwise known as Indian Almond, Tropical Almond Tree, or Java Almond tree.

We visited the old Creole plantation house where Rassool Hossen (once President) lived in made of beautiful woods (many different ones) and build in French colonial architecture.

The next stop were the giant Aldabra tortoises. WOW, they were big and old and hungry for Karen’s star fruit. There are more tortoises than people here so they are not endangered. These outdoors tortoises were over 90 years old, some up to 250 years old. We saw a small caged in area for those small ones that still have soft shells and need to be protected for the first 10 years of their lives.Read more