Its letter of introduction, as a good branch of Eden, is a dizzying maze of islands bordered by catalog beaches and blessed by warm waters. That’s right, in brushstrokes, Seychelles, an African archipelago that lives alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean, more than a thousand kilometers from the nearest place.
But although tropical exoticism and virgin nature are the great assets of these islands, it is enough to scratch their surface to discover a universe of peculiarities as evocative as the white sand, the crystalline sea and the string of coconut palms that sway to the sound of the breeze. Features that have to do with the singularity of its origin, the ups and downs of its history and the richness of an idiosyncrasy based on a mixture of races and cultures.
Here are a few curiosities from this corner of the globe where happiness arrives heated, throughout the year, to a mild 28 degrees:
To give us an idea: if the 115 islands that make up the Seychelles archipelago were put together, the territory would not even reach the surface of Eivissa. Its barely 450 square kilometers (the Balearic island has more than 570) make it the smallest country in Africa, as well as the least populated: only about thirty of these islands are occupied by humans with a population that does not reach to the hundred thousand inhabitants.
It may be loaded with sensuality, but its raison d’être responds to more prosaic reasons. We are talking about the name that, against all romanticism, honors Jean Moreau de Séchelles, who was French finance minister in 1756. This was the year in which the French country took possession of an archipelago until then free of all human traces.
Because, although Vasco de Gama’s Portuguese discovered it on their second trip to India, back in 1502, the truth is that they passed by, leaving such a paradise within the reach of pirates. After French rule, the Seychelles would become part of the British Empire until its belated independence, already in 1976.
Bottom up. This is how the Seychelles islands emerged from the bottom of the sea in a formation that dates back 200 million years. Because its origin is not volcanic but of two other different types: granite and coral (42 islands are made of granite and 73 are made of coral).
Although it sounds like a tourist brochure claim, the truth is that these islands are known as the Garden of Eden not so much because of their traces of tropical paradise (which also) as because of the description made of them by the British general Charles Gordon, known like Gordon Pasha. Specifically, this hero of the British Empire who went down in history for his fight against slavery and for his tragic defense of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, referred to the Vallée de Mai, on the island of Praslin, as the “original paradise , where the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil dwells”. It may not be the place where, according to the Bible, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, but this valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has designated it as such. stated in 1983.
Seychelles is outside the hurricane belt, which not only makes it exempt from the risk of this phenomenon but also maintains a constant temperature that rarely falls below 24 degrees or exceeds 31 degrees. In short, it enjoys a temperate tropical climate that only becomes cooler between May and September, encouraged by the trade winds. Nor do these islands have the presence of predators, which avoids other great dangers: neither spiders, nor poisonous snakes, nor sharks (carnivores) in their waters.
It is the symbol of Seychelles. A gigantic seed (the largest in the world) with an erotic female form, born from a slender palm tree endemic to the archipelago that can measure 30 meters. It is called coco de mer and originates from the island of Prasley (where there are some 8,000 palm trees), although it has also been transplanted to other parts of the archipelago. You have to wait more than two decades to see it grow to weigh more than 20 kilos. Of course, it is not edible: it is only used for decoration.
Just as these islands are, in themselves, a work of art of nature, their festivals and folklore are also exponents of an explosion of colors. The same that we find in its gastronomy, in which tropical fruit and fresh fish abound, with typical dishes such as hearts of palm salad, tektek or seafood soup and chatini rekin or shark chutney. As if that were not enough, the Seychelles flag itself echoes this chromatic explosion as it is made up of five oblique stripes in blue, yellow, red, white and green. They are, they say, the dominant shades that are observed in this territory.
With a biodiversity that, in relation to their size, is among the richest in the world, these islands are an inexhaustible well of native nature. Here are endemic species as bizarre as flying foxes (they are bats, actually), trees with fruits such as jellyfish or frogs the size of an eyelash, not to mention birds like the black parrot, the knock-knock or the blackbird. the seychelles. But no species is as iconic as the Aldabra Giant Tortoise, much like the one found on the Galapagos Islands.
With a weight that can exceed up to a quarter of a ton, these turtles are among the longest-lived animals on the planet, with specimens reaching up to 200 years. They are the ones who have given the archipelago its second World Heritage Site: the one granted to the island of Aldabra, the only home in the world for these slow, friendly creatures with little fear of man.
Owners of the richest and most impressive underwater landscape in the Indian Ocean, the Seychelles funds are a true kaleidoscope. More than 300 species of fish inhabit its warm waters, including tuna, sailfish, barracudas, rays, white tip sharks, turtles, lion fish, scorpions, moray eels… All of them can be easily seen throughout the year. Less frequent (although not impossible) is to contemplate the whale shark, the largest fish in the world that can measure up to 12 meters.
African, Asian and European. This ethnic fusion defines the Seychelles, which have woven their personality with the legacy of the races that have populated the archipelago. An amalgamation that can also be seen in religion: although the vast majority of Seychelles are Catholic (this is French heritage), there is also a percentage of Anglicans, as well as Hindus and Muslims. All these creeds coexist in harmony.
