Our first planned tour began on Friday. A pick-up truck came to pick us and the other two couples up from the hotel. He took us to a beach a few miles down where a tiny boat took us to the big boat. Our first destination was Cousin, the smallest granitic island of the Seychelles. It is now a natural reserve for sea birds and there are only nine people who currently live on the island, giving tours and taking care of the animals. The island is open the visitors from Tuesday to Friday and the tours must all be guided. World Wildlife Fund helped the International Council for Bird Preservation buy the island to save the Seychelles warbler from going extinct.

The end of May, when we were there, was nesting season for seabirds and thus the trees were completely covered with them. The lesser noddies liked to nest close to the sea and even though their nests looked messy, they were extremely sturdy as they mixed the leaves with their excrement. The white-tailed tropic birds nested on the ground in tree roots. They had their feet a little too close to the front of their body and hence couldn't walk much - they kept falling forward. The white tern didn't nest at all. They left their youngs on the tree branches and kept coming back to feed them. If the young fell down, the guides tried to put him back where the parents had left him so that they could find to feed him. The terns also traveled together and mated for life, which is why they were the logo for Air Seychelles. The island had a few magpies whose males were extremely territorial. Each time we saw one of these rare birds, the guide would clear the ground which made the bird come down to the floor and look for worms. The one bird I couldn't get a good picture of, besides the warblers which were really tiny, was the flightless moorhen which was constantly running around scared. Cousin also had a lot of skinks, green and bronze geckos, and the giant tortoises, including the famous 110 year-old George.

The next stop on our tour was Curieuse. This fifth largest granite island was once known as Ile Rouge. It is also visited only Tuesday to Friday and with guides. It used to be a leper colony and was infested with crocodiles. Now, it houses giant tortoises of all ages. We walked down the narrow, stony path that crosses the island from one side to another.

After Curieuse, we stopped right outside St. Pierre and snorkeling equipment was handed out to those who hadn't brought their own. I have never snorkeled and had no idea what to expect. To be honest, I didn't even know how to use the flippers. As I went into the water, I doubted there was anything special to see in these waters since I couldn't see anything from the surface. I slowly put my face under the water and I almost flipped. I can't begin to explain the multitude of colors and sizes of fish that had made those waters their home.

When we came back from our day trip, we decided that we needed to take all the other ones they had, so we signed up for the Sister and Coco one on Monday and begged to find out if we could go to Aride on Sunday. The only sad part of the day was leaving my camera at home.

We planned to take the 6am boat to La Digue the next morning and fell into our bed, wiped.

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