Mother and Son Make The World Their Classroom for a School Year: October 17, 2014

We finally made it into the Valle de Mai, the home of ancient huge palms with the largest nut in the world- Coco de Mers, and the only place in the world with the Black Parrot. We pulled into the park around 9:30 a.m. and organized a guide for our ecology class today as we learned about the amazing palms that grow on this island. We saw a 250 year old Coco De Mer. We learned about the male and females and that you can't tell if they are male or female until they are 25 years old. They don't reach maturity until they are 100 years old. Their nuts can be as large as 45 lbs. They fall when they are ripe, after 7 years when they turn yellow. When you removed the yellow husk you will find a huge nut that is very hard and huge. They are protected so if you have even a tree on your property you have to register it and they come out and count the fruit. You aren't even allowed to eat the nut. Although some people do when the nut is in it's infancy. Around 6-9 months you can cut into it and it is like a jelly. The nuts sell for hundreds of dollars and you get a certificate with it. No, we didn't buy one but it was fascinating to learn about them. The males grow a tail like flowering extension that is full of pollen and these small flowers that smell like popcorn. The female trees have these almost small coconut sized ovaries/pods that if fertilized will grow into the large nut, if not fertilized they will fall to the ground. You can count how old a palm is until it is around 7 years old, by the palm frawns it has, which are gigantic and then the trunk develops and they you can count the rings.

Sam was so excited since there are only a few hundred Black Parrots on the island. They are protected and they only live on Praslin Island. They may go over to a neighboring island to eat but they always return to Praslin. They are hard to see, but we could hear nuts dropping from the trees and then Sam spotted three of them in one tree. Sam can't wait to show Grandpa Jim the picture! We hiked through the forest of palms for a couple hours and learned a lot about the other palms there too and saw the All Spice Tree, whose leaves smell just like All Spice, must be where they get the spice.

After the park I wanted to take Sam to the Anse Lazio beach that I went to on bike yesterday. It had waves to body surf, not a stitch of seaweed and white sandy cove. I knew he would love it. We were hot from hiking and went right in. We spent 4 hours at the beach just playing in the warm water. We came across a couple from Sweden and they had crackers out in the water feeding the schools of clear fish that surrounded us. Wow, once we put a cracker in the water, they start jumping and nipping at our fingers. They stayed around Sam, even once the crackers were gone, for the rest of the day. He body surfed and I just lounged in the water and on the beach. It was just amazing. We got lunch down on the beach and enjoyed a full vacation afternoon. We took in tons of sun and when we came back to our hotel the cool plunge pool felt amazing. I went and got a facial which was like pouring oil onto my face and it was just sucking it up. I got the email of the esthetician from Manila and told her I would look into a job in Manila when I am there in Feb. She is so nice, it would be amazing if something worked out for her there. I will try.

It being our last night we just enjoyed our deck after sunset and sat on the couch and played cards for while. It was so pleasant outside. We dressed and headed to the beach for dinner and enjoyed a sea food bbq. After dinner I spent time packing up our laundered clothes so that we are organized for our Tanzania humanitarian trip through Cross Cultural Solutions. It should be exciting because we don't really know what to expect or exactly which project they will put us on, and interesting to meet locals and spend time living with others from I am guessing around the world as we live and serve together for 2 weeks. We are excited to have my good friend Yvette join us. She just sent me a text and said she is at the airport in LAX and headed our way! It will be fun to see a familiar face.

We have LOVED the Seychelles and could easily spend another week. There is so much we wanted to still do but not enough time to do it all. We did get to see more tortoises today, but love to come back and go to a neighboring island that is a sanctuary for them and they are all over and then some beautiful beaches too. Also like to do some more snorkeling at other islands. There is so much to explore here, not to mention almost countless other beautiful beaches! What a treat and a gift it has been to be here. Looking forward to one day returning.