Christmas Cruise – Seychelles…Part 2

By coolgrandparent on May 10, 2025

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The previous day, we had enjoyed learning about life on La Digue. Our ship spent the night circling as there is only 33 miles between La Digue and Port Victoria, our next port. It is the capital of Seychelles and is located on Mahe’ Island which is the largest island in Seychelles. Port Victoria has a population of almost 30,000 residents. It’s main industries are tourism, vanilla, coconuts, coconut oil, fishing, and exporting guano. Yes, guano as in bird poop. It is sought after for fertilizer, but also for the production of gun powder. Who knew…

The island has a wind farm to help with energy. Electricity is primarily produced using diesel generators, but the diesel has to be imported. Many of the residents currently use coconut husks for cooking and coconut oil for lanterns. A recent energy policy has called for 15% of the country’s power to be renewable by 2030.

Our excursion for the day was not until noon, so we stayed on the ship and enjoyed the morning…we also took advantage of the extra time and went to a book making class.

We got off the ship early so that we could explore the port area. It was a short walk to Peace Park

On our walk we stopped at the official port anchor sign. We then passed the Unity Monument which is made of 4 large white fish. Each fish represents an important point in the economy…tourism, agriculture, fishing, and small business. Then we walked past the Bicentennial Monument. This sculpture celebrates the settlement of Victoria in 1778 by the French.

At the Peace Park there are several statues celebrating the past history of Seychelles…There was Sir James Richard Marie Mancham who was the First President of Seychelles from June 1976-77. A statue of Nelson Mandela who served as president of South Africa from 1994-99. Lastly, there is a statue of Gandhi, Father of the Indian Nation.

On a lighter note, we enjoyed the Holiday decorations

Our tour for the afternoon was on a catamaran to a submersible submarine, snorkeling, and a beach.

We took a short ride to the mouth of the bay

Next we boarded the submersible for a view of the reef. The wind had kicked up so the water was abit murky to see many fish, but it was still fun.

We went to a snorkeling spot, but there were no fish…dang!!

The captain offered to take whoever wanted to go, to a nearby island. We had to walk to the beach from the boat and there was a fair amount of coral, ouch, ouch, ouch.