We have spent the last three days island hopping in the Seychelles. This
place is an absolute paradise. It's warm but not hot and the water is cool and
clear. On the first day we were in Mahe and I took a crew tour. They organized a catamaran to pick us up and take us to a reef to go snorkeling. Then we were jumping off the cat into the water and swimming around. We were off the coast of this tiny, privately owned island that had a small beach. They got permission to have us there and they took us over a few at a time in a dingy. The beach was soft, white sand and had a mysterious stone staircase leading into the trees. I walked up and at the top of the stairs were tons of giant tortoises. I've never seen anything like them. They told us there were more than a hundred on the island. We swam there for a while and then they took us back to the cat for a ride around the island and back to the ship.

Yesterday we were in La Digue. It's one of the smaller islands in the
Seychelles. When we got off the tender boat there was a place right there to rent bikes. I was nervous because it's been about 15 or so years since I've ridden one and I wasn't so sure it really was, "just like riding a bike." Anyway, he let me test one out before I paid for it so I would know if I could do it or not. I was a little wobbly but I figured I would get used to it. We took the bikes all around the island and followed the signs for Grand Anse, a beach on the opposite side. We rode for about 20 minutes and were starting to really sweat. Then we came across a man selling fruit and juice at a stand outside his house. I didn't really recognize anything he put in the blender but it was definitely the best juice I've ever had. After we got refreshed we kept riding until we hit the end of the road. All that was left was a muddy trail or to turn around, so we followed the muddy trail. At the end of the mud was a pretty restaurant and about 100 bicycles just sitting around. We dropped ours and walked up the path to the other side of the place and that's when we saw it. It was the most amazingly beautiful beach I have ever seen. The sand was ite,
the water was bright blue, there were huge, smooth boulders that jutted out to
the sea. The waves were completely massive and the whole beach was obably a quarter of a mile long. When I saw it I honestly just burst into laughter because I didn't know how else to react. Thinking I was just going to be riding a bike around for a few hours, I hadn't put on a swim suit (again) but was NOT going to miss this opportunity. I jumped in my underwear again which made for a very wet and sandy bike ride back, but it was so worth it.

I went back to the ship to rinse off and change and then turned around and
went right back to the island. I was looking for Margaret but she wasn't where we said to meet, so I grabbed my bike and went off to find some lunch. I decided to go the opposite way from that morning. I was only riding about 5 minutes when I came across this beautiful resort. It's like one you would see in a movie. I was starving so I parked my bike and went up to see if they were still serving lunch. Just as I entered the dining room I saw Margaret sitting alone at a table. I couldn't believe I found her when she could've been anywhere on the whole island. She had just ordered so we had some lunch and it was delicious. Then we asked if it would be alright for us to hop in their pool and swim up to  the bar. I think they wanted our money because they didn't seem to mind. We had tropical drinks while lounging in the pool overlooking the ocean.

That night we all went out again and had dinner together on the island. All
aboard wasn't until 11:30pm and I was definitely going to take advantage of
every minute I had there. Then we went to the beach in the moonlight and hung  out in the water. The moon was full and so bright that it almost looked like daylight. I'd say La Digue was absolutely one the best days I have had on this contract so far.

Today we joined the ship and have been running around a bit. We filled out
our paperwork, got a crew ID, uniforms (which are lovely by the way), and now I’m sitting in my newly unpacked, single cabin with a porthole view!  This room feels like a penthouse compared to my last ship. My goal for today, STAY AWAKE. 
 
Above was the blog I wrote on my first day. So much has happened since then and it’s only been a few days. The reason I couldn’t post it then was we had no internet or phone on board for two days. That might not sound like a long time but having to go TWO DAYS without checking my email or calling home felt like torture. 

Speaking of torture, the reason I couldn’t post after those two days passed
was because I have to leave my room to get internet and since I am in Medical Isolation I can’t post anything. That’s right folks! I made it almost 7 months on NCL without getting sick. Here on Oceania, it took three days to start tossing my cookies. I still have another day and a half before I’m allowed to leave my room and I’m starting to go a little crazy.

Here's a couple pictures from Monaco and the porthole views while I was in isolation.