The underwater world in la Reunion: snorkeling in the Indian ocean

 

Today some pleasant snorkeling in not even 2 meters water, on the beach of St-Leu.
The water warm as it should be (may be 27 degrees:-) and simply amazing colours and abundance of fishes...

 
As you can see there is a lot of dead coral (all the white looking pieces like small stones). For some years a protected area has been created on the west coast of the island with three different access rights: the strongest protection does not allow any activities in it...However unfortunately the rules are not always followed by the people.

 
The scene below pictures the fishes eating a sea urchin crushed in pieces by one snorkler.

The market in St-Paul, Reunion/ Le marché de St-Paul

 

Every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, next to the sea the colourful weekly market takes place in St Paul, on the west coast of the Reunion island. One may find tons exotic fruits (in January: longani, litchi, passion fruits, ananas, ) and exotic flowers in all possible colours. The vegetables are also well presented next to somelocal home-made finger food..

 

The most famous snacks are the samoussas: small triangles with different fillings (chicken meat, fish, vegetables)...and of course the "bonbon piment", round balls made from cooked beans spiced up with peppers and other local herbs. I had a fresh pressed sugar cane juice and bought some local products: as the vanilla pods Bourbon, a very good appreciated souvenir and present for beloved ones at home:-)

 

Piton de la Fournaise, the walk to the volcano crater in la Reunion

The wake-up ring (for the beauty above) was at 4.30 in the (still pretty dark) morning...A bit after 6 am we had the following amazing views of Piton des Neiges (next two pictures), the highest peak in la Reunion with its 3069 metres.

Shorthly before 7 am we were parked and ready for 5,5 hour walk to the crater of the volcano Piton de la Fournaise. Walking down and up on frozen lava and lava stones in different colours, passing by small and big craters, we arrived on the top of the crater Dolomieu and were stunned by its colours...

 
On the next photo is the Piton de la Fournaise, one of the most active volcanoes in the world!Last (small) eruption was in 2010, last big one was 2007.

 

 
We spent almost one hour on the top, at 2631 meters, contemplating the view and eating fruits.
The first picture is taken from the helicopter we took this morning to view the island from above, more to come a bit later:-)

 

 

Inbetween the lava the plants start to grow again-simply impressive!

Underwater in Reunion, diving in St Leu/ la vie sous-marine en Reunion

 

Today I would like to share with you some underwater impressions from our two dives in St Leu (dive sites: "Les Arches" and "Les Kioskques")...Amazing colours are to be sighted and a lot of corals (fortunately in better shape than the corals in the Maldives), but still almost 40% is dead. Colourful fishes, curious shrimps, crabes and anemones, nudibranches hiding, corals in different shapes and colours are all around!
Enjoy the pictures taken by Nico!

Jardin des parfums et epices , St-Philippe/ Plants and spices garden

An impressive way to get to know some local and imported flora is the visit to the "Jardin des parfums et epices"! Located in the forest next to St-Josephe this green private garden is really fantatsic garden to walk through. The guided tour is highly recommended and will give you not only explanatons about the exotic flowers/ palm trees/ spices, but also cooking recipes and other ideas or new information! On the pictures below you may admire:

- the famous "rose du porcelaine";

- the lianes of the "vanille bourbon"

- fresh green pepers grains

- the nutmeg apple incl the nutmeg

- the black orchid 

- and the porcelaine rose again with an interesting insect on it;