Socotra: The Jewel of Biodiversity

I saw this little gem on Pintrest a few months ago.

I am not really one to pin about "places to go".  Mostly because my chances of actually seeing "Top 10 Places Before You Die" are slim and the pictures you see on the internet have probably been enhanced by Photoshop 10 fold so it won't really look like the pictures you see online. Besides, I've become kind of snobbish about traveling and I'd really just like to visit Disneyland instead of traveling half way across the world to go to a new country. I go where I can.

This time our travels just so happen to be Socotra. I promise you, it wasn't because of Pintrest.

We were already planning on going to Saudi to visit my parents in December and Matt wanted to take this chance to visit other countries in the Gulf. My sister Aline was in Yemen for a couple of weeks last year and Aline suggested we go to Socotra.

If you didn't know, Yemen, especially it's capital city of Sana'a, is not currently tourist friendly. There are warnings out about the dangers of traveling there. The US Embassy pretty much states that if you get into trouble it is unlikely that they will be able to help you because they dont even have a lot of US workers out there. Our Lonely Planet guide book told us not to go. The UK and Australia have warnings against traveling to Yemen. At the beginning of December there was a bombing in a government building that killed 15 people. Weekly, westerners are being kidnapped or shot. Mostly, targets are government officials and not so much tourists as much as people who actually live and work in Sana'a, but STILL I was slightly embarrassed to tell people we were going to Yemen because I didn't want people to tell me I was crazy and asking for a death wish, because really I did feel like it was slightly foolish we were going to Sana'a. We only spent the night in Sana'a because of the way our flights worked. I made sure we had someone to pick us up from the airport, someone legitimate and probably a little more expensive, and I covered from head to toe in traditional dress, making sure to cover my hair with a scarf. I was trying my best to fit in with my white, blue-eyed husband. I was pretty close to covering my face but I saw that some women didn't cover their faces so I decided against it. Now that we made it back alive I will proudly tell you I went to Yemen! I want a shirt that says: "I survived Sana'a!" ;)

Set aside from the fact that I felt like our lives were at risk I thought Sana'a was beautiful. The houses look like ginerbread houses with just the icing and no gum drops. The electricity goes out a few times a week so we were lucky enough to see a lot of darkness over the city. Which was fine because we did risk our lives to find a bite to eat in a city where very little people spoke english. The only person at the little restaurant we went to could say three things: "Meat, Fish, or Egg?" Matt got eggs and I said Meat, not knowing what we were going to get. Matt got an omelet and I got a chunk of lamb leg. :) We walked about 5 minutes to a restaurant outside of our hotel and I felt pretty good that the lights were out. We could hide in the darkness.

Socotra is nothing like Sana'a.  I think it is the most rural place I have ever been to. There were no signs of western influence. No pepsi or cola advertisements. No advertisements of mobiles or hand bags. Not a single steel structure. Everything was made out of wood and mud. There were goats every where.  Children playing soccer in the streets and fisherman casting there nets into the ocean. A very simple way of life.

We saw these, Dragon Blood Trees.
This seems to be the gem of Socotra. In fact Yemen put this on one of their coins. 

 The Dragon Blood Tree, apparently isn't any where else in the world. There are some that appear like it in Kenya, but Socotra is it's home. The people of the island have a lot of respect and reverence for the tree and are interested in learning more about it's origins. Botanists seemed to have come and gone studying the trees. The major things that is threatening these trees, as of to date, are the goats and sheep on the island who eat the seeds and baby/smaller trees, preventing new trees to grow.

Here are some other funny looking trees. The first is a cucumber tree. They dont grow cucumbers, not sure why they call them cucumber trees and the second is my favorite, the Butter tree.

   

 

We did go to a botanical garden where someone wanted to study a little bit more

about the plant life of Socotra and to take notes on how the plants grow. 

They're more interested in the Dragon Blood Tree because it seems like

there's a lot of uncertainty on the life cycle of the tree. These plants, above, are

the 7 types of frankincense that grow on the island. 

Super cool seashell I wanted to remember but not steal. So we took a photo and threw it in the ocean.

 Dead puffer fish. I guess the poor guy had rolled up on the beach (rocks) and couldn't get back.

It was still kind of cool. :)

Lunch in some cave. Typical to sit on the ground and eat every meal.

On one beach (there's a lot of beaches in Socotra!) we slept here. 

We slept in a tent that was too short length wise for Matt. So we slept with our

feet outside the tent. In the middle the night I felt a little "hug" on my big toe and realized

it was a crab! I shot up and saw this skeletal looking thing running

away from the moonlight. It didn't hurt, like I said, it just embraced my toe.

It was kind of cool. Sort of wish I could see it closer.

 

Typical breakfast. Bread with jam, honey, and coffee. 

I told Matt every day that I really loved this one meal and I could always eat this. By 

our last morning I was tired of it and I just wanted a bowl of cereal. 

              

We stayed in these huts for two out of the three days we were there. We slept on foam pads that may have been just a bit better than sleeping on the floor, but not much than that. We tried not to study the foam mattresses too much. At least they provided cool mosquito nets that helped me feel like I was protected from mosquitoes or bugs, more specifically centipedes. :)

 

We saw these strange cones built on the sand one morning and wondered how they had gotten there. Upon closer look we realized that crabs had probably dug them to create holes to spend the night in. If you look at the second picture you can see the claw marks from the crabs. Call me landlocked, but I LOVED to see the crabs! I loved to see them hanging out on the beach and wanted so badly to take a closer look and a picture, however, as soon as I started walking closer to them they all retreated to the ocean. Seriously, they wouldn't let me get within 20 feet of them without all disappearing into the water!

Socotra was only one part of our trip. I'll be posting shortly about the other places in the Golf we visited. Between Matt and I we have been to all of the places on the Arabian Peninsula... well except Kuwait. I did have layover there?