Seychelles Sunday April 1st.............Beautiful island in the Indian Ocean. Very clean, neat and tidy town of Victoria but, alas, being Sunday, everything was closed. So, four of us took a taxi across the island to a gorgeous beach resort. Golden sand, blue water, hot sunshine , but with a cooling breeze. Sounds like a travelogue doesn't it? Anyway we walked along the beach for about half a mile, then sat on the terrace of a posh hotel and drank the local beer and wine. Eight dollars a glass. Ouch! But it was good. A long leisurely lunch followed, which was good and expensive. Everything was priced in Euros for some reason, which was not good for the poor old dollar.A walk back along the beach revealed a perfect sand sculpture of a mermaid in the palm of a hand, see picture one day, then a boat pulled up on the beach with some guys been out fishing and they had this huge Marlin, or Sailfish is another name for it I believe. It appeared to be still alive. Never seen a live Marlin before, very spectacular and probably good eating.Tomorrow at sea, cruising the Indian Ocean, then to the island of Mauritius on Tues. ..........................................................................................Mauritius.....April 4..........Mauritius, the land of the Dodo! Poor brutes, they all got wiped out around 1660 by the Portuguese when they landed here. Very good eating apparently. We did see a reconstruction of one in a museum, built around a skeleton that was dug up.Very pleasant island. Nice people. Prices good. The harbour area is very attractive although very modern with excellent shops and restaurants. The town centre is also good but away from it, it gets a bit shabby and decrepit. Beautiful mountains and coastline typical of these volcanic islands rising out of the ocean.Great weather while we were there, although we did just dodge a typhoon on the way there. Sea a bit rough for a while but a nice strong cooling breeze when ashore.