Travel to Socotra, Yemen, known as the island of dolphins..

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The trip to Socotra was born as a joke, from a dispute among friends about what could be the most beautiful island in the world. Popped up many destinations but two, of all, were vying for supremacy for their uniqueness and particularity: Fernando de Noronha, off the Brazilian coast and Socotra Island in Yemen in the Indian Ocean.
As it happens I just returned from a trip to Brazil and Peru and, coincidentally, I spent a week with Fernando. I had to see for myself the island that could compete with the beauty of Brazil, for me a true paradise. And so I proposed to my companion of adventure travel to the unknown Yemen, Socotra Island destination.
Book a flight to Sana'a with the Turkish and we also make a walk to the beautiful Istanbul evening flight to San'a and arrive late at night in the capital of Yemen. Complete all the formalities of visa and meet Mohammed, owner of socotraguide, we contacted through its Internet site.
The next day we visit the wonderful city under UNESCO protection and place that propels us into a dimension without space or time, in an atmosphere of Arabian Nights that awakens in us a desire to visit the rest of the country. But another time, we must discover what is the most beautiful island in the world!
From the airplane window (by the way, sit in the row to the left on entering) the first impact was not the best. We are faced with huge island, a desert plateau, without vegetation, a landscape completely different from the lush green island Brazil. But we do not have time to exchange our views that suddenly, the clouds, there is a turquoise set between the mountains and a white beach: the lagoon Ditwah one of the most beautiful island. The agitation increases, and we look forward to coming.
From to Hadiboh, island's main town, we forced Muhammad to stop at least ten times for the first pictures of the villages, mountains, the views of the turquoise sea, plants, shapes incredible to palm ..
Hadiboh not really much, then let fly and the luggage at the hotel by jeep to reach the nearest beach, delish, where do the first bath in the waves of the Arabian Sea. The beach is full of coral and shells huge (woe unto them off ..) photographed the most beautiful and walk towards the dunes of white sand that relies on the cliff .. what a show! We enjoy the first day on the beach and go see a school of dolphins in the distance. Good thing, will surely be a wonderful holiday.
The next day we leave for the island tour by jeep full of food, water, tents and even a table, chairs and umbrellas that will prove useful to prevent sunburn that would ruin the holiday .. Basically everything you need for a week of Spartan life in contact with untouched nature. The eco-system is definitely very fragile island, resort type developments are taking shape on the beach and the race to exploit tourism could create irreparable damage. Small local branches of eco-tourism as we are aware of the danger and advocates that tourism remains a niche for real travelers who do not seek the comforts of the village but prefer solidarity tourism to local populations and closely with the nature.
The standard tour offered by the agency as a first step provides the Ahrar Beach with its beautiful dunes and a freshwater stream that resembles a mountain landscape. We come to Ras Ersel eastern tip of the island where they meet the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean.
Here Mohammed has virtually seized a fishing boat to bring his friends to see the dolphins up close, hundreds, make changes and pirouettes. A show ever!
Ahrar night in tents and in the morning to wake up early for the slope of the dune, exhausting ... but the panorama from above amply repays all the effort. We throw ourselves headlong down to the sea for a swim in crystal clear water until we hear Muhammad yelling "soon soon take the masks .." and brings us back to the boat fishermen. We reach a school of dolphins and without thinking for a moment we throw ourselves into the sea. Below us dozens of dolphins dancing in the clear waters of the bay, so close you can hear their song ... the emotion was so strong that the boat lift we threw her arms around our guide to thank him, forgetting that they are an Islamic country where these effusions are definitely to be avoided. Perhaps the fishermen saw our tears of joy will be understood, of course Mohammed was terribly embarrassed poor ..
We leave to the protected area Dihamri where we snorkel among hundreds of colorful fish, corals ever seen, two turtles, a moray eel with yellow polka dots and even a large manta ray. We enjoy a beautiful sunset and overnight in camp after a dinner of fish, rice, vegetables, bread and excellent Arabic.
Up early in the morning, another round of snorkeling to greet our friends turtles of each Homilia where we walk among hundreds of incense trees, bottle trees and dragon's blood and go down to the pools and take a bath surrounded by a natural unique in the world. Lunch under a huge inverted umbrella-shaped tree, the dragon blood tree, symbol of the island because endemic and hear the legends of origin of the name that the guide tells us.
In the evening arrival to Qualansya where we have another beautiful sunset. We sleep in the camp of the protected lagoon Ditwah the morning the jeep takes us to a vantage point where you can enjoy incredible views of the lagoon. The turquoise sea and nestled between the mountains we had seen the plane takes on its shape and colors best, difficult to describe in words.
And 'right here, facing the spectacular view and after a brief consultation and excited decree that .. yes, the island of Socotra is the most beautiful island of mondo.La peculiarity is not only the beauty of nature, but also in its variety of landscapes ranging from deserted white beaches, mountains that reach 1500 meters, the deep canyons of the desert, caves, waterfalls, passing through villages of shepherds lost in the middle of nowhere .. It 'an island to discover slowly, revealing a part of every day' so different, so exciting, so unique.
The days that follow give us the confirmation of the uniqueness of this pearl in the Indian Ocean: the boat trip on the beach Shoab, again accompanied by hundreds of dolphins, the Diksam Plateau forest with trees of dragon's blood, it seems there are some 6 million from thousands of years, the long beach of turtles and Omak Indian Ocean beach where you walk for hours without encountering anyone bathing in natural pools surrounded by deep canyons where they cling bottle trees, beautiful during the flowering pink and the white desert, caves, curious children .. and dolphins .. friends who have accompanied us in all our steps to the sea. Pity not be able to visit the other islands of the archipelago and many other places unknown to most tourists, like us, only 10 days remain on the island. The island is definitely worth a second trip.