#10_DAYS IN THE MOST ALIEN LOOKING PLACE ON EARTH:
TRAVEL TO #SOCOTRA
JUNE 14, 2017
#BY NICOLE
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WHAT IT WAS REALLY LIKE TO TRAVEL TO SOCOTRA, THE MOST ALIEN LOOKING ISLAND ON EARTH.
The island you have to see to believe, an island like nowhere else. This is Socotra
Socotra is an out-of-this-world island sitting within the four-island Socotra Archipelago in the Arabian Sea. The island became a territory of Yemen in 1967 when the island joined the Democratic People’s Republic of Yemen, or better known as South Yemen. At this time (2017) most foreign countries are advising against all travel to Yemen due to the ongoing war, to read up on the US advisories on travel in Yemen visit travel.state.gov. Ultimately I decided to split up posts on Socotra from the mainland of Yemen, because they are so extremely different. If you are interested in reading more about Yemen, check out this page here.
SOCOTRA FACTS:
Socotra is full of many endemic plants and birds found nowhere else, leading to it’s nicknames: The Galapagos of the Indian Ocean, The most alien looking place on Earth and The Pearl of the Indian Ocean. Over 700 endemic species call this unique island home. Three of the most notable species are the endemic Dragon’s blood trees, the Socotra cucumber tree and Socotra desert rose or bottle tree.
The otherworldly island is located just 150 miles (241 km) from Somalia and 220 miles (354 km) from mainland Yemen.
The archipelago was isolated millions of years ago during the Miocene Epoch. The isolation Socotra has had for millions of years is what has led to all the endemic species present there.
The archipelago consists for four islands. The largest being called Socotra. The others three are Abd al-Kuri, Samhah and Darsa.
Socotri, the language spoken on Socotra is an ancient Semitic language spoken nowhere else on Earth.
Many of the females on the island have a DNA haplogroup found in no other humans anywhere else in the world.
THE GALAPAGOS OF THE INDIAN OCEAN, THE MOST ALIEN PLACE ON EARTH, THE PEARL OF THE INDIAN, THE RUMORED LOCATION OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN:WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO TRAVEL TO SOCOTRA
In early 2014 I had the opportunity to travel to Socotra Island, and am I glad I took it. I had been eyeballing the location for about 10 years at this point. In December of 2013 I contacted Socotra Eco Tours to begin setting up a tour of the island (at the time the only way to be issued a tourist visa was to book a local guided tour). Before I knew it Radiwan and Abdul-Jameel had me booked on a Felix Airlines flight to travel to Socotra from Sana’a on February 1, 2014. I had 10 whole days to explore my dream destination, and in actuality this is one of my only regrets I have in life thus far. No, not because I decided to travel to Socotra. The fact that I didn’t stay longer. Had I known what would happen in the following months I would have stayed for much, much longer. I can’t sulk too much about it, at least I was able to have 10 days there. The following is what I saw and experienced each day during my travel in Socotra. To read more about my time in mainland Yemen, you can read my post ‘That One Time I Decided To Travel To Yemen‘.
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