Today was the first time being on holiday for Justin’s birthday, surprisingly.  On Crystal’s birthday we know we’ve been to the Big Island (before we lived there), and perhaps 1-2 other places.  We woke up a little earlier than yesterday, but still way later than in Socotra.  We had given some thought to doing something for sunrise, but that didn’t materialize.  The weather wasn’t that clear anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.  The only plans for the day were to visit the Veuve Reserve, and maybe head over to Grand Anse and Petite Anse, which we found out were reachable using a road that we hadn’t known about the day before.  We had breakfast an hour earlier today, and didn’t need to worry about getting too sunny whilst eating.  The sparkling wine at breakfast wasn’t really that good, so we figured maybe that was the universe trying to protect us from ourselves.  

We met our guide Robert at 09:00.  We weren’t really sure what was up - again, we’d received nothing from our local tour agency, and we knew to meet Robert only because Julian sent us an email with specific times and dates after we told him the local agency had left us in the lurch - as the plan was far more complicated than we expected.  Robert told us that we were going to go with him to meet one of his colleagues, who would then ride bikes around with us for a while, and then we’d meet back up with Robert to visit the Veuve Reserve after 10:00.  We weren’t sure why we couldn’t just go to the reserve - that’s all we thought we were doing, and we weren’t sure why we even needed a guide for that.

Anyway, we met Samuel and rode through town with him, and then more into the center of the island.  Samuel was riding excruciatingly slow, and we were having a hard time staying balanced on our bikes at that speed.  On the plus side, he did show us a couple of Coco de Mers that had been planted (they aren’t native to La Digue).  We went right past Veuve, which had a big sign saying it opened at 09:00, and we just shrugged our shoulders at each other.

We met Robert again at 10:00, and Samuel went with some day trippers that Robert had picked up at the jetty.  At least from the meeting spot we went straight to Veuve.  There we met Elsie, who worked there and showed us around the reserve.  The reserve is famous for Paradise Flycatchers, which are very endangered because of the development on La Digue.  They’ve been translocated to a couple other islands to help, and it has helped a bit.  We walked around and Elsie explained a lot about the flora and fauna.  She explained Barringtonia leaves can be used to stun and catch fish; we had no idea.  Elsie was surprised to hear that we have one in our yard.  We saw lots of giant palm spiders, that must have been what we saw last night.  Thankfully they are not poisonous, just scary as hell.

We saw some Flycatcher nests, some with young chicks, some with moms.  The nests are made out of spider webs and Ironwood needles.  Near the end of the walk we saw a male Flycatcher as well.  It was a nice walk, it was shady everywhere, but there were lots of mosquitoes.  As it turns out, this isn’t accidental, as that’s what the Flycatchers eat.  In addition to the Flycatchers and other birds, there were flying foxes making a ton of noise, way up in the Ironwood trees.  We wrapped up a little after 11:00, and then went back to the hotel, stopping to get some Coke and water at the store.

Justin’s back was really bugging him after all the bike riding yesterday and today.  He just laid down, going in and out of sleep.  Next thing he knew it was 17:00.  [In hindsight, this might have been more than just a wrecked back.]  Crystal had read, played games on her phone, and gone to the store to get some snacks and also some canned Sapphire and Tonic that she enjoyed during his rest time.  It wasn’t the greatest birthday for Justin, but whatever.  On the bright side, his toe/foot was feeling a bit better than the day before.  He ate some of the Pringles rip-offs that Crystal had purchased, and drank a bunch of water.  Whilst we were chilling in the room, the hotel sprayed some smoke/fog for killing insects just outside, and some of the gas emanated into the room.  It was really nasty, but we wondered if we could get them to come out in Pahoa and spray our garden.

The hotel called to let us know that check-out tomorrow would be at 10:00, but that we could kill time on the grounds before our noon ferry to Praslin.  We never did get to Grand Anse or Petite Anse today, but we decided maybe we could go tomorrow morning if we were feeling up to it.  Crystal went to dinner whilst Justin continued laying flat on his back (he commented that he didn't feel a day over 63).  When Crystal arrived at the restaurant, the employees looked surprised and confused.  After a small commotion, they sat her at a table with a bouquet of flowers in a vase.  The other people in the restaurant must have wondered what was up, if maybe she was celebrating a divorce.  Her dinner was fine, as she had some lasagna.  When she asked for the bill, one of the servers stopped her to give her a to-go plate - it was a two-person-sized chocolate cake.  She brought it back to the room, gave it to Justin, who had subsided on pringle rip-offs and water all afternoon and evening.  We ate the cake, then both of us read for a bit, then we went to bed after a while.