Socotra

Yemen

: Waiting in line at Sanaa International Airport, getting ready to check in for my flight to Socotra island, I noticed the little girl in the picture playing with something in that box.

: Carry-on kids? Inside that Pall Mall box happened to be a baby.

: Naturally, the child’s mother was a tattoo broad…

: As shown by the man puffing in the bottom half of the picture, the “NO SMOKING” signs are just a suggestion at SAH.

: Guards at Socotra Airport

: Socotra veggies

: It appears that when boats get washed up on Socotra’s shore, they’re just left there to rot.

: Rest in pieces, Al Safir

: Socotra resident

: Sunset

: Some peeps campin’ on the beach – looks like a professional car ad, doesn’t it?

: Sometimes being on Socotra made me feel like I was on another planet

: Local tree by night

: My non-English speaking driver cautiously eyeing a pack of goats while sipping his morning “chai,” or tea, at breakfast.

: Socotra landscapes are legen… – wait for it, wait for it – …dary. Legendary.

: Bird native to Socotra

: Local man taking a morning rest

: Flag of Socotra painted on a shoreline boulder

: The road leading to Diksam Plateau, home of the otherworldly “Dragon’s Blood” and “Cucumber” trees.

: “MOCK…Yeah!…ING…Yeah!…BIRD…Yeah!” On the way to Diksam, we picked up some hitchhikers. When I went to take this photo, the woman on the left ducked down in panic out of the shot. Women in Yemen really didn’t like to be photographed.

: Hitchhiker boy

: Up ahead on the right are a couple of the first Dragon’s Blood trees I saw on the island

: One of the ubiquitous island goats posing for me in front of a pond

: Now we’re fully immersed in Dragon’s Blood territory

: Bunch of goats seeking shelter in the shade of a DB tree

: Sweet

: This is what a Dragon’s Blood tree looks like when dead

: My driver, Mohammed

: Think I could walk a tightrope across that valley?

: The underside of a Dragon’s Blood tree

: View of the valley from a shady spot – out of the unforgiving rays of the Indian Ocean sun

: Mohammed, the driver, chillin’ out

: SUCK IT! Dragon’s Blood tree!!!

: Mohammed doin’ a SUCK IT!!!

: The oh-so-bizarre cucumber trees

: Trifecta

: The hike through this valley led to a natural swimming pool

: A cucumber tree in front of the aforementioned natural swimming pool

: Mohammed stayin’ cool

: Green river

: View of above from where I decided to lay down after lunch

: Another one of those local birds

: Kids selling spices

: Carpenter dudes

: Kids playin’ soccer

: One of my favorite parts about Yemen were the over-packed truckbeds containing 10+ Yemenis as they sped down mountainous highways at dangerously high speeds.

: Shell of a station wagon ditched on the side of the road

: Mosque

: Front door of someone’s house featuring a Dragon’s Blood Tree and an Islamic crescent moon

: Socotra Bro #1

: Socotra Bro #2

: Mountains as seen during my pre-dinner hike

: Very few Socotra natives spoke English but despite the language barrier, these guys made me laugh – especially the goofball on the right.

: Socotra girls, pre-hijab age

: Couple dudes hangin’ outside a shop who greeted me warmly and gave me a free chocolate bar

: Dude I met towards the end of my hike who offered to drive me back to my hotel.

: Getting into a car with stranger Arabs in a country known for kidnapping wasn’t the best idea, but this dude took me exactly where I needed to be.

: Third and final day on Socotra. The road that leads to Qalansiyah, an area of the island famous for its pristine beaches

: Qalansiyah to my right

: Qalansiyah to my left

: Seafaring bro

: Fisherman in training

: Boatsmen

: The captain of my boat chatting it up on a cell phone…

: …and his co-captain.

: Heading on our way to a secluded beach, a ride that’d take about an hour each way

: Am I crazy or does this look like the arm and hand of some giant, mythical rock creature giving the thumbs up?

: A flock of seagulls

: This scenery made me rock hard

: Clearest water I’ve ever seen

: Docking the boat on a beach to ourselves…time to get gay?

: Where the swimsuit models at?

: I got crabs…

: “Hey, SUCK IT! all you people on helicopters and airplanes!!”

: A school of dolphins…unfortunately didn’t see Dan Marino – laces out, Dan!

: Back to the village from where we’d set sail

: Kids playin’ on a boat

: Beach babes

: Boat bros

: After I ate lunch, this goat wandered up and started eating one Kleenex after another from this box.

: Then, a second one came up and they started fighting over the delicious Kleenex.

: MMMMM!!! Kleenex is so good!

: So, yeah, next thing ya know, ten goats have completely surrounded me and are all feasting down on this gourmet box of Kleenex. It was totally bizarre.

: Socotra really was a beautiful island. This and the next two pictures were all taken from the same vantage point. This is a view to my right.

: View inland

: View to my left

: Somebody’s home?

: Two kids?

: Fuzzy haired kids playing on the side of the road

: One last SUCK IT! from Mohammed

: To me, this tree looked like three witches leaning back and laughing – perhaps I’d been chewing too much qaat for my own good…