The largely unknown island of Socotra is located northeast of Somalia, or about 100 miles south of Yemen with the Indian Ocean on its eastern and southern shores and the Arabian Sea located to the north. Like the famous Galapagos islands, Socotra is also one of the most unique islands in the world because of its exotic plants and animals that live no where else in the world. Even the native language of Socotri, that has no written form is unique to this island. I nicknamed this place the Galapagos of the middle east, and was deeply offended when I later found out that someone had already referred to this place as the galapagos of the Indian Ocean.

I flew from the mainland of Yemen to the Socotra's tiny airport. Once I had grabbed my bags, I found my driver who was waiting for me and he greeted me be saying, "Hello, and welcome to the island". Above were my very first views of Socotra as we headed to the main town of Hadiboh, which you can barely see above the large rock on the upper left.

Unfortunately I didn't feel like there was really much worthwhile in the main towns of Socotra. To be honest, these were some of the trashiest places I've ever visited on earth and its a shame that better care isn't taken of Socotra. The locals don't seem to understand the difference between throwing trash away in a waste barrel or the middle of the island. Once during this trip when my driver stopped in front of some beautiful scenery, a man we had given a ride thought he'd repay us the favor by taking out all our trash out of the car and throwing it right onto the ground!

After I got over finding trash wherever people were close, my next surprise was finding tanks positioned all over Socotra. I've no idea why they were here and if they were ever used. My understanding is that they are Soviet T-34 tanks, but I couldn't find any history about recent conflicts that took place on the island. It seems like instead of using these as actual battle tanks they simply dug them along the coast and used them as stationary turrents. Above are two tanks I passed by in different parts of the island. One time I tried to approach one of the tanks but a local man prevented me from doing so as if I might get in trouble if seen by authorities.

Socotra is much more liberal than mainland Yemen. As a matter of fact, Socotra was not considered part of Yemen until 1967, and though Arabic is the official language Socotra has its own native language that is only spoken here on the island. Above are some kids I saw playing on the beach, on the right is a Socotra girl wearing the traditional native clothing that I saw throughout the island.

Socotra is most famous for its giant dragon trees. These trees seen above and in the photos below don't grow anywhere else in the world except for this island. They seemed to like the higher parts of the island, but I did see an occasional one here and there closer to the coast. Normally I only saw a few dragon trees together, then on my last day on the island I found an oasis of them in the upper right. They get their names from their dark red sap that looks like blood and is often sold as medicine in the local markets and by kids on the street.

Some more unique plants of Socotra are the desert roses on the left and right, and the giant cucumber tree center. The cucumber tree was probably about 20 feet in height, while the desert roses are normally pretty small, but they can top 10 feet. The only thing I know about the desert roses, are that they blossum pink flowers when they get enough rain like on the right, but I hear they are also poisonous. I'm not sure if this is the leaves themselves or something inside the wood. The trunk of these is kinda soft, so maybe people once thought they could squeeze water out like a cactus and ended up getting poisoned.

I believe the large tree on the left is another Cucumber Tree that I spotted hanging over a large cliff. On the right is another example of the strange landscape of Socotra, giant inland coral decorated with desert roses.

The depression on the upper left was only a few miles inland. I'm not sure if the water is fresh, salt or contaminated with some type of natural acid or chemical. On the right is one last picture of the a dragon tree, a fallen giant.. Come to think of it, I didn't see many dead dragon trees so it's possible that the locals use them somehow after they die.

On such a small island, I didn't expect to find an Oasis like the one above. There was a freshwater street running through which fed a few small pools for swimming or for the locals, drinking as well. I followed the stream that left the pool above as far as I could go, but eventually it cut into some canyon that I'd need some rock climbing gear in order to continue.

You can't go long in Socotra without seeing an Egyptian vulture like the one on the left. These guys are everywhere, especially in the towns. The red dragon flys, I found plenty of these guys but only in the oasis above.

The heron on the left was one of many birds I saw in Socotra. As far as insects go, this island is home to some of the ugliest things I've seen in my life. I'm not sure if the spider on the right is endemic or not, but all 5 scorpion species here are, as well as some reptiles which even include a chameleon. Anyway, there is a small museum on the island that had some insects on display, and some like the thing on the left were the most disgusting bugs ever. The thing on the left was seriously the size of my hand including fingers, imagine waking up and finding that thing in your bed! The only native mammals on Socotra are a single species of bat that lives here. Goats were brought in by people, and they seem to own most of the island now and can be found just about anywhere. As far as plants go, 307 out of the 825 plant species in Socotra are found no where else in the world, and about the same ratio goes for wildlife, over 35% of wildlife here is endemic. Compare that to the galapagos island, which is up in the 40s you can see how unique Socotra is.

After I explored the mainland of the island, I spent a full day at the beach. The waters here are definitely some of the best I've seen on earth, and it's a shame there is almost no tourist infrastructure here. I understand Yemen itself is not seen as a tourist destination, but Socotra is an island isolated from the mainland's problems and anyone can visit this place without any worries or fear of attacks.

The beaches here are so amazing that even the locals can't resist and jump in. You will see a few people here swimming, but for the most part you'll have the beach to yourself, and if you want to be completely out of sight from others there are plenty of remote beaches to choose from.

Before I entered the water, I took a picture of these two guys along the beach. The bird on the right seemed to be pretty common throughout Socotra, and I imagine the same with the crab along the beaches in Yemen. The giant crab on the left made some deep tunnels underground, and if you walked over and stepped on top of one your foot would drop about 8 inches or so into the sand.

The blue spiky ball on the upper left is some strange type of coral that I've never seen before. It was easily my favorite, but other coral is always interesting with a range of colors, and everyone loves starfish, like the two below.

Above are some fish closer to the surface so I got some better coloring. I need to look up all these species of fish some day, I usually see the same core species around the world in tropical waters so I should learn all their names. On the right are some fish hiding in coral.

A tiny but curious puffer fish on the left, and the biggest fish I came across on this dive seen on the right. I'm not sure what the species is, but it was at least half my size. The biggest fish I've ever seen though were in Australia during a dive in the great barrier reef.

Above is another species of puffer fish that I saw while diving, and a large school of some type of small blue fish on the right.

Two photos of rock fish above, I'm pretty sure the species on the right that is sitting in front of his house is the same as the one I saw in Somalia.

A highlight of a dive is always coming across a lion fish, at least for me since they seem like such exotic creatures. The darkness ruined the color from these photos as well, but this guy on the upper left wasn't scared of me at all and I was able to get pretty close. I hear these things are poisonous so I made sure to keep a safe distance. On the right, I saw some huge antennas coming out of a hole which where so long I thought it must be something growing off of coral. After I got a good enough look I realized this thing was a gigantic lobster. It must have been several feet in length, with its antennas being well over a foot each. I've never seen or heard of such a gigantic lobster before.

Very sad at the coloring of these photos! I took these only about 40 feet under water but the sky had also become overcast, not a good combination while diving. I just might have to invest in a strobe for my diving camera to avoid any disappointment in the future. Anyway, above is a sea turtle on the left and a sting ray on the right. Normally dive masters are extremely conservative when it comes to protecting wildlife, but not the dive master in Yemen! I've heard over and over never to touch a sea turtle because they can drown from shock, but when my dive master saw it he swam towards it with his arms stretched forward trying to grab it as if his life depended on it. The sea turtle was able to escape my dive master, but he was able to grab the string ray by the tail and try to yank it from its hiding spot. Fortunately I already had taken the crappy photo above, because as soon as he grabbed it there was an explosion of dirt followed by a brief struggle reducing visibility to zero.