In Mayotte, everything brings back to the big Blue! Placed on the Indian Ocean off the African coast, the archipelago is surrounded by one of the largest closed lagoons in the world! A natural aquarium with incredibly rich biodiversity, idyllic for underwater lovers. Between diving among turtles and watching humpback whales, on holiday in Mayotte, we decline the lagoon in all ways, including during trips by canoe in the mangrove to discover a culture mixed with ylang scent -ylang ...
The must-sees of your holidays in Mayotte
On vacation in Mayotte, you have to dive! The vast lagoon (1,400 km2) closed by a double belt of coral is too tempting ... On the east coast, it forms a breathtaking landscape with the famous S-shaped pass called because of its sinuous shape: a long ribbon of water indigo blue meanders in a shades of turquoise!
Over 4 kilometers, this marine sanctuary is home to fifteen dive sites, with depths of up to 70 meters, and an incredibly diverse fauna: groupers, humpback parrots, turtles ... In the north, one can also explore the Choazil islands with a mask and tuba. A few kilometers from the coast, these are real Robinson Islands with their white sandbanks framed by large black rocks covered with vegetation.
And an underwater paradise where to contemplate all kinds of multicolored fish.
At Saziley Point in the south, you can swim with dolphins and terns! More than a dozen species of dolphins coexist in the waters of the archipelago of Mayotte. As for the terns, they have colonized an island with sand as white as their plumage. And we take the opportunity to venture on the trails of the marine and terrestrial park of Saziley: past the village of Mtsamoudou, baobabs populated maki, make up a real landscape of African savannah.
Between land and sea, we discover the mangrove in canoe. The opportunity to penetrate into the heart of a fascinating world: between two walls of dark green foliage, we sail in the middle of root forests where small amphibious fish, violin crabs and white crabeater breed, a species of threatened bird. In Bandrélé, as a bonus, we can learn the art of growing salt with "shingo mamas". And if we can observe the sea turtles - green or free-turtles or hawksbill turtles - in many sites, to watch the laying, we meet on the beach of Moya on the island of little Terre between March and June: almost every night, they come to deposit their eggs ...
By the way, do not miss visiting Dzaoudzi, the "Gibraltar of the Indian Ocean". If economic and administrative activity has moved to Mamadzou, opposite on the island of Great Earth, Dzaoudzi retains some colonial architecture buildings: former Governor's Palace, the "Eiffel Palace" in metal covered with wood, hotel the Rock, former post office or colonnade villas buried in beautiful gardens.
And if we climbed Mount Choungui? At a height of 594 meters, this steep basalt cone offers a dazzling panorama of the island and its astonishing landscapes between red padzas desert, coral reef fringed with foam, and white sandy beaches festooned with blue ...
Cuisine of Mayotte
Are we on the Swahili coast in Madagascar or India? The cuisine in Mayotte is as mixed as the influences. Coconut is widely used, as in the mataba (cassava leaves cooked in coconut milk), or matsida, the rice of the holidays. You can also taste chicken pilao from the Persian Gulf, kangue, boiled beef stew, kamoukou, a soup mixing fish, tomatoes, lemons and chilli or the mabawas, grilled chicken wings. The whole thing is often seasoned with poutou, a mixture of peppers that each cook prepares in his own way. And can be enjoyed with a good baobab juice, with a tangy taste ...
Shopping authentique à Mayotte
Après s’être enivré des parfums capiteux des plantations de l’archipel, on craque pour les huiles essentielles d’ylang-ylang. Et on remplit son panier d’épices, en particulier la vanille Bourbon, également cultivée à Mayotte et de sel Bandrélé, d’une blancheur unique. Les fruits de baobabs sculptés sont aussi de jolis cadeaux à rapporter tout comme les salouvas colorés, la tenue traditionnelle des Mahoraises.