Rocks on Anse Source d'Argent beach, La Digue Island, Seychelles

© Roland Gerth/eStock Phot

An island hopper's paradise

Welcome to sunny and sultry Seychelles, a tropical island nation just south of the equator in the Indian Ocean, roughly 900 miles off the eastern coast of Africa. The gorgeous beach you see here is Anse Source d'Argent on the island of La Digue, one of 115 islands that make up this tropical republic. Anse Source d'Argent has long been a favorite of photographers, who are drawn to its contoured, dark granite boulders, pristine white sand, and turquoise-colored water. Beachcombers and sun worshippers also flock to the Seychelles because of their consistently great weather—daily high temperatures almost always stay within a comfortable range of between 75 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.

Most any day is a day worth celebrating here, but today is cause for double celebration: June 29 is Independence Day in Seychelles, commemorating the nation's 1976 independence from centuries of colonial rule under the French and British. It also happens to be the UN's International Day of the Tropics, a day of special recognition for Seychelles and other locales within the zone between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. That accounts for about 36% of Earth's land mass and close to 40% of its population. The intent of International Day of the Tropics is twofold: as a celebration of the extraordinary diversity of this zone while also highlighting the challenges facing the region, like poverty, climate change, deforestation, urbanization, and demographic shifts.