Once fabled as the forgotten Eden and land of the forbidden fruit, this tropical garden paradise lures thousands of visitors each year. These 115 islands in the sun, jade jewels in the sparkling turquoise of the Indian Ocean, just four degrees south of the Equator, were separated from the mainland millions of years ago, remote and unspoiled, developing unique flora and fauna. Little has changed. First settled in the seventeenth century, the islands remain much the same as they were thousands of years ago, existing in harmony the past 200 years with a people as sunny and carefree as their tropical home.