Mauritius

In the past week, I have arrived and departed from Mauritius.

 

Honestly, I wasn't too excited about it, and from I can tell from my blog poll, nobody else was either. Most or all of us on the ship hadn't even heard of Mauritius previously. That is because we are mostly Americans and most Americans don't choose Mauritius for their beach vacation. One person who had heard of Mauritius was Mark Twain - he said, "You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius."

 

Mauritius was indeed heavenly. The beaches were incredibly beautiful. While there, I took advantage of the wonderful outdoor environment that Mauritius offered. The first day, I went to the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, there weren't nearly as many flowers as I would have expected, it was more a variety of palm trees. I wouldn't go back, but it was nice to check it out. We also went to Grand Baie beach for some fufu drinks (as Doctor Brown calls them) and some sun. That night, I went to a wonderful resort for a Mauritian food lecture, demo, and buffet. If you know me, you know that I loved this event.

 

The next day, I went on a conservation on the islands trip. Mauritius is well known for its endemic species. In other words, 45% of the plants, 73% of the birds, and 89% of the reptiles are unique to the island. As a result, on Sunday, we went to one of the islands off of Mauritius and saw some of the unique birds as well as giant tortoises. The afternoon was spent at relaxing at the beach.

 

The next day was quite an adventure. We went hiking to Tamarind Falls. Without a guide, we would have had no idea where to go. We were climbing across rocks, shimmying down trees, and using trees along the path to get back up the hill. We saw 4 waterfalls and cliff jumped from one of them from a height of at least 30 feet high. It was fabulous and such a wonderful experience.

 

The last day in Mauritius was spent doing some more exploring. I went to the Central Market which had handicrafts, produce (which I always love), and then all types of meat and fish butchered right in front of your eyes. I will spare you the pictures, but let me just tell you, any part of the body was sold. That afternoon, we took a two-hour public bus ride with all the locals to a wonderful beach, called Troux au Biches. We then took the bus back to Port Louis and had dinner close to the ship. After seeing another cruise ship in port, I definitely appreciate the maintenance they do to keep our ship in good shape.

 

All the time we were in Mauritius, there was a religious pilgrimage traveling to the southern part of the island. It was awesome to see these people walking down the road, dressed up and carrying a sort of altar. This pilgrimage a lso did make travel a little more difficult around the relatively small island (20 by 40 miles).

 

Overall, it was another great port, and I am glad that I spent it productively as compared to many other SAS students who partied their "SAS Spring Break" away.