Mauritius!

Day 1:

We arrived in Mauritius at 7:30 a.m. on March 1st. I was actually surprised by how beautiful the island looked from afar - the lush mountainous landscape surrounds the little bay city of Port Louis. I had developed few expectations before arriving in Mauritius, so there were many things that surprised me.

For those of you who have never heard of Mauritius and need a little background info, here is the skinny: It is a teeny island among the Mascerene Islands off the eastern coast of Madagascar. You may have heard of the oversized, extinct Dodo bird…that was in Mauritius. The Dodo bird is everywhere (not the actual bird of course) in stuffed animals, on wicker baskets, carving, paintings, you name it! The languages spoken on the island are mainly French, Creole, and English…there was never really an issue with communication. The majority of the population is Hindu (one of the things I was surprised about), so there is a huge Indian influence. There was actually a festival going on while we were there called Mahat Shivatree. Thousands of Hindus wearing white march days upon days to a lake to retrieve holy water in worship Lord Shiva. The whole ceremony is suppose to mimic what takes place at the Ganges River in India (which I am actually going to in less than a week!) The pilgrims carried these elaborate structures called Kanwars, usually colored white and red – they marched on the roads which made for tons and tons of traffic, but I didn’t mind because it was such a neat thing to see.

My friends and I, along with practically half of Semester at Sea, got a villa in Flic en Flac (a little beach town about a half an hour outside of Port Louis). We spent the first day walking around the waterfront of Port Louis (not too exciting), and then took a cab to our villa. The place we stayed at still remains nameless in my mind, but it was run by a family – the mom’s name was Aunt Sandy, so that is what we called it – Aunt Sandy’s! They served us breakfast and dinner with complimentary drinks everyday at their home. They had a nine year old daughter named Atina, a twenty-two year old son named Kingsley, and a just-born puppy named Shakira. We ended up hanging out with Kingsley a lot – he was a really cool guy. So…that evening we had dinner at the house and spent the remainder of the night at our villa just hanging out.

Day 2:

At 5:45 we all had to wake up! All of my friends had a Catamaran trip with SAS, and I had a trip to the Ile des deux Cocos with SAS…meaning we all had to make it back to the ship by the time our busses left.

My trip was spectacular! We took a bus ride to the opposite side of the island where we took a tiny little boat ride to the gorgeous, miniature island, Ile des deux Cocos. We were greeted with warm, wet towels and flutes of Champaign. I spent the first part of the day lying in the sun, enjoying my surroundings, sipping yummy, fruity drinks. Right before lunch we went snorkeling! I had been snorkeling once before when we went on a cruise in the 6th grade, and I have to say this was MUCH better! The area is a marine park, so the coral and the fish have been under conservation. At some points I was literally engulfed by fishies. One of the guides gave me some bread to feed the fish, and I had little fish mouths nibbling at my fingers! It was insane! When we came back to the island we had an enormous, delicious barbeque waiting for us. After lunch we had about another hour to enjoy the peaceful sun, then headed back to the ship. It was a blissful day.

That evening I wasn’t feeling to well, so I went to dinner at the house and went to bed early so that I could thoroughly enjoy the next day, which I did.

Day 3:

The Day of the Beach…again! We woke up at about 8 a.m. surprisingly since none of us had any previous engagements. We went to breakfast at the house, to the grocery store, to lunch, then went straight to the beach. We spent the entire day, until sunset, in one spot on the beach. It was ridiculous, simple, yet wonderful. We made a few local friends in the process.

That night we went to dinner at the house and later went to a bard down the street. There’s not much else to say on that subject.

Day 4:

Yet again I had another early morning, waking up at 6:40. I had to get back to the ship for an FDP for my Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion class. Because of all the early morning worker traffic and the Shiva marchers, it took an hour and a half non-air-conditioned cab ride to get back to the ship. It is all a part of the experience, right?

My FDP was another huge disappointment. We were suppose to visit places of traditional medicine…which I suppose we kind of did, but it was nothing to “ooooh and aaaahhh” over. We visited two hospitals were we received two insanely boring and uninteresting lectures and zero tours! The two highlights of the day were as follows:

1. As we were leaving for the FDP, we hit a man with our bus!!!! He hit his head on the rearview mirror of the bus – he was okay. Our bus driver told us he was a druggie and did it on purpose in order to get more drugs…I’m not sure I believe that story.

2. We had a traditional Hindu wedding lunch with seven different kinds of curry served on banana leaves. We ate with our hands! It was a real treat.

And that is Mauritius in a nutshell! I had a really fun time, but I am very glad to be back on the ship heading toward INDIA!