Mauritius

Yesterday, 2/27, we ate early and waited until customs cleared the ship and we could get clearance from immigration.  Marshall and Ellen asked if we wanted to go with them in small bus with driver and we said sure.  Then the computer that checks passengers in and out broke down and there was a mob of students waiting at the gangplank to get off.


 Finally got off at 9:30 and along with Ellen and Marshall, Bob and Melody, Marie, the Media Officer, Sonny (Dean of Students), her husband Bill and 2-year-old Alex, we set off to visit the city.  Maruitius has been conquered by the Dutch,then the French and latest by the English, so all of the signs were in French or English.  There is a French influence in the architecture  - grillwork, little balconies, etc.  All of these countries and islands were unfortunate enough to be located on  Europe's trade route  to India, so were conquered and civilized by European countries along the way.  The last picture below is of a shrine being carried to the lake, celebrating a 3-day Hindu festival.  Hindus were either  walking  to and from the lake on every main road.


Pictured below: Front row, Marshall and Marie.  Second row, Sonny, Ellen, Bob, Melody, Rick, me, Bill and Alex.  What a crew!

We went first to see Fort Adelaide, on the highest point in Port Louis, the capitol, where we were docked, and the view was beautiful.  We ran into the busload of SAS tourists on the city tour which we missed out on!  There are only 2 million people on the entire island.  We left the city because we all wanted to go to the beaches, which are supposed to be more beautiful than Hawaii.
 First, Aziz, the driver insisted that we had to see their volcano, which was up some narrow, winding roads, of course.  When we arrived it was a caldera, which is a volcano which has imploded inward, so there was nothing there but a wide hole covered in grass and weeds.  But the view from the mountain was incredible.  Mountains, sea, flowers and green, green everywhere - a welcome sight.

We headed down the mountain, into the countryside covered in sugar cane fields, some irrigated, some not.  We had several showers along the way which made me wonder, why irrigate?  It was very hot and humid so the air-conditioned bus was a relief whenever we got in and out of the bus.  In the small towns, everyone seemed to have their own vegetable gardens.  Hibiscus, bougainvilla, banana trees, mango trees, walls of oleander  and strange looking mountains, previously volcanos.  One mountain was Sleeping lady and the one in front of it - the driver wouldn't tell us the name until we came to a better place to view it.  It was called King Kong and looked just like the head of King Kong when we finally did see it. 

We literally drove right up to the beach - 20 feet from the water.  The beach itself was narrow but the water was pale aquamarine and very warm.  Even Alex enjoyed swimming in the ocean, even the salt water, but he did have goggles on.  Families of blacks, creoles,whites and Indians,  music of drums, ice cream truck with music driving through the park, warm rain showers came and went.  Bob was anxious to eat and there were no restaurants, only hotel/resorts.  So after everyone dried off and shook off the sand, we drove to Charlemas, a small village up the mountain, to Ruben's restaurant.  (On the way, however, we had to change dollar bills into rupees and we found an ATM that did just that!)   We all immediately had a beer, then I had crab soup, with a crab in it !, and seafood fritters.  Rick had seafood salad and my crab and fritters.  Alex slept on his Dad's chest the entire meal, but woke in time for dessert - candy.


The population of Mauritius is made of of Indians, who came here originally as slaves, Creoles who are black and Indian mix, blacks from Africa (Mauritius is considered part of Africa as it broke off of the continent of Africa eons ago), Asians and the white man - English, French, Dutch, etc.  60% of the population is Hindu, 15% Moslem, 15% Christian, and there is large Chinese section of Port Louis also.

The drive back to Port Louis was quiet, several fell asleep.  Bob wanted more photos of the city so we left him off while Marshall figured out how much each owed.  We were paying in rupees and American dollars so it was a real feat for him to convert dollars to rupees and add those to however many rupees we had.  We didn't want to have any rupees left.  It cost us $20 for the car and driver for the day!

We had dinner on the ship and ran, literally, into one of our onboard daughters who was drunker than a skunk.  She threw her arms around me, yelled Mom, and promptly dropped her dinner all over the deck. 

Everyone was watching and I told her she was drunk and all she did was laugh.  A bunch of students had rented a catamaran for the day and were sunburned and drunk.  One student collapsed on the dock, brought on the ship  by wheelchair and then transported to the hospital.  Another girl was 2-1/2 hours late for the ship, although students are warned the ship will not wait for them.  The drinking has really gotten out of hand.  Students are allowed to drink  on board which I think is too much  but the drinking on shore is outrageous.  Not all of the students drink and are serious students, but some are complete partyers. (Is that a word?)