Heaven

Before I begin my post on Mauritius, it might be helpful to give yall a little background on the small island, because if you were like me, I had never even heard of Mauritius before going on Semester at Sea. Mauritius is an island off the coast of Madagascar (which is near the southern part of Africa), with a population of 1.2 million and an area of only 787 square miles. It is melting pot of cultures, with descendants from Africa, India, France, and China. They are an extremely tolerant island in terms of religion, where all people celebrate holidays from Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. Perhaps the most interesting little known fact about Mauritius is that is was the only known habitat of the dodo bird. The dodo bird was about 3 feet tall and flight less. The meat actually wasn’t too tasty, so the main reasons that it went extinct was because of the introduction of foreign animals, like pigs, as well as the sport of “clubbing the dodo”. Okay now that we have completed the history lesson (there will be a quiz at the end), I will now move on to my adventures!

We arrived on the small island early Tuesday morning and to the entire ship’s dismay, the skies were dark and cloudy and rain was pelting the decks. Luckily after a few hours the clouds parted and the sun came shining through. Jason and I had about an hour to kill before our taxi driver was supposed to pick us up so we spent our time participating in illicit activities. Although it was 10am (it was like 5:00pm in the states so it doesn’t count), we stopped off at the closest bar to try Mauritius’ famous locally brewed beer, Pheonix, which is considered one of the fifth best beers in the world. I don’t know if I would go that far, but it was a nice light and refreshing brew. To continue our trend, our next stop was, of course, a casino. We exchanged a whopping $6 for coins, and made our way to the slots. I had a good time pulling the levers, but after about twenty minutes when all my money was gone and throughout the time I had maybe won the equivalent of thirty cents, I decided it was not my calling.

Harbor:




Our taxi driver, Silas, picked us up right outside the casino, and we made our way to Chante au Vent. The small hotel was located right on the water, and our room opened up onto a spacious porch overlooking the beach. It had no added amenities, including no air conditioning or hot water, but it was quaint (and it was only $80 with a waterside breakfast included, can’t find that kind of deal many places).



View from our room:


After a satisfying lunch, we walked about two minutes down the road from our hotel to reach a small public harbor where we had arranged to go snorkeling. We took a glass bottom boat out onto the blue water, and our guides pointed out different coral and fishes to us. After a nice boat ride, we suited up in our snorkeling gear and hit the water. Mauritius has the largest intact coral reef in the world, which circles completely around the island. The coral was filled with tropical fish and other sea-dwelling creatures. Our boat driver would throw out bread and swarms of bright yellow, blue, orange, and every other color fish would surround us. It was a great experience.



For the rest of the day we spent our time on the beach, drinking the locally made rum and making friends with the hotel dog, who we named Sam. Sam would later become inseparable from us and protect us when strangers would walk near us on the beach by barking loudly. This eventually became a little annoying. That night we went back to the same restaurant down the road, and had a long leisurely meal. We had learned earlier that the deep sea fishing trip we had scheduled for the next day had been canceled due to rough seas, so quite conveniently, our taxi driver happened upon to ask if we wanted to tour with him. We committed to a boat tour around the island the next day, and spent the remainder of the night getting to know him better. He told us about his life on the island, his childhood, and what the culture is like. We asked if he got a lot of American tourists, and he said not many, but people from all countries, from Japan to Italy, come to visit. He told us, “I stay in one place, and travel the world”. I really like his philosophy.



I couldn't sleep the next morning, so I got up and watched the sunrise and walked the beach looking for seashells :)


After a breakfast of fresh fruits, breads, and jellies, we met up again with Silas to begin our day. We made our way to a harbor, where we boarded a small speedboat. We traversed around a gorgeous lush and green island, with huge mountains and beautiful palm trees. The ocean was the most turquoise-colored water I have ever seen. I’ve been to a lot of amazing tropical islands in my life, from St. John to Jamaica, and I must say Mauritius tops them all. We took the boat into a small cove that opened into a stunning waterfall. From there, we went to a white sand beach and swam in the warm, tranquil water. For lunch, we got off at another little island and had just off the grill fish and lobster, and we finished with fresh pineapple. As we took the journey back to the harbor I tried to take in just how beautiful and incredible it all was, but two days would never be enough to really take in all the remarkable landscape of Mauritius.

Disregard the fact Jason has his eyes closed.








Mark Twain once said,

“Mauritius was made first, and then Heaven, and that Heaven was copied after Mauritius”

I couldn’t agree more.


Annecdote:
3/24/10 Maybe more people in America would stop smoking if cigarette packs looked like this: