Mauritius -- March 11, 2018 -- Pack your bags! I’ve found paradise

Mauritius -- March 11

Pack your bags!  I’ve found paradise.  Well, probably not, if I looked a little closer, but it sure seemed like it during our one day in this small African country, an island near the eastern coast of the continent.  

Since it was a fueling stop, we were only scheduled for a one-day stop.  I suspect 900 of us descending on the island for more than one day would have been too overwhelming anyway.

Everyone had to be on either a field class or a field program in order to leave the ship. Field classes are trips that faculty run for their classes and are organized around a theme of the class. Each class has 1 in one of the ports on the trip. Only students in the class are allowed to attend and this trip is included in their overall fees.  Field programs are trips that SAS organizes and participants pay to join.  There were a total of 23 trips of about 30 people each flowing through the island country.

Tomorrow is the 50^th Anniversary of Independence so they are preparing for a big celebration.  The Prime Minister of India will be attending, so there are Indian flags everywhere.  Buildings in the capital town of Port Louis are decorated with colors of the Mauritian flag (red, yellow blue, and green).  Mauritius is 62x45 kilometers surrounded by coral reef.  It was settled by the Dutch, then became a French colony of a century (which left a linguistic and cultural impact, and then was taken over by the English until independence 50 years ago (which left them driving on the left).  Our guide was proud of the religious diversity of the island, pointing out that he is Christian, another Guide was Hindu and the driver was Muslim.  He says that all religions get along well.  The official language is English, but French is spoken as well as a local Creole. 

I was the trip liaison (chaperone) for South East Island Exploration which was a lovely way to get a feel for the country. We took a bus to the southeast side, boarded motorboats and cruised along the coast. It turned out that “sailing” was actually motor boating, which was just fine.  We skirted the coastline where there are a bunch of tiny islands just off the shore (e.g., Ill aux Flammants, Ile aux Phares, Ile de la Pass). 

We stopped at one island with an ancient Dutch lighthouse, toured by another treeless beach island that was about 50 feet across and saw a (dead) coral reef island that had been used as a prison.

The water is a beautiful, clear turquoise.  On land, volcanic mountain jut out of the land in jagged forms that, surprisingly, are covered with green flora.  Mostly the sun was out with a great breeze blowing.  Dark clouds would come up suddenly and we could see rain in the distance.  Other times, there were brief sprinkles of rain that felt refreshing.  A guide told me that he is noticing the impact of climate change significantly this year.  From January until now there have been thunderstorms like he has never seen.  Thunder shook the village and woke everyone the other night.  He’s bought earphones for his son to help block out the sound. 

We saw lots of catamarans sailing along or docked together as they relaxed and barbecued their lunches.  Parasailers dotted the skyline from time to time.  Fishermen were knee deep in places doing fly fishing.  On the shoreline occasionally you could see some huts that looked like they were set up for tourist visits – very enticing.

Along the way we went into a small inlet to see a beautiful waterfall (Grande Riviere Sd Est Waterfall) and saw some monkeys by the shoreline, then stopped at a reef to do some snorkeling [Troumoutoo].  There was some beautiful coral and fishes. 

Our last stop before lunch was at an island that is popular for swimming—another chance to experience the Indian Ocean.  Wow!  Lunch was at a barbeque place on the water, where we had grilled chicken and fish as we just hung out and absorbed the timeless surroundings. 

It was a marvelous and relaxing day (aside from a few students who felt it necessary to try to buy some rum – well, it is one of the products Mauritius is known for, I guess.)