Mauritius

After a stressful seven days of midterm exams, papers and projects, the thought of a beach and a short weekend of relaxing couldn’t have sounded more appealing. What I had underestimated, or perhaps been too swamped with schoolwork to think of, is how beautiful a little island in the Indian Ocean called Mauritius could possibly be. Before we arrived in Port Louis, Mauritius, we were introduced to a quote by Mark Twain, "You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius," and could not have seemed more fitting after the first sight of the clear water and white sand beaches.

October 15, 2009:

Upon arriving in Port Louis we disembarked with our bags, ready for a weekend in the popular beach area of Flic en Flac. We boarded a water taxi with a group of other SASers and approached the main waterfront area. The water was the clearest I have ever seen, and some of the cutest and most colorful small boats decorated with strands of lights were tethered to the railing or anchored in the water. After arriving to the other side of the waterfront we walked through a building of shops, stopped for some fresh squeezed juice (pineapple-orange-mango and kiwi), and then into Le Craft Market for a look at some Mauritian souvenirs. Sarongs, purses and hats woven out of straw, towels and Indian saris were plentiful. And, most noteworthy, it was easy to find one of everything decorated with the dodo bird. Famous for… well I’m not really sure what the dodo is famous for… but it was a Mauritian native, before the meter-tall bird was hunted to extinction.

Before heading to our villa in Flic en Flac, we camped out at the Keg & Marlin restaurant and bar while we waited for Andrew, who had decided he was going to skip his trip for some more beach time with the group. While we waited for Andrew to come back from the boat, we were encouraged by the waitress to try the local rum, which is made from the plentiful cane sugar on the island. Over our tropical drinks, Funky Fusions, Hawaiian Blue Jays, and local beer Phoenix for the boys, we were able to sell Andrew’s ticket to another SAS student! Once Andrew returned, we got in a cab that our friend Danny had pre-negotiated the price of, and drove to our villa in Flic en Flac. Although we ran into some traffic leaving Port Louis, I never tire of looking out the window when there is something to sea other than open ocean.

Upon our arrival to our villa in Flic en Flac we quickly dropped our stuff off and walked about 10 minutes along the BEAUTIFUL beach into town. We ate lunch at a restaurant called Black Steer, where we continued to enjoy the very appropriate tropical drinks. One, called the Mauritian Pearl, had a scoop of ice cream on top of a mix of rum and delicious local fruit juices. Life was tough in Mauritius. Then we ordered lunch, most of our group had burgers, but I had mozzarella marinara (long strips of cheese with light breading), garlic cheese bread and a Greek salad.  It was nice to have lettuce that wasn’t just clear iceberg, and a little variety in general. We went next door to the grocery store to do some shopping, and got a little carried away, before realizing that we had to carry all of our groceries home. The store gave us cardboard boxes, and we set out on our way to our villa to begin the Mauritian festivities.

We went back to our villa, and grabbed our beach stuff. Then we headed to the beach to play some volleyball. I had a great time diving for the ball nearly every time, to varying degrees of success. Two of our friends had to head back to the beach, as they had trips to go on the next day.

When we returned to the house, Andrew whipped up the guacamole he had promised and the group played some games. After what served as our dinner, we showered and got out of our beachy clothes.

We soon learned that Thursday is a quiet night around Flic en Flac. Our first stop was Mafiozza, an outdoor bar next to the restaurant where we had lunch. Although not all of us bought drinks, they were happy to have us there. We spent a good amount of time talking to a young schoolteacher named Wesley. He quoted The Lion King when describing life in Mauritius, “Akuna Matata,” and already we couldn’t have agreed more. We joked around with him but also learned a lot about Mauritius. He told us that to drive around the entire island takes only 6 hours! He also told us that this was not his first experience with a group of Americans, although we were his preferred of his two encounters. He had been working at a resort when George Bush came to Mauritius, with a group of Americans who drank like pigs. I learned that the name Mauritius, or L’ile Maurice, came from the name of the Dutch governor at the time.

As the group moved to nearby Kenzie Bar, we found more good conversation and good times. The girls instantly gravitated to the musician, equipped with a harmonica and guitar singing Bob Marley songs. We had a nice sing-a-long, and livened up the place a bit. Soon a young man came up to us and asked if we were American (Was it that obvious…? hahah), who was a Tulane student and knew a girl who I went to high school with. What a small world! We ran into some other SAS students, some of whom I hadn’t met yet.

At the bar, I met a Mauritian man named Andre. We had the type of conversation I like to have at least once in every port. We talked about politics, America, Mauritius, the differences between them, life on a small island, and many other things. Soon it was time to leave, and we headed back to our villa for some well-deserved rest!

October 16, 2009:

The next morning we had a pre-set goal to work towards: waking up early enough to grab one of the covered beach villas, for some shade! We headed to the beach, and were lucky enough to find the last one unoccupied. We had mimosas and alternated periods of lying in the sand and wading in the clear Indian Ocean. We spotted our friend Andrew, on his way back from scuba diving, with two friends from SAS who he had gone scuba diving with that morning. They had just gone grocery shopping for BBQ stuff for the afternoon and invited us over. They left and we gathered our stuff. On our second grocery-shopping trip we got veggie burgers and some extra barbeque supplies. Casey and I couldn’t resist buying matching dodo bird tank tops, and I bought goggles and a snorkel, although I never ended up using them in the water. We had a really nice barbeque at their villa, which was also beautiful. The veggie burgers were about half a centimeter thick, but with a stack of pineapple, zucchini, squash, I didn’t mind one bit. Cat and I decided to go snorkel, but were distracted by the rest of the group playing volleyball. I decided to join in, and on one of the first volleys, dove for a ball. I soon realized the difference in the course and coral littered sand on the new court, compared to the soft sand from the day before’s court, and was soon bleeding from five spots on my left shin and knee. Although I washed my leg off in the salt water,  I was done in the water for the day, and never ended up snorkeling. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Thomas and Bradley’s villa, and then headed home with plans of reuniting before going out for the night.

We wandered home along the beach to shower and get ready for the “big night” that we were promised by the locals. Casey, Cat, Stephen and I were ready, and decided to go to dinner at Chez Pepe, an Italian restaurant on our corner, while we waited for the slowpokes to get ready. I had gnocchi gorgonzola which was absolutely amazing. The other three tried another local beer, blue marlin, while I had a punch maison (house punch). After Andrew and Missy came to meet us, we walked back to the other villa. Before going out we celebrated the birthdays of Missy and Brian with cake and fun games. Two of the boys even did a choreographed dance that they had put together at some point.

We headed to Shout, which we heard was the happening spot in Flic en Flac that evening. We found quite a few SAS people on the way there, but none of us were interested in paying the cover charge for Shout. Instead we went to Shotz a bar in the same complex of Shout (there was also an upstairs bar named Shooters). There were so many SAS people all looking to have a good time that we practically took over the outside patios and turned one into a huge dance party. There were lots of locals there as well and everyone seemed to have a great time.

October 17, 2009:

The next morning we packed up our stuff and said goodbye to our villa. We went to the beach really quickly to take a few pictures, documenting our time on the beautiful island beaches. We went to brunch at Black Steer and to the grocery store again for snacks. We loaded into cabs and headed back to Port Louis feeling sad that we had to leave.

Once we were back in the port area, we walked to the shops we had seen the first day, only to discover they were closed for the Hindu holiday Dwali. We stopped at the Keg and Marlin again to talk to some of our friends about their time in Mauritius before heading to a row of shops closest to the ship, which we had heard were open. We were in luck, spending the rest of my Mauritian rupees, I got postcards, knick-knacks and pearl earrings for $7.50 USD! We decided to find a place to have lunch and enjoy our last moments in Mauritius. We found Beer and Spice, which had an amazing patio where we enjoyed a few pizzas. The owner was very nice and made a special drink for me because I had a princess smile, the drink was beautifully layered, and delicious! A few of the other girls ordered the same drink because it was so good. Soon after our meal was over, we decided to head back to the ship, not wanting dock time in India, our next stop. We took another water taxi back to the ship. This one was pretty scary, with loose footboards, and periods of time when the engine would shut off. I was very glad to be back on land, though not glad to be getting back onto the ship.

Our visit to Mauritius was short and sweet. I loved the island mentality, and adopted it wholeheartedly for the duration of our stay. The Mauritian people were very nice, and I hadn’t felt so un-hassled since Spain (although South Africa wasn’t bad either).  After a relaxing time in Mauritius, I am gearing up for what is reportedly, the most intense culture shock of any Semester at Sea trip: India.

Stephanie@Sea