"Mauritius? Is that a disease?"

For those of you who don’t know, Mauritius is a small island located 500 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.  There is no real indigenous population on the island and now it is inhabited by a mixture of Indian, Chinese, and Caucasian peoples.  Port Louis is the capital and the city where our ship was docked.  Mauritius is sometimes thought of as the Hawaii of Europe.  It is most well known as a vacation spot for its beaches and for growing and exporting sugarcane.

The night before we got to Mauritius we had a cultural and logistical pre-port on the country.   A few people gave presentations and they basically all said that it was “Spring Break” time for all of us and that all it had to offer were beaches and drinking.  Okay…

We got to Mauritius the next morning and I looked outside and the water was crystal blue.  The city looked just like any other city.  A big group of us took a water taxi to the center of town and found an ATM.  Mauritius uses Mauritian Rupees for its currency (not the same as Indian Rupees). 

We asked some people where the best public beaches were and everyone told us that they were a short drive to the north in Grand Baie.  We hailed a couple of taxis and bargained for a price and drove about 40 minutes to Grand Baie.  Once there, we split into 2 groups and half of the group went to a Chinese restaurant and the other half of us went to a seafood restaurant on the waterfront.  The view from our table was gorgeous- the bluest water I have ever seen, white sand, and many little boats on the shore. 

After lunch, we went to the public beach about a ten minute walk away.  It was so nice to be able to lie in the sun and relax.  The water was warm and I swam for a while, then took a nap on the beach.  Our other friends met back up with us and we all relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours.  After that we walked around the shops and bought postcards and souvenirs.  I also bought a small pineapple from a street fruit vendor and he cut off the outside of the pineapple for me and made a handle for me to hold and it looked like a turkey leg.  It was so juicy and delicious.  We decided to go back to Port Louis for dinner so we got on the public bus this time.  It was air conditioned, efficient and so much cheaper than the taxi. 

We ended up going to dinner at a “sports bar” called Shooters.  It was good to have some “western” food.  After dinner we walked around town for a while and ended up going to a place called The Keg for dessert.  I had a milkshake (mmm) and some cake.  Then we met up with some other friends and they all went back to Shooters for drinks and to socialize. 

The next day we were planning on going hiking, but the place we wanted to go was somewhat far away and we had to be back on the ship by 6PM, so we decided to just take it easy.  My friend Krystal and I went to a café and had hot chocolate and used the Internet in the morning.  We met up with a big group for lunch and we went to a restaurant called “Friends” (it had the same sign as the Friends TV show).  In the afternoon we walked around the mall area and went to the craft market.  I got a Mauritius pin for my collection and I bought some orange juice from the street juice cart.  We got back onto the water taxi and headed back to the ship.  My time in Mauritius was short and relaxing.  :)