March 23, we pulled into Port Louis on the North West corner of the island Mauritius. When we pulled up, a soft rain was falling on the windows of the ship which was very disappointing. We could see the town of Port Louis, and behind it were beautiful steep volcanic mountains covered in jungle shooting straight up into the low lying clouds. Mauritius was once a French colony, so the two main languages are French and Creole. Even though English is the official language of the island, not many people speak it fluently. The people of Mauritius are mainly comprised of three races: Africans, Indians, and Europeans. The three races live there and intermingle very well. There is no hostility between religions and complete acceptance no matter where you are from. We ate breakfast, went through our diplomatic briefing, and prepared to go out. We only had one night on the island, so we had to make the most out of both days. The reason we only had one night, is because Mauritius does not like Semester at Sea very much. Over the past years, Semester at Sea students view this stop as their spring break, spending their whole time getting incredibly drunk and trashing the place. A lot of my friends were trying to book hotel rooms and small villas, but they couldn’t use their SAS e-mail account because people would flat out reject them. They had to use their old gmail accounts or AOL accounts to book rooms. When we were allowed off the ship, I met up with Carson, Sarah, Toland, Jill, and nine other kids from the ship. We had chartered a van to take us to the South East side of the island, to a city called Mahebourg. The drive took a little over an hour where we passed through sugar cane fields and small towns along the way. We pulled up to our hostel in Mahebourg called Le Bamboo, a small three story building owned by a local native woman and her husband. There were fifteen of us total, taking up all but two of the rooms in the house that had other people staying in them. There were five people in my room with one bunk bed. Once we settled in, put our stuff down, and changed into our swimsuit, we walked down to town and it was our plan to go to Blue Bay to go swimming. We split up into two groups, Carson, Sarah, Toland, Jill, and I, and then the other nine. My group walked down to the downtown area where we found an ATM and got some money. In Mauritius it is 30 Mauritian Rupees to the dollar. Once we had money, we went to get some lunch. We stopped at one restaurant, sat down, and looked at the menu. It all looked really good, but when we ordered, they were out of stock of almost all of the items on their menu. This demonstrates very well the attitude of Mauritius. They have the island attitude, where they get things done when they get them done. No deadlines. It’s actually quite nice; the people are relaxed and happy. We got up and left this restaurant, walked down the street another block or two, and then found another restaurant. I got fried noodles which were delicious, and while we were eating, there were a few downpours right outside the open air restaurant. When we finished, it had stopped raining, and we walked down a couple blocks to the bus station. We passed through a market on our way where they were selling a lot of fruits, spices, and fish. We hopped on an old rickety bus to Blue Bay, which is about fifteen minutes away by bus. We were about halfway when the bus started going very slow and making funny noises. Eventually our bus driver pulled over and made a few cell phone calls. They never said what was going on, but a few of the locals got up and started walking down the road. My group and I got up and walked to the front and asked what was going on. They said the bus had broken down, but another one was on its way. We decided to wait outside of the bus because we were on a beautiful ocean front road. We walked up and down the road, taking pictures while waiting for the bus. The new bus came in about fifteen minutes and we hopped on yet again and were on our way. It wasn’t more than another ten minutes until we got off at the Blue Bay bus stop and by this time the sky had cleared and it was nice and sunny. We saw the rest of our big group eating at a restaurant, so we went up to them to see what they were doing. They were just finishing up their lunch, and they were about to head down to the beach. We were walking over when a man came up to us and offered to take us out on his boat for a snorkeling trip. We agreed for 200 Rupees a person, he would take us out for 2 hours. That was only about six US Dollars! We went down to the dock and got on his boat, which was a lot nicer than expected. It was plenty big enough for all fifteen of us and it was also a glass bottom boat. He took us out to where all the best coral was, gave us all masks and fins, and told us to jump in. The water was very warm and crystal clear. Our boat driver also threw a few pieces of bread in the water to lure out all of the fish. There was a lot of Staghorn Coral and Rock Coral. We swam around this snorkel spot for a while before picking up anchor and heading to a different spot. The next stop we went to was on the edge of the reef, where a big sand bank met the coral. There was a small current here of about a knot, which made it a nice drift swim. There was a whole bunch of Plate Coral at this site and it was pretty amazing. I saw a couple of Trumpet fish along with other normal reef varieties. We swam here for quite a while before piling back onto the boat and heading back to shore. We got off the boat, took a big group picture, and then split up yet again as our group headed back and the big group stayed by the beach. We took the bus back to town where we meandered up and down the small streets. We stopped in a grocery store where we bought a few snacks. We then walked back to our hostel and took turns taking showers. The shower at the hostel was in a very nice spacious bathroom, but the shower itself was just a small hose protruding from the wall that spit out a minimal amount of water and had one temperature: cold. The cold water was nice though considering the air was very hot. We also met the other people who were staying at the hostel. There was one woman from Germany who was a teacher and was here on her Spring Break. She was travelling on her own and was planning on spending ten days in Mauritius. The other two people in the hostel were a young couple from Holland. The girl was a social organizer for a research vessel. She would plan parties and functions, got the caterers, and made sure everything went smoothly when the ship had a big event. I never heard what the man did. All three of them were very nice and they all spoke really good English. We hung around and talked with them for a bit until the other part of our big group came back. They all hopped in the shower and got ready to go out for the night. The lady who ran our hostel told us of a really good restaurant called the Grand Creole, which she heard everyone say was really good. She pointed us in the general direction and we headed out into the night. We were walking through the city, stopping to ask for directions every couple of blocks, until we got to a different restaurant. We asked where the Grand Creole was, and I think the same person who owned the Grand Creole owned this restaurant as well, because they said they would call a big van to take us there for free and have a fifteen person table ready by the time we got there. We arrived at this very nice restaurant, mostly outdoor seating with a pig tropical looking patio. It was on the edge of a small lagoon where they had their own private dock with a couple of kayaks and a sailboat. We sat down at a very long table and we ordered some drinks and our meals. The food was all very very good. It was a classy place. We ate our food, which came in huge portions, and then sat around the table and talked for a while. Soon, the three Europeans from the hostel showed up; we told them where we were going. The sat down and had a couple drinks with us. We decided we wanted to go somewhere else, so we all piled back into the van, a little cramped due to the extra three, and it dropped us back off in front of our hostel. Carson, Sarah, Toland, Jill, and I went into the hostel because we were going to bed because we were planning on leaving at six the next morning. Everyone else went back up on the town because they had no plans for the next day.
We woke up at 0545 and got ready. The woman who owned the hostel was going to be our private driver for the day and take us around the island. The five of us piled in her small car and headed west, along the southern coast. We drove out of the town and went through sugar cane fields and tea plantations. She pulled over so we could check out the tea plants and take pictures. We also drove by a big lake with a huge copper statue of Shiva. It was the main place for all of the Hindus on the island to go and pray. There are also big religious festivals held at the lake. Our first stop for the day was at a National Park where we were going to go on a hike to see some waterfalls. She dropped us off at a tourist information center where we bought a map and headed out on one of the trails. We walked for a while along an opening until we turned into a small path that went into the dense forest. Not too far in, the trail turned to pure mud, considering it was raining the day before. We decided to take off our shoes and power through it barefoot. We kept on walking and walking until it got too deep. We were sinking up to our ankles and hiking was tough. We decided to turn around and head back because at this rate we weren’t going to be able to see this waterfall and do all the other things we had planned on doing that day. We tromped back through the mud, put or shoes back on, and headed back to the entrance of the park. Our driver picked us up again, and drove us further west to Alexandria Falls. This was an awesome waterfall that fell into a valley that overlooked the ocean. We went out to the lookout point, but you couldn’t really see the waterfall. We hopped a railing and climbed out onto a tree branch that hung out over the valley. From there we had a magnificent view of the falls. We followed the river up a ways from the main falls and found a small cascade leading to about a 25 foot waterfall. We climbed around here and took pictures for a long time. It was soo nice. The water was clear and cool, and we took off our shoes and climbed up and down the cascades. We left this area and went slightly north but continued west, going deeper into the island. We pulled over at Black River Gorge, which is a huge valley carved out by the Black River. There was an amazing Panorama view from the top of the lookout. There were tree waterfalls scattered throughout the valley, and we could see for miles all the way out to the coast. We left this scenic lookout, and continued to head west. After a while we got to the largest waterfall on Mauritius, and it was amazing. It fell off a perfectly flat cliff down into a carved out pool below. There was a spectacular viewpoint from across the valley that we stood and watched the water crash into the rocks below. We then drove another 2 kilometers to the rainbow sands, which is a series of sand dunes that are colored by volcanic minerals. They ranged from burgundy to orange to red, and all those earthy colors. They looked like they were tie-dyed, almost like what oil looks like on water. We piled back into the car and headed to our last stop for the day: the beach! We arrived at a beautiful white sand beach on the west coast of the island at around 1300. We all got lunch at a little place near the water and once we were finished, ran down to the sand, threw our stuff down, and ran into the water. The water was a beautiful baby blue, and behind the beach there was a vertical volcanic butte that shot out from the ground. There was also a really strong current on this beach, about 2-3 knots that pulled us along downstream. We floated around and played in the water for over an hour before we had to start to go back to the ship. We took a walk along the beach as we dried off, wondering past the beach front resort and classic palm trees. Once we were dry and had purchased a couple more bottles of water for the road, we got back in the car and headed north for Port Louis. I was enjoying the scenery until I feel asleep, along with everyone else in the car. I woke again when we were stopped in traffic, not moving. We had been there for a while, and we had only move up about a car length. Our driver got out and asked what the big traffic jam was about. Someone told her that a big truck had tipped over and it was blocking the road. She decided to try another route, so she pulled out of traffic and wound her way through the side streets until she got to another main road. We went along that road for a good two hundred yards until we saw that it was closed and it diverted us back to the road we were on before. This time, it was much more crowded due to the accumulating mass of cars. We were starting get a little worried because it was 1530 and we had to be back on the ship by 1800, and we were still about 45 minutes away. We were sitting in traffic until about 1600, when we told her that we really needed to get back to the ship in any way possible. She was really nice and understood, so she got out and started asking everyone around us if there was any way. She eventually found a small delivery truck that had to make a delivery in Port Louis, so he too was also in a hurry. He said he knew some backstreets and told her to follow. She turned to us and said, “This man says he knows a way. I don’t know who he is or where he is going to take us. Should I follow him?” We all said why not, because at this rate we were not going to make it, so we would try anything. The truck pulled out of traffic in front of us and went down a small backstreet. The delivery driver drover very fast through these small backstreets and our driver had trouble keeping up. We started heading south, which worried me a little bit, until we turned around back north and started heading the right way. We wound through these streets for a long time until we finally could see the town of Port Louis. Unfortunately, there is only one bridge that goes across the river on the south side of Port Louis and that too was jammed with traffic, because it was now rush hour. It was 1445, and we had to rush back to the ship as fast as possible. We decided to ditch the car, because our driver told us it was about a 45 minute walk to the port. We thanked her a lot and headed out. When we were leaving, she told us not to ask directions from drug dealers. We laughed and promised that we wouldn’t and started power walking though the city. We got to the bridge and crossed it, and when we were on the other side, the traffic cleared up, not a lot, but it was still slightly faster than walking. We decided to hop in a cab and hope that it would be faster. We jumped in and told him to go to the port so he immediately turned down a small side street and accelerated. He knew our ship was leaving soon and understood we were in a hurry. He knew all the back streets of the city and he drove them ridiculously fast. We wound through the streets, dodging speed bumps and pedestrians until we all saw the ship and seriously relaxed. We hopped out of the cab, paid the man, and got in line to board the ship. We waited in the long line and finally boarded at 1730. Still 30 minutes to spare. I got back on, showered, and then headed to dinner, which that night, was breakfast for dinner. After dinner, I watched the ship depart Fort Louis and went to bed very early.
We are now going to arrive in South Africa in two days. The trip there has been fairly uneventful until yesterday when the sea started to get really rough again. The pool water was sloshing out of both sides and going over the side down to the outdoor dining area. It was really fun. Today I woke up and looked out the starboard side, to see a beautiful view of the African coast. We have been really close to land to avoid the worst of the seas. Three main currents merge at the southern point of Africa, making the seas really rough all the time. We are almost to Cape Town though, and I am so excited! I will write again after.