2-27-06

Mauritius!

Last night, around 10:00 pm, we (Maria, Jen, Sam, Meghan, Brandy) went outside to feel the warm air and to get some food at the pool bar.  As soon as we got outside, we noticed we were very close to land!  It was so exciting to see land again!  The island was Reunion, so we knew we were finally close to Mauritius. 

            When I woke up in the morning, we were already docked up and the ship was being cleared.  I was on one of the first trips of the morning, which meant I was part of the first group to be cleared by customs.  My adventure for today was hiking up “Le Ponce” (that means “the thumb”) mountain.  I really hoped that this hike would not be as difficult as Table Mountain in South Africa; I just don’t think I am ready for another hike like that quite yet.  Our tour guide for the day assured us that this hike is not nearly as difficult at Table Mountain and set all of our minds at ease.  My good friend Meghan was also on this tour with me, so we knew could survive this mountain together since we survived Table Mountain together! 

            This is a picture of Meghan and me with our guide for part of the day’s activities.

            We drove to the opposite side of the island, which took about 45 minutes.  We then drove down this narrow winding dirt road, through a massive sugar cane field until we finally arrived at the bottom of the mountain, where we would begin our hike.  This is a picture of our group at the bottom of the mountain before we hike.

            We left in three separate groups so we would not be tripping over each other the whole way up.  Meghan and I were in the last group.  We had a couple of short stops on the way up so we could take pictures, but finally made it too the top in about an hour and a half to two hours.  It was a moderate hike on the scale of difficulty, which is just about where I like my hikes to be at.  So this hike was much more enjoyable for me than Table Mountain.  This is what Mauritius looks like from way up high!  (Mauritius is about 40 miles long and 30 miles wide, so a small island.  From up as high as we were, we could see the whole island.  Le Ponce is the third highest peak in Mauritius.)

            At the top of the mountain there were all of these beautiful wild ginger flowers and plants. 

            It was also still very hot and miserable at the top, especially after the hike, so Meghan and I made our own shade to try and escape. 

These are sugar cane fields, they are on every square inch of the island that could be spared for Sugar cane, everywhere you look!

            We stayed at the top of the mountain for about 30 minutes before the groups started heading back down.  Meghan and I jumped in the first group, that way we could take our time coming down and not be rushed.  We defiantly had fun coming down, taking pictures of random things along the way.  On the way down, Meghan decided to grab the Aloe Vera leaf that the guide had showed us on our hike up.  These plants are huge!  However, when the guide cut the leaf off, it did not have the sap inside like the smaller plants do.  The guide told us how when he was a kid, they would cut the leaves off, and use the leaf as a sled and slide down the mountain at shocking speeds.  Meghan decided she wanted take a little Mauritius back with her, so this is her sneaking her souvenir back on the bus!  The guide just laughed.

After the hike, we headed to this restaurant for lunch called “The Ravine”.  It was beautiful!  The restaurant was very open so the breeze would whip right through.  It was also right on the river, so while you are eating, you can hear the rushing and splashing of the river and waterfalls.  We had a delicious meal of chicken curry, white rice, creamed spinach and onions, and crunchy things.  (The crunchy things were like thin strips of something, maybe potatoes?)  For dessert, we had this coconut custard type thing, and that was the perfect way to end the meal.  There is a very strong Indian influence everywhere in Mauritius, so the foods were also heavily Indian.  This is a picture of Meghan mixing her foods, possibly for the first time ever in her life, so a momentous moment! 

            After lunch we had about an hour to go swim in the waterfalls and relax before heading back on the ship.  This is us swimming in the waterfalls.

            After our swim, Meghan got a little hungry

Ok, take a close look at this picture, what stands out to you the most?  I was walking over to this part of the river and nearly jumped!  Do you see it?  The two sticks propped up on the rock look like hands reaching up. 

And this is me with the river. 

We got back on our bus and headed back to the ship.  Meghan and I decided to take two hours to take a nap, shower, or whatever we needed to do before we went out again for the night.  I was exhausted after the day’s activities, so a nap sounded wonderful!

That night we headed over to the waterfront in search of a good dinner.  When ever we want to go over to the water front, we just jump on the water taxi and he takes us right over.  If you don’t take the water taxi, it is about a 45 minute walk.  The water taxi can get you there in about 5 minutes and it only costs $1, so we used the water taxi every time.  When we got to the water front, there was one shop still open, so Meghan and I peaked in to see if there were any good souvenirs there.  We did indeed find a few things.  First of all, it was a little bit surprising to find that everyone bargains, even in these shops.  Also, there are tons and tons of Dodo things everywhere, since this was the last place that the Dodo bird existed before it became extinct.  And lastly, we found Magic Pants.  Magic pants fit anyone from size 0 to 12.  They are very light, airy and flowing, perfect for India!  Meghan and I both bought a pair.  Everything that we saw in any shop for our entire stay in Mauritius looked pretty much the same, and it all looks like it came from India.  Needless to say, no one really bought much of anything, we are waiting for India.  We did find a vending machine dedicated to Kit Kats!  I'm loving that!

            We found Brandy when we got over to the strip of restaurants.  She had been sitting at the bar with this guy that she likes for some time.  Meghan and I had a quick dinner with them, and then we decided to walk around.  The water front area is loaded with restaurants, bars and shops.  There is a mall over these, but it is composed of all designer brand stores, and very expensive. Also, everything closes down from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, so nothing is open except the occasional restaurant and bar.  After we walked around that area for a while, it was getting late, and we decided it might be better to just go back to the ship and get some sleep.  On our way back to the ship, we ran into Samantha, Jen and Maria.  Meghan decided to still go back to the ship, but I decided to stay with Maria, Jen and Samantha, and hear about their day. 

            The four of us went to a different restaurant and they got meals, and I just got dessert, since I had already eaten.  Here is a picture of us with our meals.  And then Sam with her Ribs.

            We talked about our day, and they told me all the cool things they did, and the people they had met on the beach.  They met this taxi driver who wanted to take them out again that night, so their first night in Mauritius would be a good one.  So, after dinner, they called their new friend, and waited for him to come and pick us up.  While we were waiting this random taxi driver, who spoke little and understood less English, kept trying to convince us to let him take us to Grand Bay to this club called the Banana Boat.  We told him we were waiting for a friend, and that we did not need a ride.  He would not go away!  We told him we did not want to go to the Banana Boat; anything to make him go away.  Finally, Maria, Jen and Samantha’s friend finally came.  He and a friend drove us all over the island, telling us where everything was, and what kinds of things we should do with our short time on the island.  We all laughed when we ended up at the Banana Boat after all!  We stayed for maybe an hour and then decided to head back.  Our new friend drove us all the way back to the ship, and asked us to call him again if we wanted to do anything the next night.  This is a picture of us and our new friend at the Banana Boat.

When we got back to the ship, we made our plans for the next day, and all headed to bed!  Mauritius is a beautiful island.  Our three days really is not enough time, but defiantly a good time!

2-28-06

Today, I got up early and went on a bird watching tour, which also included some trekking to the waterfalls in the area, and a lunch at the top of the mountain.  On the bus ride over, I got to know the kind lady next to me.  Her name is Joann, and she is one of the mental health nurses on the ship.  We had a great time learning all about each other.  Her husband Bob was also on the trip with her.  The ride to the nature reserve was about an hour away, and throughout the drive, we drove through occasional downpours.  The downpours only last about 5 minutes, but they are real intense.  The tour guide for this trip was the same guy that I had yesterday for the hike, so we felt like we were old friends.  At the nature reserve the guide walked us all around pointing out different birds, as well as their history on the island.  We got to see the national bird of the island right away, and the guide was all surprised.  He said that that bird is one of the most difficult to find, since it is endangered, and there are so few of them on the island.  We also saw a red bird that was so bright and bold in color and yet such a small little bird!  The bird perched itself on top of an Aloe Vera plant, and made itself the perfect opportunity for viewing.This is some of the landscape, absolutly beautiful!   (I forgot to bring binoculars, and Joann forgot to bring a camera, so shared our resources!) 

We spent about an hour just walking around the area, enjoying the natural beauty of the area.  We then loaded into 4X4’s and headed up the mountain to the restaurant for lunch.    It had poured about 5 times in the last hour, so it was too muddy and not safe to hike up.  This is the view that greeted us at the top. 

Before lunch, we wondered around the resort that had been built up there.  The owner told us about how the resort came to be, and what kinds of activities they provide here to their guests.  This really is a big resort for people to come and hunt.  They have a game area that is fenced off with wild boar and antelope and the hunters come and stay at the lodge, and hunt during the day.  The dinning hall was decorated with various animals heads stationed all over the walls.

We had a delicious lunch of chicken curry, white rice and a creamed vegetable (this must be the typical meal, as it seems to be repeating itself).  They also served fry bread, which was really like a sweet hot tortilla.  For dessert we had hot pancakes stuffed with papaya.  The food was all very good, and I feel like it is a preview of India.  I am a littler nervous about the food in India simply because I am not a big fan of curry flavor, but so far, the food has been fine.  After lunch we had time to enjoy the view some more before we headed back down to the bottom to our tour busses.  

We headed to our next destination with one pit stop, a grocery store.  We had passed a few tea farms and saw people out harvesting the leaves, and we decided we would like to try this tea.  So, our trusty guide took us to a grocery store and told us which teas were from the area.   After we stocked up on our local teas, we headed for the beach.  Since we had taken time to buy teas and support the local economy, we only had an hour to spend at the beach. 

One of the professors on the trip brought her daughter along on the tour.  The professor did not want to go swimming, so I took Korrena (8 years old) out for a swim.  We played different games in the water, and then headed back to the beach to collect pieces of coral that had washed ashore.  There is a coral reef that completely surrounds the island; you can see the waves break over the reef.  This makes the whole island a great place to go snorkeling or scuba diving! 

After our hour on the beach, we headed back to the ship.  Joann and Bob invited me to gout to dinner with them that night, as well as to visit some of the shops over there.  I had told Joann about the magic pants that Meghan and I had bought, and she decided that she wanted some too.  We went on our search, and then I helped her bargain them down.  She was happy with her purchase.  We then headed over to the hotel on the waterfront for dinner.  Joann and I had lugged our laptops along with us in hopes of finding a wireless internet spot to connect.  We tried logging on through the hotels wireless system, and even bought internet minutes through the hotel, but we couldn’t get the internet to work, so the hotel gave us our money back.  For dinner that night, a few other faculty and staff also joined us, so it was a great opportunity for me to meet other faculty and staff on the ship.  I had lamb chops for dinner, which were excellent, and then topped it off with an apple mousse for dessert.

When I was walking back to the water taxi to call it a night, I ran into Jen, Samantha, and Maria, so we all headed back to the ship together.  When we got back to the ship, we called Meghan and Brandy. Brandy wasn’t home, but the rest of us headed up to the piano bar and shared pictures of what we did for the day, as well as write our post cards, since tomorrow was our last chance to mal them out.  I think we all slept well that night, with the plan of visiting the market in the morning.

3-1-06

We all got up and around by 8:00 am to exchange some money in, and head to the open air markets.  Once we got off the water taxi, it was about a 10 minute walk to the market.  The market was slightly disappointing.  It was very big, but every vender was selling the exact thing as the next.  Everything was the same, and it all looked like it came from India.  Nobody really bought much of anything; we are all holding out for India, were supposedly all of this stuff will be much cheaper.  It was a very hot day, like all of the days have been, and since we are so close to the coast line, the humidity was at about 85%, so we were all just dripping wet with sweat.  After walking around the market for almost an hour, we decided that we really needed to move on to our next mission.  Fabric. 

This is Meghan and I on the water Taxi, yes, we love the water taxi!

Jen was in search of fabric for a quilt that she is making.  There is a club on the ship called the quilt square share club.  Basically, everyone in the club buys a yard of fabric from every country, and then the Dean’s wife cuts the fabric into squares, and everyone swaps fabric squares.  At the end of the voyage, each person in the club will have enough fabric to sew a quilt, representing each place we have visited.  Jen wanted cotton fabric since that is what she has gotten in the other countries so far.  Apparently, the Indian population does not use cotton for making anything, so this mission took an hour all on its own.  We were relieved when she finally found her fabric as the heat of the day was getting to everyone. 

Our next mission of the day was to find a post office to mail all of these post cards and letters we had written.  We had asked a police officer on the street how to get to the post office and we followed his directions for about 30 minutes, and we realized we should have been there by that time, so we asked another person for directions, and they sent us back in the direction we had just come.  We finally found the post office, and realized the police officer really had not given us very good directions at all.  At the post office, we had to stand in line for a good hour before we finally made it to the front of the line.  Everything was slow there.  It took us another hour before we were finally on to our next mission; lunch. 

My tour guide had recommended this Chinese restaurant as a great place for lunch.  We found the restaurant pretty easily, and my guide had been completely honest.  It was great food, and really cheap for the amount of food we got!  I think everyone was feeling better and in a better mood after we finally had some good food in us and something cold to drink. 

We explored all of the shops in the area, as well as a craft market, and our general consensus is India.  Everything looks like India, but so much more expensive, so nobody really bought anything.  My one mission for Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius and now India is to find a watch.  That is the thing that I wish I had for this voyage. 

After walking around for awhile, we headed back to the ship to catch up with Samantha and Brandy so we could all go out for dessert.  At the ship, Maria and I cleaned up our room a little bit since everything had been accumulating throughout the week, and I did some laundry, since you can only do so much in the sink at a time.  We finally met up with Brandy and Sam, and all headed back over to the water front.  We walked around the shops some more, since they had not had a chance to look at any of them yet.  Brandy tried on some magic pants but decided against them.  I bought chocolate ship cookies for everyone, since that was one thing we all were missing by that point in the voyage.  Next we headed to this ice cream parlor for our dessert.  Jen and I got a chocolate/coffee/ vanilla ice cream Sunday, it was so good!  Maria got a chocolate and banana filled crepe, and Meghan got a milk shake.  Samantha and Brandy still had not eaten dinner, so they were not ready for dessert yet.  I had to head back to the ship early for my dock time (thank you Eugeine), so Meghan and Maria  decided they wanted to return early anyway, so we decided to head back.  On the way back, Meghan decided to get some pizza.  This is what she had been craving for weeks now, and the Pizza Hut seemed the perfect opportunity. 

We split the pizza on the water taxi, since you can’t bring food on the ship, and it tasted oh so good!  When I got back on the ship, I decided to get my South Africa postings done, since not many other students were on the internet, but rather enjoying there last couple of hours off the ship.  The internet moved a lot faster with fewer people on it! 

Mauritius was a beautiful port, and it would be fun to come back and visit, but not very practical to get to.  It was interesting to see how they planted sugar cane on every spare inch of land they could, and how they harvested the tea by hand.  It was also interesting talking to various taxi drivers and tour guides about the people of Mauritius.  A lot of people on this small island have never left and never will see any other part of the world.  Some people, like collage age kids leave for school, and never return, except for holidays or family events.  Also, the people seemed to live better with each other.  I really did not feel segregation by religion or skin color or social status, they really all did work together and seem to genuinely care about their neighbor.  It was refreshing to see a combining of cultures that was really working out.  Mauritius offers so many possibilities of things to do, a very adventure filled land!  I loved it!

Here are jsut some fun picture of us throughout the day!