Port Louis, Mauritius

Saturday February 28, 2009

 

Port Louis, Mauritius

 

Yesterday, we spent the most amazing 12 hours of my life in Port Louis, Mauritius. It was such an amazing place. The island is only 65 km long and 45 km wide (about 40 miles long). We drove the whole island and it only took us an hour. We did a trip called Ile De Deux Coco, and it was beautiful. I didn’t really know what to expect when we went, but it was about an hour drive to the top of the island to the bottom, which is where Ile De Deux Coco was. When we got there, it was the most AMAZINGGG view. The water was crystal clear, blue and green. The sand was white and there were lava rocks everywhere. It was such a beautiful contrast. They took us on a glass bottom boat to get to the island. We could see everything underneath us. It was stunning. The whole island is surrounded by coral reef, so we saw a lot of that, and some small fish and even some sea cucumbers. The island was small but had everything we needed. A bar, lounge chairs, showers, bathrooms, dining area, hammocks, couches under canopies, and all of our snorkeling gear.

So we put all of our things down on some lounge chairs, and headed for the bar. So we bought a bottle of homemade spiced apple rum, put it on ice, and went to go swimming. The water was perfect. It was about 85 degrees out that day, and the water was probably 80 degrees. It was so refreshing, and you could see EVERYTHING, it was that clear. The view was spectacular, and the waves broke about 50 feet out from us, and the current was stronger than we expected, but no problems, no worries. I contemplated hundreds of times that day about being purposely left behind so I could live on this island. Our biggest worry that day was what they were going to be serving us for lunch. After some swimming and snorkeling, we tried some of the apple rum and walked around the island to explore. The sun felt so good and I don’t want to brag (okay, maybe just a little bit), but I’ve got a good tan going on.

After a little exploring and drinking, they had lunch ready for us. Sorry Dad, but this lunch blew your cooking out of the water. They had everything and ANYTHING for us. Shrimp, prongs (a type of crawfish, looks and tastes just like lobster), chicken, tuna, swordfish, pork chops, rice, salad is just half of the buffet. It was like we were kings and queens, I was loving it. It was by far one of the best meals that I’ve had so far. We tried the local beer and wine too. Mauritius, being the most beautiful place in the world, has the fifth best beer in the world, called Phoenix.

After lunch, we laid out for a little and it started getting pretty hot, so we decided to just go snorkeling. The boats were taking people out farther into the water, but we missed the boat, so we just did some snorkeling by the shore. It was just as fun, but we didn’t see too much. We swam for a couple hours and laid out and just relaxed the whole day. Finally around 4, the boats took us back to the buses and we headed back to Port Louis.

When we got back to Port Louis, they dropped us off in the city and a bunch of us went to the local bars and got some drinks and some food. It was a small little city and had a few shops here and there, but nothing spectacular. It was getting closer to 6 so the weather had cooled off a little too, and it was so nice just sitting outside and looking out into the ocean. Our ship time was 800 instead of the normal time, 6. So we got an extra two hours, and the line was pretty long when we came back to get on the ship, but I don’t think anybody got dock time (you get dock time when you are late getting on the ship, like 15 minutes is 3 hours at the next port, 30 is 4 hours, etc. Then at the next port, you have to wait that amount of time to get off the ship).

Then we didn’t really have any down time because the sea Olympics were the next day, and opening ceremonies started that night. Each of our floors is broken up into seas. We are the Yellow Sea, but there is Adriatic Sea, Baltic, Aegean, Red, etc. So everybody has their own color and we had to present our flags and do our chant. We stayed up until 1 am making the flag the night before and it turned out pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. Everybody dressed in their colors and waited outside the Union until they let us in, we all just did our chants. The opening ceremonies lasted about an hour or so, and everybody was pretty pumped. And then they told us that they were going to show us Slumdog Millionaire on the TV’s, but I was so exhausted, I passed out as soon as I turned it on.

 

Sea Olympics

 

Then today we had the actual sea Olympics. Events included mashed potato sculpting, flip cup, limbo, synchronized swimming, a relay, sudoku, Tug-O-War, Scavenger Hunt, Spelling Bee, Hula Hoop, Dodgeball, Volleyball, work out relay, Twister, Poker, and Pictionary. I participated in the relay which had orange passing (where you passed an orange with your neck from person to person), three legged race, wheelbarrow race, and then Fireman’s drill. I did the Fireman’s drill and you basically just pass water along in a line until you fill the pitcher up. We came in second for the relay, and third overall for the day. There was a three way tie for third place.

It was another beautiful day today, and perfect for sea Olympics. But it was an exhausting two days, and I am thankful for the couple days we have until India. We get to India on Thursday and I am very excited. I have heard mixed things about India, but think it will be a mind-blowing experience regardless. I’m doing a Taj Mahal trip and I can’t wait to see everything! I’m also going to be riding an elephant, which should be fun!

I can’t believe it’s already March, and hopefully the weather at home is getting a little bit warmer. I believe Spring Break is coming up, and hope that everybody enjoys their time off. Best of wishes!