Posted by Amanda

So far I'm not loving Port Louis in Mauritius. We docked and had our diplomatic briefing. I have not been well the last few days so we both went back to bed for awhile. We ate fried chicken on the ship for lunch then headed out. Of course it is crazy hot so that is less fun. We are docked at a real dock--nothing nice about it, just big, ugly ships all around and it isn't safe at night. We have to take a taxi or a water taxi from the ship to the waterfront. I think we'll stick to the water taxi just because it has a set price rather than trying to bargain with the cab drivers.

The waterfront seems to be a lot of shops that sell the same sorts of things--dodo bird things, spices, sugar, etc. There is a very nearby McDonalds and KFC. We're told it is also touristy and pricier than other areas.

We left the waterfront area to go to what seemed to be a less touristy area. Well, first we bought a guidebook. We got one in Cape Town too because it is really helpful to have a few recommendations for restaurants and a map. Anyway, we discovered that every street is filled with stalls selling all sorts of stuff. Somewhere along President John Kennedy St. we bought some fried things with a hot pepper sauce. They were very tasty though we had to sit at a busy bus stop to eat them. I also bought some sunglasses that I should have bargained for, but they were so cheap I just paid the regular price.

We did stumble upon a mosque but I was wearing a sleeveless dress. I don't think they would let me in that way. I even thought about bringing a sweater just in case, but I forgot. We hope to go back when I'm dressed appropriately. We also walked to Chinatown which seemed totally dead.

For dinner we met up with some RDs for a nice dinner at a terrific Indian place. We caught some music on the way home. Tomorrow we'll have to get in an SAS trip because this was not enough to keep us busy.