We're about to leave Mauritius after 4 days here and I really wanted to love it, but it was just an OK port stop for me. From what I've heard, a lot of people have mixed feelings. From all of the websites and reading the Lonely Planets books, I expected a beautiful resort island full of white sandy beaches and beautiful palm trees. Our arrival on March 1st was beautiful and I woke up to see us pull in to Port Louis nice and early although it a long time for the ship to clear. The island is a tiny speck in the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar. The population is also incredibly diverse and mixed…most of people look of Indian descent and there are Hindus, Muslims, Afro-Mauritian/Creole, and Franco-Mauritian people all living and blending together very peacefully. They speak a French Creole for the most part even though English is the official language. The other thing is that Mauritius is the home of the now extinct Dodo Bird!

We arrived the first day and our ship was docked pretty far away from the city center in the harbor so we had to take a water taxi for either $2 or 60 Mauritian Rupees to get anywhere. That or an hour long walk through the shipyards. Port Louis is the only city on the island and the way to describe it is kind of like "India Lite," a bustling city, crowded, kind of smelly, a big central market and lots of street vendors "harassing" you to buy their things. We did finally manage to change some money and head out to the beach. That first day, our big plan was to go surfing. Based on our research, we were going to go to Tamarin but we got there and the water was completely flat! No waves at all so we just spent the day at the Flic en Flac beach which was still very nice. I got to swim in the Indian Ocean which has an average temperature of like 80F. The water was warm, calm, and crystal clear….but the sun was INTENSE! You couldn't just sit and hang out on the beach without an umbrella. We spent the afternoon there and then Carrie, Jenne, Leigh Ellen and I headed back to the ship. At 6pm, I met up with Mario, Amanda and Noah for dinner. Amanda had picked out some Mauritian places to try and we found them but both were closed. Everything in the city closes really early….it was strange, but down at the Caudan Waterfront District, there were a lot of shops, restaurants and stuff all open later so we went to an Indian restaurant called Namaste. I was a little nervous because I'm not very experienced with Indian food and my stomach hadn't been doing too well all day but it was amazing. The food was great and we had a really nice time. The food reminded me of going to dinner with Andrew and his friend Sunil for Indian food on Halloween and it also made me really excited to get to India to try lots of new things (which I may write later that wasn't such a good idea).Our second day in Mauritius, I did nothing! Seriously…I didn't even get off of the ship. So many students had rented villas all over the island that there was practically nobody on the ship. Instead of paying for an expensive cab ride or loooong hot bus ride to the beach, Leigh Ellen and I spent the day on the ship and enjoyed our own private luxury resort up on Deck 7 and it was amazing. It was the first time I had really spent any time out by the pool.

Yesterday, I went to the central market in the morning which was pretty cool. That is where everyone comes to sell all of their fruits, vegetables, other assorted crafts, goods etc… and it was pretty neat to see. The tropical fruit here is amazing. They have these little baby pineapples which are so sweet…they just carve off the skin and trim down the green top in to a handle and you eat the whole thing like an ice cream cone! You are also expected to bargain for everything in the markets as well as the taxis, which I wasn't too comfortable with at first but am getting better at. We had to do it in South Africa as well. In the afternoon, I was a trip leader for a service visit to an SOS Children's Village in the town of Bambou. It was an interesting experience. There are SOS villages all over the world and its sad to see the kids there but overall, they appeared to be happy and very well cared for. The SAS students had such a great time playing with the children there; it was quite an ordeal for us to leave our new little friends. We brought small gifts for them like crayons and stickers but the biggest hit was our digital cameras. The kids there loved to have their pictures taken and then see them on the screen afterwards and then also to take pictures of each other. My last day in Mauritius, I went on an SAS trip to this Adventure Park. They needed a last minute trip leader so I figured why not. It was basically a high ropes course up in the mountains of the island. It was fun and the students had a good time. We were supposed to go to the beach in the afternoon but the weather wasn't all that great and they had all already spent several days at the beach so we headed back to Port Louis a little early for them to finish up some last minute shopping and errands in port. I think one of the most interesting things about the trip though was during the bus ride, we got to see a lot of people on their way to the Maha Shivatree pilgrimage. There was a Hindu pilgrimage and festival going on in Mauritius during our stay there in honor of the Hindu god Shiva called the Maha Shivatree where they walk from their homes all over the island to Grand Bassin, a lake up in the mountains to pray and collect holy water. I've read and heard a few stories but the general belief is that the water there is holy and connected to the water in the Ganges river, another holy Hindu pilgrimage site. There is also a large Shiva shrine and statue at this lake. I think the whole thing was super interesting and really wanted to go. A bunch of SASers did manage to get up to the lake and see/participate in the festival but I couldn't manage to swing it. I think there is always at least 1 thing everywhere we go that we wish we could have done…but the important thing is to make the best plans you can, enjoy every experience and learn a little something new each day.

Overall, it was alright, but if you want the beautiful resort experience, you needed to go and stay at a beautiful resort. Other than that, I'm glad we came; before this, I didn't even know Mauritius existed. I'm super excited for us to get back to sea and to get to India. I'm really looking forward to something just completely different and really pushing my comfort zone some more in terms of culture and experience.