MAURITIUS

In order to split up the 12 day journey from South Africa to India semester at sea made a pit stop at the beautiful island of Mauritius! And was it beautiful! Mark Twain said that heaven was modeled after Mauritius and now I see why. We hopped off the ship as fast as we could and took a water taxi to the town of Port Louis. From there Win, McKenzie, and I hired a taxi driver for the day to take us all over the island which is about the size of Rhode Island so not very big. We wanted to go to the other side of the island to get away from all the semester at sea kids so we headed for the southern part. Along the way we stopped at this hidden waterfall that our taxi driver knew about called Rochester falls. We had to hike down a hill that was full banana trees, sugar cane, and other gorgeous greenery. There was this one plant that was soooo cool, when you touched it its leaves sprang in towards the stem. I know plants are living creatures but it was really interesting to actually see one move on its own! We had a guide who helped us walk across a river to reach the bottom of the waterfall. It was amazing. There were local children there who were swimming around in it having a great time. It was so nice to be the only tourists in an area for a change. Win and McKenzie decided to jump off the top of the waterfall! I was too scared so I just took pictures of them and swam around! It was so fun though we went under the fall and I thought I was going to die cause the water was falling so hard on me. After the waterfall we took a mini hike around the area where our guide picked some wild guava plants for us to try We climbed to the top of the fall and crossed the river back to the car. At the car we ripped out some sugar cane which grows all over Mauritius and tried some of the juice from it. It was delicious but a little odd it tasted like warm sugar water! Next we were off to this great beach we read about, Blue Bay beach. Upon arrival I was in absolute awe of the water, I have never in my life seen water so blue. We ran from the car onto the beach and jumped right in. It was my first time in the Indian Ocean and it was great! The water was pretty warm but still refreshing it was the saltiest ocean I have ever been in! We were 3 of only 10 people on the beach which was very nice. I collected some old coral in all different shapes and sizes. We decided to hang out at this hotel on the beach where we pretended to be hotel guests! We ate lunch there which was pretty similar to that of any island cuisine, lots of fish, fruit, a touch of spiciness, it was pretty good. I ordered a strawberry daiquiri with lunch which they did not know how to make! Instead they gave me the most disgusting vodka and grenadine concoction! I stuck to drinks off the menu for the rest of the day. We mostly just laid out in the sun and swam around and relaxed all day it was so amazing. McKenzie went snorkeling I laid out while all the different beach vendors came selling their jewelry which I was able to bargain down pretty low for a beautiful green, white, and gray shell necklace. We went swimming again and this time I cut the bottom of my foot open on some coral which was very painful. It immediately began bleeding and it was getting late so we decided it was time to head back to the ship. Overall Mauritius was great it reminded me a lot of hawaii. We were only there for a day but it was well worth the stop.