Maritius

A ten day voyage from Cape Town to India was broken up by a one day port stop at the tropical island of Maritius. The island of Maritius is famous for once having the DoDo bird, whose deliciousness led to its extinction. What remains though is an island similar to Kauii with white sand beaches, numerous coral reefs, and a lush volcanic inland landscape. With our limited time we decided to visit a beach for the day.

We left the ship and walked to the taxi gathering area to find a ride to a selected beach. After some negotiation we found Nilson to drive us to Flic and Flec beach, wait for us there, and drive us back, for the low price of 2400 rupies. Fortunately the exchange rate is 30 rupies for 1 dollar, so for $80 we had a full day of transportation and local knowledge. Nilson spoke English, French, and Creole. He was also learning Italian since an Italian cruise line was starting to make Maritius a common port. Nilson took us to the ATM, and I did a quick balance inquiry to see the big numbers. After getting some rupies we were on our way to the beach. Nilson told us there was a wildlife park near the beach that we might be interested in. We decided to check it out and once we arrived we entered and spent about an hour there. The highlight was walking around with giant tortoises. The kids loved to watch them and you could touch them and ride them if interested. Other animals there included birds of all types, zebras, and kangaroos. The kids spent some time playing on their playground, which had lots of neat transportation themed equipment.

After leaving the wildlife park we went to Flic and Flac beach and had lunch at Nilson's recommended Chinese food place. Jennifer got the "Magic Bowl," while I got fried rice. The kids were pleased to order chicken and chips (fries), and were happy that the ketchup served tasted like American ketchup. Jen and I had a local Phoenix beer which tasted great in the 95 degree, high humidity weather. The flies were quite common, and while eating and drinking you had to keep one arm free to wave the flies away.

Flic and Flac beach is a popular locals hangout, and is actually a lagoon. The coral reef is about 1/4 mile out acts to break the waves far away from the beach. The water was warm and calm and the kids thoroughly enjoyed swimming in ocean by themselves. The water was so buoyant that floating was effortless and you could actually take a nap floating in the ocean if desired. While Vivian and I were swimming we met a local who started talking to us in French. This gave me an opportunity to dust off the French I leaned in High School. Vivian was amazed at my French, but Henri and I were having difficulty communicating. He knew about as much English as I French, but we both laughed a lot.

After about 4 hours of beach time we grabbed an ice cream cone and Nilson drove us back to the ship. While we were standing in line we noticed a large number of college students were severely drunk. Several actually passed out in line, and one fell into a pole as he entered the ship. After the dust cleared three students were taken to the Maritius hospital for alcohol poisoning and didn't make it back on the ship. The language in line reminded me of my logging days, with the F-word flying around.

Well, it's on to India and six days of life on the high seas. Later...