We arrived into Port Louis and were so excited seeing as our midterms had just finished, and our minds were ready to have a change from the past intensely cultural and poverty-stricken ports to a two day sunny retreat. We got off the ship in a rush to make a 10:30 appointment way south of the island. We jumped in a taxi using our perfected bartering skills and got an hour drive to Casela Nature and Leisure Park. The island is wonderful, sugar cane, beautiful roads adjacent to the seaside, and huge volcanic mountains in the center of the island. It is probably what Hawaii looked like in the early 1900’s before it was annexed, but smaller. There is a variety of cultures present in Mauritius, it was owned by the Dutch, then the French, and then the British and is the now one of the most prosperous countries in Africa with it’s own government and high end financial sector. Most of the people came from India and mixed with African slaves, so they look like darker Indian people but speak creole, a mixture of French and African tongues, but it was good for me because all the signs are in French. We arrived in Casela, in the middle of the tropical forest just in time for our appointment with some lovely, vicious lions. Walking with Lions!!!! We had signed up way before even embarking on the ship, we decided that this would be much better than going on a safari with Semester at Sea in South Africa, and we were right. We were given a wooden stick that the lions have been conditioned to be scared of and our guide explained the rules: don’t walk in front of them, don’t touch their face, don’t touch them when they are eating, and don’t shout or fall down. Other than that, we were walking with two lions, and could touch them whenever we wanted to. We waited in a circle with 4 others in our group, no SAS students were there, which was even better, and two lions came running at us which was an exilirating start to our walk. We were introduced to the 14 month old Lindsey and the 17 month old Lindy, who were both girls and still considered little ones, but oh my gosh they were gigantic. We were lucky, because it had been raining the days before so the guide said they get really playful during that time, when it is too hot they get lazy, and all we had to do is make sure we didn’t fall down on the muddy trails becoming a meal on the ground. They started fighting together in a playful way and would make lion sounds and then start snuggling it was really cute and spectacular. Their eyes would look at you, and they were mystical, the back of their ears were black and soft, and the tail was a little puffball that would smack you and you could grab it and then pet them. Their paws were huge, and their teeth were sharp when they barred them or growled. We walked around with them, and kept our sticks out, but got comfortable and all of us would take turn touching them, and running after them when they were playing, and of course, taking as many pictures as we could get. Because they were young, they sometimes didn’t listen to the trainers, and would run around and jump up in trees, and run into the brush and come out really fast behind us to our surprise. We stopped halfway, and one of the trainers had a satchel with a bunch of bird wings and he would put them on top of a really tall stake and have them take turns jumping straight up and lunging with their teeth. They could get up and would compete with each other for the meat, and then he would swipe it beneath our feet, so they would come over to us, attracted to the smell which was really cool. They would take breaks, and we could sit behind them, with our sticks and pet them for as long as we wanted, and scratch the back of their ears like our own big pet lion. They were the most beautiful animals, and it was safe and exciting but also pretty unregulated, there is no other place in the world that you could do this. The whole time, my jaw was wide open, but actually in some of the pictures, we are all just staring with our mouths open. They had a professional photographer who took a bunch of pictures, and a cameraman, as well as us taking our pictures, so we got about 150 pictures of the experience, as well as a 25 minute video of it. I could’ve stayed there the whole day playing with those huge lions, they liked Christina, she gave them a good scratching behind the ears, and would yawn and open up their mouths in satisfaction. I guess even wild animals could use a nice massage and love. We were sad to leave Lindy and Lindsey, but explored the grounds to see cheetahs, zebras, ostriches, and thousands of birds. Mauritius is the home to some of the most endangered islands, and has incredible diversity. Charles Darwin made a stop there, but eventually chose the Galapagos, and as you can see from the quote, Mark Twain loved it. The dodo bird, is on the crest of Mauritius, but was killed off by the Dutch settlers, but thankfully many endangered species have been saved in Mauritius, and their coral surrounding their island is being protected.

We left Casela, and went down to a beach town called Fliq en Flaq, and did some bartering. They absolutely love it, that we’re Americans, because they get people only from Europe, because to get to Mauritius from the U.S. it would be a 24 hour ordeal. You would have to go to Paris, London, or Dubai and then fly Air Mauritius to the island. It was funny, because they would start talking in French assuming we were European or give us the exchange rate to euros, and when we said “Hello” they would say “oh U.S.A.!” Their economy is based a lot on tourism, and they know that the U.S. is an untapped resource, so they love our business, and would give us good deals.

We took our taxi, all the way back up North past Port Louis, almost to the tip of the island in Turtle Bay to our hotel. We stayed at the Grand Mauritian, a Christmas present from Christina, and it was the most wonderful place I have ever been. It is in an excluded town, away from all the tourism, and the hotel lines about a mile of the beach and is a horizontal island paradise. I encourage people to look it up, and go stay there, because it is indescribable. We were taken into a grand atrium, open to the air and to a view of the beach, and a reflecting pool with beautiful flowers in the pool. The whole hotel is open air, with 2 infinity pools with trees in the middle, right before the beach, and the roofs are beautiful island thatch like those places in Bora Bora, or Tahiti. We were greeted by a receptionist who had us sit and we had a local fruit juice, with tamarind, mango, and a locally grown cinnamon stick in it. She too was excited to know that we were from the states, and was happy to wait on us like we were the King and Queen of Mauritius. We took a golf cart to our room, which was an upstairs room right on the beach looking out at the bay, with bright crystal clear water, the coral visible from our balcony. The room was gigantic itself, with every amenity you’d want, and we headed straight to the Boathouse down the beach. The boathouse offered snorkel gear and snorkel trips, kayaks, paddle boats, water skiing, and wind surfing all FREE OF CHARGE. Yes that is unheard of, we know, so we grabbed a kayak, and paddled out into the bay circumnavigating the beachline and heading out to the coral point and back. It started to drizzle a light, warm tropical rain while we were on the kayak which felt wonderful in the hot weather. When we got back, we jumped into the huge pool, the one aside our room about 10 feet from the beach. And played and sat our heads on the side of it, just watching the waves, and palm trees. By the way, this place had an incredibly relaxing feel, there was barely anyone there it felt like, there was one other couple in sight way down the beach. We felt like we should whisper and that this mile of hotel and beach was ours for the taking. After the pool, we headed to the beach, which is all marine park, only one of two on the island, which means that there were coral and many fish. We decided it was the perfect time to have our inaugural swim in the Indian Ocean. Not only was this our first time swimming in the Indian Ocean- it was also our first time swimming in the southern hemisphere! It was so warm and we floated serenely above the turquoise water. After bathing in the ocean, We got spiffed up and headed down the beach to the bar where we listened to some guitar and sax while the sun went down on the bay. It was a bright red sunset, reflecting off the water and we were all dressed up to go to the hotel’s Italian fine dining restaurant. We walked further down the beach past the other pool, which was all lit up and bigger than the one we had been in before, and the pool went into part of the restaurant. We enjoyed an Italian fused feast, of crab cakes, homemade foccacia bread, Christina had a delicious steak, and I had delectable lamb, along with a warm chocolate cake to finish it off right. Stuffed, we sat on one of the hammocks next to the beach, and relaxed, with some local drumming music in the background on the other side of the bay. Again there was no one around, which was wonderful, and we headed back to the main area of the hotel, where another band was playing. We started dancing, and out of nowhere some other couples came out and followed our lead and danced. We fell asleep with the sliding glass door of our patio open, to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach.

Waking up to the view outside our room was surreal. The sun was shining brightly and it was sure to be a gorgeous day.  Excited, we headed out to the pool around 7 and swam around, having the HUGE infinity pool all to ourselves… there was nobody around and once again it felt like we had the entire luxury resort to ourselves, well us and the attentive staff who would say “bonjour” excitedly every time we walked by and then when we would say hello, they’d give us a doubletake and realize that oohhhh we were the American couple, not from France or elsewhere in Europe like every other person who was staying at our hotel!  By the end of the day though they all knew us :)   After swimming around, we headed to the beautiful Seasons Restaurant (different than the Italian restaurant from last night) for a delicious breakfast buffet. They had everything you could want with an omelette bar, fresh breads, yogurts, pastries, and on and on and on.. also my favorite thing was their juice bar where they were making fresh squeezed juices on demand! It was sooo yummy and we sat in the beautiful atmosphere for a long time. Then it was time to head out to the beach… we grabbed one of the hundreds of comfy chez lounges and got comfy on this beautiful sandy outlet that was lifted up by rocks and overlooking the ocean, it was spectacular.  Especially because it seemed that no one was around, sure there were a few other guests, but it was the type of hotel where whispering was commonplace and you just didn’t seem to notice anyone else because we were so in paradise in our own world.  After about an hour of sunning and swimming, we headed over to the Boathouse and signed up for the 11:00 snorkel trip (included with our room rate- awesome!) and we were whisked off in a glass bottom boat to a beautiful offshore snorkel spot. It was so cool to be in the glass bottom boat- as most of Turtle bay is very shallow and thus we could see so much underneath us.. I couldn’t wait to get in the water! We saw soooo many cool fish, and the coral was fantastic.. so many colors and so much life. Mauritius is actually completely surrounded by a coral reef (it is the only island like that) which makes for beautiful snorkeling… there were parrot fish and trumpet fish and zebra fish and needlefish and tons of fish that we had no idea what they were, they must have been southern hemisphere fishies—but they were all colorful and the best part was that we had stolen a half a baguette from breakfast and Trevor brought it to feed all the fish! So they swarmed all around us and then would follow us as we snorkeled around.. it was so cool we were part of a school of tropical fish!  After snorkeling we went back to the hotel and suntanned some more. I stared completely relaxed into the gorgeous ocean and horizon as Trevor fell asleep, content in the sunshine.

Eventually, though, it was time to go :( I could have stayed at that hotel- in Mauritius forever and ever. It was truly paradise. The people were so nice and friendly and so eager to hear all about the USA, as nobody from the US travels to Mauritius (airfare is 3,000$ from the US—and that’s probably from New york not considering the extra from California!) the island is beautiful, just beautiful. And so pristine. I think this must be what Hawaii was like before it really took off with tourism. (don’t get me wrong, Hawaii is still gorgeous- but you know what I mean) Because, although there are major 5 star luxury hotels on Mauritius, all are very secluded like ours and very pristine and none are over two stories tall (just long stretches, but not big overtaking structures) it is just so heavenly, so pristine and seemingly untouched.

We called our taxi cab driver from the day before, Hambel, to come pick us up and he excitedly said he would come straight away!  He was so nice to come all the way to get us, and for the 45 minute drive back down the west coast of Mauritius he continued talking to us all about our lives in America and his life in Mauritius (he told us all about his wife and how they do not have kids because it is just way too expensive right now to own property and they will wait until they have a house, she is a nurse and he is a taxi driver and he is the oldest of 10 children.. he says that that is common for people his age to have tons of siblings, but he says ‘one child is enough for me’ as it has gotten just too expensive.. he also told us all about nightlife in mauritius and how he likes to take his wife to the seaside to watch the sunset and then to the waterfront district if they want to go out dancing, he also told us all about mauritian culture, language, etc and of course we did the same, informing him of college in the US, how we met, the semester at sea program, and all about our life—it truly is amazing how two cultures can be so different, yet in talking to him we made such a connection, you just want to know more and more of their way of life, because even though it may seem so different, he really is just like us)

We told him to drop us off in the city center and we would walk back to the ship, and he did just that. The city center and waterfront district of Port Louis were very nice. The center had a very banking/financial district feel to it as the streets were clean and the buildings beautiful colonial style. It seemed similar to downtown Honolulu.. we walked from there to a market, where I bought fresh cinnamon sticks (yum!) and a couple other souveneirs.. then we walked to the waterfront, which is very new and is a lot like Jack London Square.. with restaurants, bars, etc and of course they too had a fancy pizza hut like every other country!!  Walking on the waterfront back to the ship, I did not want to leave. In two days we had done and enjoyed so much, but I just wished we had a year there!!!! But it was back to the ship for breakfast dinner, where we bragged to our friends all about walking with lions and our deluxe 5 star resort! We also sat and ate with my “dad” (the father of my extended family on the ship) who is a physics professor at University of Tennesee and he’s from Knoxville and he chatted with me and trev for a long time all about our adventures..he was excited when we told him about all the watersports at our hotel and he even invited us to come visit him and his wifes’ lakehouse in Knoxville where they love to go waterskiing—he said he’d teach us to one-leg waterski so we’ll have to take him up on that offer! Oh by the way the best part of this dinner was that it was breakfast for dinner! So, even though we were leaving the beautiful paradise of Mauritius, we were happy to be back home :)

 I am just so ecstatic that we were so lucky to have seen the wonderful country of Mauritius and I hope I will be back sometime soon. 

Its onto Cape Town now and I could not be more excited. This is surely going to be one of the greatest ports and I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep anticipating it for the next 5 days!