The "banned" port
After the big fiasco of being forced to skip our scheduled 10 hour stop in Mauritius due to bad weather, WE ACTUALLY GOT TO DISEMBARK! The weather gods must have been on our side because yesterday (march 6th) as were floating past random inhabited islands cruising towards Mauritius for the sole purpose of stopping to get gas then continuing on to stay on time for our arrival in India the unexpected happened! Its announced that we will be able to see Mauritius! Only the catch is that we only have 5 hours to do so…
Its seven am and were on land! Pretty much the whole shipboard community take off towards the beaches, the closest beach is 30 minutes away. Do the math, that's at least an hour of travel time out of a 5 hour day. And realistically to avoid dock time, one should be back no later than 11:15 to avoid long lines. So remembering that I currently live on a boat and I am from California, I had absolutely no plans to waste my time in Mauritius by going to the beach to see something I see every single day with the people I try to avoid every single day! Instead Haley and I head into town to explore the waterfront and markets. The only problem is its 7 am on a Wednesday. Nothing opens in port Louis until roughly 9 o'clock. So we grab some fresh fruit juice and wander around until the markets open! We know absolutely nothing about the island or cultures, but as soon as the markets open we realize that Mauritius is mostly dominated by the Hindu culture! The markets were filled with beautiful colored fabrics and trinkets! It literally got me so pumped for India! The only reason im bummed out about India is because we miss the Holi Festival by just a few days! Its main day of celebration this year is march 8th and ill be in the middle of the Indian ocean.. so since I couldn't be in India for Holi, I brought Holi to the sea! As soon as I spotted the bags of colorful dusts and powders I knew exactly what they were! Haley and I both purchased 5 bags of different colors for under 3 bucks and crossed our fingers we'd be able to get them onto the boat! While exploring the waterfront and the markets we ran into Holly, the life long learner so all three of us kept exploring and got some traditional henna tattoos and some delicious street food! ! Four hours seemed to go by faster than we expected and soon enough we had to head back to the ship. Four hours was clearly not enough time to even tip our toes into the cultures behind Mauritius, but yet again even the six days we get in other countries isn't enough either! Im always left wanting more and Mauritius left me craving a big bite of India!
Once we got back on board we swapped our experiences with other students & I couldn't of been happier on my choice to stay in town. Apparently the beaches were jammed with SAS kids, chanting "U-S-A" and littering on the beach.(this also contributes to the reason SAS is banned form staying over night on this particular island). Now do you guys understand why I like to avoid the SAS crowds? Its bad to categorize everyone into this group, but a majority of my fellow students are really wealthy kids that did not have to lift a finger to achieve this awesome experience and have no sense of respect… and theres some really awesome people as well, theres just less of them! – but enough ranting! Although I only had a morning on this island I appreciate that I got to see what I saw and experience what I experienced!
Love and miss you all!
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