Mauritius: Home of the Dodo

We had a delayed arrival into Mauritius due to rough weather, but that sure didn’t stop us! Since some of the early trips were cancelled, once we finally got off the ship, a few of us headed to the beach for a couple hours. Then I went to a multicultural evening event. Mauritius is truly a mixture of many different cultures including Indian, Chinese, Oriental, and Creole. We were greeted by a group performing traditional Sega dance and were served cocktails. Then we moved inside the restaurant for a Creole dinner and dance performances, followed by dancing of our own. It was a great way to begin our stay in Mauritius.

On Friday I went on a trip around the city that explored some of the diversity of the island. We visited a Tamil temple, the Muslim Cultural Center, a Catholic church, and a Chinese pagoda. To walk into the temple we had to take off our shoes. We stopped by the river for a Muslim lunch, and then proceeded to a colonial house. The house had over 100 doors and was huge. While here we were told about the Creole and Franco-Mauritian history on the island. Finally we arrived at the Mahatma Ghandi Institute where we saw an Indian dance performance. After the performance, one of the instructors was asking me where I went to school. I told her in the US, but she wanted to know the name of the school. When I told her Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she actually knew it. Her son had been accepted there, although he chose to attend a different school. But I was amazed that she had even heard of it. So I thought that was pretty cool.

On my last day in Mauritius I went to Adventure Park Chamarel. This was essentially a high ropes course. We were strapped into harnesses and crossed through the trees on bridges. There were also nets to walk across, ropes to swing from platform to platform, and a zipline. It was a blast. And a real workout. My entire body hurts today. After that, we spent some time relaxing at the beach before heading back to the ship. We then took the water taxi across the harbor to the waterfront for dinner and last minute shopping before getting back on the ship for another week at sea.