Mauritius

Mauritius has some beautiful beaches, lots of tortoises, and some great chocolate cake! On our first day (March 1) Evan, Mason, and I went with our adoptive mom Tatjana (who is also Global Studies coordinator and a Bio prof) and the inter-port lecturer Dennis to La Vanille Tortoise and Crocodile Park on the South part of the island. We had a lot of fun there- we did get to cuddle some tortoises and when they are not lying around looking like big rocks they are procreating- quite a humorous sight. The males can weigh up to 250 kg and the females up to 150 kg. There was one tortoise who kept following us around! And when we pet him he started making a Darth Vader-like sound (his form of purring). We also saw fruit bats, geckos, iguanas, crocs, monkeys, turtles, birds, donkeys, and lots of insects.
For lunch we went to the restaurant inside the park and Dennis treated us all to chocolate cake (since he had hyped it up so much!) It was really good! I tried a piece of his crocodile steak- It wasn’t bad. Since Mauritius was a French colony for a short time the French language is still widely spoken and most restaurants menus are in French. It also means they have a lot of baguettes- which is what I ate!
On our second day the three of us visited the Pampalmousses Botanical Gardens and the Sugar Museum. At the end of the sugar tour we got to try all 12 different types of Mauritian sugar! We spent the last few hours of the day at the beautiful Trois Aux Biches.
The next morning we had a Service Visit to an elderly home (but we were all disappointed because we didn’t actually service anyone). We then visited a random grave site (also disappointing) and finally (after our trip had already run over by an hour) went to a teen center. The teens at this school had failed their CP exam (High School entrance exam). They don’t get a second chance at this test and this teen center is a type of vocational school- teaching them the arts (and crafts) of basket weaving and necklace making. Unfortunately there are some really young kids there as well- as young as 9 years old- and these kids are already destined to a life without formal education.
On our last day we signed up for a Medicine in Mauritius field trip but it wasn’t worth it. We had a great Indian lunch of 7 different types of curries, naan, and rice- served on banana leaves and eaten with our hands. (But Evan, Mason, and I skipped out on the end of the tour).
The highlight of the day was probably when we hit a pedestrian with our bus. We heard a large thump, looked out the back window and there was a man staggering and clutching is arm. Our guide claims he was a drug addict faking injury trying to get money from us.
One night we went up to Grand Baie (the big resort/beach area). We had our cab driver drop us off at the beach at about 5:30 pm (the sun was setting) and he looked at us like we were truly crazy. We had a great dinner at Don Camillo (excellent pizza)- but we had to walk through a gas station to get there.
Overall we had an interesting time on Mauritius- we saw and did a lot and didn’t even get as much beach time as we hoped!
Apparently SAS is not going back (some of the students are giving us a bad rap)- next fall they are going to Namibia instead (I am extremely jealous).