i dropped a mauritian baby on a lava rock

Mauritius!  Spring break!  This little island in the Indian Ocean was a welcome break from school, let me tell you.  Apparently every time SAS arrives, it’s like a wave of locusts descending and destroying it.  This doesn’t have anything to do with my experience, or my post, but I need to get going somehow.

My buddy Elle’s “uncle” has a friend from college who lives in Mauritius and she invited Rachel, Nick, and I to go with her to visit him.  When she emailed him, he offered her his driver for the day, as well as some suggestions for what to do until going to his home for “tea and snacks.”  So as soon as we get off the ship at 10 am, our driver drove up in his mini-bus.  We got in and off to the beach we went!

It was raining.

Halfway through the drive through the sugar fields and strangely shaped mountains, we decided to go to the sugar museum instead of the beach to see if it would clear up.  It was a pretty interesting museum – lots of information that we didn’t feel like we had the time to read.  At the end of it, we tasted rum mixed with sugar (coffee-flavored and spice rum), as well as ten or so different types of sugar.  I bought a few packages for my family, then we got back in the car to drive to lunch near the beach.  We ate fresh lobster at a lavender-painted restaurant that blasted top 40 American pop songs on repeat.  Had some delicious local beer (Phoenix).

After a delicious lunch, we headed to a nearby public beach.  It was so peaceful – sailboats in the harbor, calm waters with no waves (unfortunately), the clearest bluest water you’ve ever seen.  It was beautiful (there’s that word again).  The patrons of the beach were all quiet middle-aged French people.  Some were topless.  Elle and Nick went swimming and exploring while Rachel and I applied sun lotion.  Unfortunately Rachel’s foot was hurting her, so she opted to stay on the beach while I went swimming after Nick and Elle.  We climbed over blackened lava rocks and looked for creatures in the shallow water, then swam to a nearby resort where we dove off a raft built for guests.  When we came back, we heard screaming on the beach – the SASers had found us!  Rachel was beyond irritated with the stupidity (no but really, so stupid) so we packed up our stuff and left.

About a half hour later, after a gorgeous drive through more sugarcane fields and tree-lined streets, we arrived at Ashraf’s house on the ocean.  This was probably the single most beautiful home I have ever seen.  There was an amazing atrium with a swimming pool, a living and dining room decorated with artwork from India, Tanzania, and other places of interest, and a massive wall of windows overlooking the backyard and the crashing ocean.  Stunning.

I could spend a very long time talking about just how generous Ashraf and his family was.  Not only did they invite four strangers into their home (and lend their driver to us!), but they provided Indian chai tea, samosas, a traditional Mauritian dish of a thin crepe-like wrap and three types of chutney (peanut butter, coconut, and tomato), fresh lime juice, and a chocolate orange cake.  Unbelievable.  Talking with them was probably the highlight of my visit – they were both so knowledgeable about Mauritian history and current events.  Lovely lovely people.  After spending three hours with us, Ashraf then went out of his way to find me a snorkeling trip for the following morning.  Love them.

Unfortunately I got sick on the way home due to dehydration, so I decided to stay in and watched “Amadeus.”  Good movie.  That’s all I have to report on that, I guess.  No one likes puking stories.

Next morning, Amy, Carly, Nick, and I got a cab to Flic-en-Flac, the beach where Ashraf’s friend recommended we snorkel.  We met up with Dan, the owner of a local dive shop, and he rented us equipment and took us out on his little speedboat to a nearby cove.  AMAZING!  I wrote a paper on the adventure – maybe I’ll post it.  I doubt anyone cares.  ANYWAY we saw a gigantic moray eel, beautiful bright colors, an uncountable number of purple sea urchins, strange sea cucumbers, a sea snake, and MAYBE an octopus.  Not quite sure on that – it was wedged in a rock.  We snorkeled for about an hour and a half, then Dan drove us past a beautiful waterfall.  Heaven is on a boat.

When we requested a nearby restaurant, Dan walked us a few blocks away to a Creole-French fusion restaurant run by one of his friends, then left us to our own devices (he had to lead a night dive – we paid him about $15 each including tip. Wild.).  We met some locals (including an Austrian who had recently relocated there and loved me) and drank, ate delicious Creole food (curry shrimp and a noodle dish called a “magic bowl” with god knows what in it), and enjoyed ourselves.  Brilliant.

After lunch we went back to the (entirely empty!) beach, as Dan had told us where to go afterwards for more snorkeling. At first, the other three were drinking on the shore, picking up little pieces of dead coral, and taking photos of the gorgeous water, then Nick and I decided to continue snorkeling and Amy and Carly quickly followed suite. The water was very very shallow, so Amy kept freaking out over the sea cucumbers (they looked like snakes) almost touching her.  I saw some cool shit, I don’t know.  We snorkeled for about an hour or so, then laid on the beach for another half hour before our driver, Rafick, came and picked us up.

We drove home listening to some “island” music, with some American pop thrown in for good measure, and Amy killed her bottle of rum.  We got back to the ship around 4pm – two hours before on-ship time – and went swimming in the pool.


SOUTH AFRICA TOMORROW.