Mauritius

Monday, February 28, 2011
Yesterday we woke up in Mauritius after bouncing through high waves in the Indian Ocean caused by a storm coming out of the Antarctica for several days. Mauritius is an island east of Madagascar that I had never heard of before. It is supposedly becoming a great tourist spot for Europeans, South Africans, etc. I heard they have lovely beaches and resorts here but I never saw one.

All 15 of our family went on a city orientation tour of Port Louis which is the capital city. It is the first side trip we have all taken together. It turns out it should have been a trip all 15 of us should have skipped as none of us thought it was very good. It was Sunday so as we drove through Chinatown, the Muslim area, etc. nothing was open. We went to the top of a hill where an old fort was located. Being Sunday the fort was closed. The views were beautiful from there and our guide pointed out a mosque, Anglican Church, Catholic Church, Hindu temple, etc. in the distance and she said they all live peacefully together. Isn’t it nice to hear different religions can actually be tolerant of one another? We learned 57% of the population is Hindu. There is a special Hindu festival called Maha Shivaratree that is to take place on March 1st. The Hindu people were starting to make a pilgrimage to someplace on the southern part of the island. We were told the traffic would be bad and we should make sure we allowed enough time to get back to the ship by the time we were supposed to. However, we never saw any evidence of this.

While up at this fort I came across a SAS student holding what looked like a grape from a tree. She was peeling off the skin and wanted to taste it. I told her to wait until I took a few to our guide to see what it was and if it was safe to eat. When I got to the guide she looked at them and said they were from a glue tree. I asked, “Glue tree?” And she said yes that if you have one of these trees in your backyard, you never have to buy glue. I never knew there was such a tree and was so glad I asked the guide before the student glued her mouth shut.

Next we headed to a botanical garden where we were to spend the next two hours. We saw one tree after the other and were told about each one. It was about 90 degrees and the humidity the same. We saw a Sausage tree that elephants like to eat, a camphor tree, an almond tree, a Boabab tree that produces a fruit that can’t be eaten but massage oils are extracted from, a Talipot palm tree that doesn’t produce a flower that looks like a fireworks display until it reaches 60 years of age and then the flower lasts one to two months depending on the weather and then the tree dies. We also saw giant water lilies, lotus flowers, beautiful birds and huge tortoises in this park.

We learned that school is compulsory here and the children all wear uniforms. In school the kids all learn both French and English. This island has been run by the Dutch, British and French in the past. They raise a lot of sugarcane, pineapple, and anthiriums. They also do a lot of tuna fishing, tourist business, and textile business and also have gold. So they are a pretty rich country.

On the way home from our city tour several of us asked to be dropped off downtown. We went into a shopping center but again not much was open except for restaurants and a few kiosks selling postcards, etc. We sat down and had a beer. It was still so warm and humid that the beer actually tasted good even though I don’t really like it. Then we boarded a water taxi for a ride back to our ship.

When we arrived back to the ship we watched as the students lined up outside when returning from their beach excursions. Some went snorkeling, some scuba diving and some must have just gone to the beach and drank. Most looked very healthy with their pink glows from the sun and many were wobbling from what they had been drinking. One kid had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. There have been rumors going around that he was dehydrated and had been drinking something but not water. One of the doctors on board went to the hospital with him and came back to the ship just before we pulled away from the dock last night. The doctor’s husband who is with her on the ship is also a doctor but retired. He ended up getting off the ship and stayed with the student in the hospital. I wonder if he will meet up with us again when we reach India. We heard four other students were down in the ship’s doctor’s office drying out. This ship used to spend a night or two in Mauritius but a few years ago some students behaved so badly at one of these resorts that we are not welcome there anymore. So sad some kids have to learn the hard way. I don’t understand why SAS stops here because it just seems to be a party place for the kids. Maybe it is a place to refuel and break up the trip from South Africa to India because it took four days at sea to get to Mauritius and now we have six more days to India.

I just heard over the intercom that we are having a mandatory meeting tonight to talk about the time we spent in Mauritius and get an update on the student in the hospital. I will wait to post this on the blog until after that meeting.

I’m back from our meeting and we learned that the student was in the hospital because of severe intoxication. It looks like he is going to live but it must have been touch and go at some point. The dean talked about 90% of the student population understanding what it is about to be part of this shipboard community and the other 10% thinking it is just a big party. Hopefully the students have learned a lesson here and will be more careful about their drinking habits from now on.