Bonzour Mauritius!

**So, Mauritius happened between South Africa and India but I had to post the India video while I was in port so I apologize for the disorder.

Mauritius? “What/where is that?” That is the usual response I got from people when I would ramble off the list of countries I would be visiting during my voyage. Sad part was that I couldn’t really answer their question because I didn’t even know myself. In fact I had been pronouncing the name incorrectly up until the voyage (it is pronounced “Mo-Ri-Shus” by the way). Mauritius, or “I’lle Maurice” is an Island nation in the Indian Ocean just east of Madagascar. The people of Mauritius are predominantly of Indian decent, however the language spoken throughout the island is a French creole. The official language is English however but the lingua franca is Mauritian Creole.  We arrived in Mauritius on a Monday night. We weren’t scheduled to arrive until the next day but due to a medical emergency we had to pick up the speed a day after we left Cape Town in order to get that person med vac to India. Don’t be too alarmed, it wasn’t life or death per say, but the person detached their retina and was in danger of losing their vision if something wasn’t done ASAP. 
That evening a US Navy officer came onboard to give us a diplomatic briefing. Unfortunately for us although all of our passports were stamped that evening we weren’t allowed to leave the ship until the next morning…booooo! Especially since we would only be there for the day. Myself, Lauren and the ship’s photographer found out the hard way that Port Louis, the capital city, does not come alive until way after 9am. Trying to find breakfast in the city was major bust! Most people do not live in Port Louis but rather commute. We, at the point of being HANGRY, luckily found a street vendor who sold some really delicious pastries! My plans for the day were also a major bust.  My friend and I had planned on hiking to the Victoria waterfalls and then vegging out and having drinks on Flic n Flac beach. Much to our disappointment buses did not run out to the area where we were planning to hike and taxis were, excuse my French, expensive as shit!!! $120 was the cheapest we could get. $60 (splitting the cost) was not in my budget for cab fare for one day. I don’t think I even spent that much collectively in my entire week in Cape Town! So future SASers and anyone else traveling to Mauritius beware…cabs are EXPENSIVE. You are better off if you go in a group of 5 and hire the taxi for the day. Otherwise I suggest taking the public bus which is what we did. We spent about $1 each way to Flic n Flac beach. We walked about 2 miles up the beach and had drinks at a random resort. Mauritius is a volcanic island. It is one of the most beautiful and picturesque islands I’ve ever been to. I’ve never been to Hawaii (will be there soon though!) but I imagine that’s what it looks like. It was a little tough communicating with people though. It was kind of weird too. They are Indian but they speak French…kind of. My attempts to speak French to anyone weren’t very successful. They didn’t understand my French and I didn’t understand theirs. They also did not understand my English. But eventually you will run into someone who understands. So no worries. We dipped in the Indian ocean and walked around and before we knew it, it was time to go. We made it back to Port Louis only to realize I still had all of my Mauritian Rupees. Oops. I went on a souvenir shopping spree with little time to spare. I got a ton of leather bracelets for a good price though….woo hoo! And then…the unthinkable happened. We were heading back in the water taxi 30 minutes before the on ship time of 18:00hrs. When we arrived we were surprised to find a 60 person deep line to get on the ship…fuuuuuck!!! 15 minutes to spare. For those who don’t know, if you are late to on ship time you get in big trouble and are punished by what’s called “dock time.” Dock time essentially means you have to stay on the ship for an allotted amount of time (first 15 min= 2 hrs of dock time and increases in 2 hr increments thereafter) at the next port while everyone else is out having fun. It also gives you negative points in the “behavior system” SAS has set up. If you lose enough points you get sent home. I swear the check in line/security has never moved slower. And of course, just our luck…we swiped in at 18:03….soooo guesss who’s getting dock time? This guy right here! Oh well, Mauritius was awesome and well worth it. I guess that’s 2 hrs less in India :/.