PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS – MARCH 25th
Sailing to Mauritius from Nosy Be’, Madagascar was a bit
iffy. When we left Nosy Be’ on Friday,
our Captain announced that he would decide by Sunday if we would be able to
visit Mauritius because of the severe weather conditions occurring in this part
of the world. As reported earlier, there
were cyclones in this area and, of course, safety being of the utmost
importance, we wouldn’t know until Sunday whether our stop on Monday would take
place. Over the weekend, the rocking and
rolling on the ship was pretty bad but things smoothed out and we were able to
make our scheduled stop in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, on Monday,
March 25th.
We had already turned in our passports to Guest Services and
we were required to fill out Disembarkation Cards as well as Health
Declarations which were all turned in to the Immigration authorities in
Mauritius; passports would be returned
to us Monday evening. Once again, these
are the hoops we have to jump through while on an organized World Cruise and,
yet, there are those in our country who don’t see a problem with people
illegally entering our country.
As can be seen by the map, Mauritius, a volcanic island,
lies in the Indian Ocean around 1,200 miles off the southeast coast of
Africa. It is lush and beautiful, with
lovely mountain ranges, fine beaches, stunning coral reefs and picturesque
villages. Port Louis has a population of
almost 148,000 people. There are two
seasons – summer and winter – with little difference in temperatures. Summer is from November to April with temps
averaging 78 F. Winter is from May to
October with temps around 72 F. English
and French are spoken as well as Creole.
Local currency is the Mauritian Rupee (MUR). Mauritius is a multicultural super center
where, according to our port guide, “Hindus, Christians and Muslims live in
perfect harmony thanks to the region’s adherence to traditional and
conservative customs and ethics.” The
guide also says Mauritius is regarded as one of the only places on Earth where
the nearly extinct Dodo bird resides – although I’ve also heard it is actually
extinct.
Fellow passengers went on many of the available excursions
and their pictures were beautiful. After
our experience in Nosy Be’, I had it with hours-long excursions in these
temperatures and we took the free shuttle to the nearby Le Caudan
Waterfront. It’s a beautiful waterfront
with a great mall housing 150 retail outlets, fruit and vegetables stands,
modern buildings, restaurants, casino, and even a store that sold woolens! I can’t imagine who wears woolens around here
but, perhaps, tourists buy them to take home.
The walkway between the mall shops on either side was canopied with
brightly colored umbrellas and a loving setting. Dreamcatchers appear to be popular in this part of the world.
We spent a lovely morning walking around and shopping. Our big purchase of the day, in addition to
our magnet, was salt which is mined in Mauritius.
After my experience in Nosy Be, with the exception of our
upcoming overnight safari in South Africa, we have no other organized
excursions booked. Unless something
really spectacular comes up, we’re very happy to do our thing enjoying our last
several weeks onboard. Time is going way
too fast!
MICHAEL’S OBSERVATIONS:
As Leona has already pointed out,
it is absolutely how strictly these countries maintain their borders. Picture a cruise ship with about 600 grey-haired
passengers who have enough time and money to spend 3 ½ months cruising the
world on a ship so big you’d have to be blind not to notice it in the
harbor. California and the rest of the
liberal West and East coasts should learn a lesson from these countries on how
to control their borders and know who’s coming and going.
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