Delicious. Mauritius.

Our trip to Mauritius was definitely a little rocky. We left Cape Town and could immediately feel “the motion”. It was so bad that the captain actually had to change our course to try to avoid it. We ended up hugging the coast of South Africa so closely we could actually see land for a whole day (which NEVER happens). We didn’t break from the coast till the last possible second.

We docked into Port Louis, Mauritius on October 15th nd it was very pretty. I got off with melissa, amanda, sam, dani etc. The easiest way to get across to the waterfront shopping area was to take a water tax,i which was quite an adventure. You had to climb down this rickety ladder right near the hull of our ship and then wait for enough people to get in it for the guy to deem it full enough to leave. It was a 5 minute ride through the harbor to the Caudan Waterfront. Again, we were immediately met with a mall with all these kitschy touristy shops. We walked outside the mall and we were met with a Mcdonalds. We wandered around that area and there was another mall, but it was expensive. There was also a casino in the shape of a pirate ship...that was funny.

Sam and I ended up losing the rest of the giant group and doing our own thing. We asked for directions to the Grand Central Market, which i heard had a food market- which i needed for class. It ended up being a very cool market right nearby. We just wandered around for about 2 hours I got a magnet and bracelet and we looked at all the food being sold. There was so much ridiculous fruit everywhere. We wandered out and found ourselves in Chinatown. Mauritius is mainly inhabited by Chinese & Indians so their influence is seen/felt everywhere and much of the food sold is either Chinese or Indian (great precursor to what we are going to get for the next month). Chinatown was fun they had these big towers done in the Chinese architectural style and lots of restaurants and stuff. Sam and I made our way back to the waterfront and had Mcdonalds for lunch, after ship food junk is necessary every once in a while. Then got back on another water taxi to the boat to meet everyone to head out to the villa.

We finally found out shuttle and all piled. There were more people then just going to our villa as the guy we rented it from had 2 villas and the shuttle was for people going to both. Kareem, Deborah & Kyle were also just coming out for the day and they were on the shuttle too. It took about a half hour to get out to the villa and it was super nice. There was a property manager whose house was out front and the house had 5 bedrooms, a pool and a huge living room. Kareem, Cynthia, Corinne, Deborah, Kyle, Vicky and I all decided to head out to the beach. Cynthia, Vicky & I wanted drinks and the property manager was walking us out towards to the beach he said there was somewhere we could pick stuff up. He ended up taking us to this really nice but fancy and expensive restaurant right on the beach to get drinks. We just wanted to go but Cynthia is typical texas loaded and she goes "money isn't an issue for me ill just buy as all a drink". So we had pina coladas and it was really pretty.

After our drinks we headed down to the beach and it was really pretty. There was blue blue water, it was a little chilly it wasn't hot out but it was fun. It started to cool down a lot and we walked back to the villa.

When we got to the Villa we immediately asked the property manager guy to take us to the store to get alch. and snacks and he was super nice and took us to the store and even came in with us. It was the Mauritian equivalent to Wal-Mart. It was HUGE and had everything- clothes, electronics, food everything. Very cool. We got snacks and booze. A bottle of Mauritian rum was 86 rupees- 30 rupees to the dollar so yeah that is about 3 dollars. It was great. So Cynthia and I split and got 1 bottle of Good Will rum and a bottle of Smirnoff. They also had these like mixed drinks in a bottle called "Bad Girls" we thought those were hilarious so we got some of those too. Then we headed back to the villa to hang out and drink there. We ordered pizza and Cynthia and I went antisoc and brought our bottle upstairs and started our own party. Very few girls can party like us southern sorostitutes.

Gen, Drew, Kara and a bunch of other people showed up and we played kings. We basically just hung out and drank all night it was super chill and fun. Sam's camera also goes underwater and so we all got back in the pool and took a bunch of pictures, which was wicked fun. I hopped a cab back to the ship with Kareem, Deborah & Kyle since I had a trip super early the next am. It was a good choice and I was happy i got back ok.

The next day I woke up and thankfully Kareem was on my trip so we woke each other up. We headed up to the bus and ended up having to wait to forever cuz a bunch of the kids coming from villas hit traffic and called the field office and asked them to hold the bus. We had an hour ride and pulled through this sugar cane up to this tiny dock and all this gorgeous blue water. We got on a glass bottom boat and headed out to the Isle De Deux Coco. We could see so much going to the island there was a ton of coral and loads of fishies.

When we first got to the island it was a little disorganized and we ganked chairs. We were informed on the bus that because of an incident on the same trip last spring no alcohol would be served which was sort of a bummer, but it was so pretty it didn't really matter. After getting settled we headed back out in the glass bottom boats to the marine park area to snorkel. They didn't have enough gear for all of us so 3 of us just went on the glass bottom boat out there and i sorta chocked it up to if i get to snorkel i do if not its not the end of the world. Some people only went out for like 5 minutes so we switched out and i put on the gear and in i went. There was so much to see! I saw a dory (from Finding Nemo) and a ton of zebra fish. The coral was amazing and we were so close that when i stuck my head out of the water i was nervous i was going to kick it. The fish were super friendly and kept swimming right up to us. It took a little while to get the hang of the snorkel and the breathing under water i did a lot of hyperventilating at first. It was very very fun and i had a bit of an issue getting back onto the boat because there wasn’t a ladder and it was slippery it took some teamwork. We headed back to the island and laid out for a while and then they had this huge bbq for us and all this fresh fruit it was so yummy. We explored the island a little. It was very very tiny and they have one villa. it sleeps 4 people and it costs 3,000 euro to rent the island for 24 hours (that is like 5 grand) and it includes a full staff of 30. The villa was pretty but i dunno if i would say it was worth 5 grand. They said there are a lot of people who get married there and stuff too. We looked for shells and laid out and it was a super relaxing afternoon. We headed back to the ship at about 4 and I got back and showered and stuff. Kara got back from her trip and I convinced her to head back out to the villa. It did take some persuading, but we met up with liz and steven who were also going back out and we all split a cab.

We got to the villa as everyone was getting ready to head out. I pregamed with gen, drew and cav and then all 15 of us headed to the bar/restaurant area. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and then headed to the Banana Beach Club. I had heard of this place from my jazz professor in class as a possible place to go to hear jazz. I expected it to be a little beachy place but this place was hopping and PACKED with SAS kids. As we walked up there were just drunk kids everywhere. It was a mess. One girl even lay down in the road and was like rolling around and stuff. Getting inside was very hectic and somewhere in the process we lost Drew. Turns out his Midwestern charm took over and he decided that the girl rolling in the street who was too drunk to stand up and the bouncer wouldn’t let in the bar needed to go home. He was right, but it turned into the whole big dramaful event. Oh did I mention said drunk girl is also the girl that hooked up with my safari ranger? Yup, one in the same. She is a baby and that is part of the problem. She just graduated high school in June and is going to Middlebury. They have this program where you can study abroad 1st semster frosh year. It is took young to be trying to keep up with kids who have been doing college for 3 years.

Anyways, so we lost drew. We only stayed in Banana Beach Club for a little because there were all these wasted annoying girls and professors and life long learners were there and it was awkward. We went to some bar called the Godfather for a while and then headed back to the Banana Beach Club. Cav and I were trying to arrange cabs for everyone back but it was futile. Finally, I gave up and Cav told me to run across the street to get the best sandwich ever created. Cav then came running over and was like I got a cab we have to go! So I was said eff the sandwich and ran to the cab. After all the work Cav put in they left without him and we found the cab and they were full and kept going without us. This is why I do not trust most of these kids to really go out hard with. So Cav and I chilled and ate my yummy sandwich. We watched all the drunk SASers and even saw a HUGE SAS fight break out…all very interesting. Finally, we found a cab back and went to sleep.

In the morning there was 6 of us left at the Villa. We cleaned up and were leaving and saw that we were leaving behind a ton of booze. We couldn’t bring it back onto the boat with us, but we realized we could bring it back to the port and drop our stuff and then go out and drink it somewhere. We took cabs back to the port. I spent more money on cabs then anything else in Mauritius. The girls ran onto the ship dropped all our stuff and the boys stuff got changed and left to meet the boys who were waiting outside the gangway with our alch. We went to get on the water taxi to head to the waterfront. The water taxis don’t leave until they are full so when we got on our executive dean was just sitting in it waiting for it to leave, so we offered him a beer and he accepted! This was the highlight and one of the juxtaposing situations that SAS puts you in constantly. We hung out on the water taxi drinking with our dean at noon. It was great! Then we headed to the waterfront and walked around Port Louis all afternoon. We had Chinese food for lunch, but since it was Diwali most everything was closed. It was a fun day just exploring, we stopped at a little café for drinks before we got back on the boat for India.

Mauritius was fun but it really was just like Delta Upsilon beach weekend or fall break. It was a party port (one of our last) and it was a good adventure!