Mauritius

We landed in Mauritius, an island 800 Km from Madagascar and 1800 Km east of Africa. Discovered by the Arabs and the Portugese, Mauritius was first settled by the Dutch in 1598. It was taken over by the French in 1715 and the British in 1810. Mauritius became its own republic in 1992. The European settlers opened sugar cane fields and imported slaves from Africa and workers and indentured workers from India. Today, the population, in order of numbers, is comprised of Indian, African and European people. English is the official language, although a majority speak Creole and Hindi, with the newspapers published in French. The island is relatively prosperous, with sugar cane giving way more and more to computer-related industry. The literacy rate on Mauritius is very high.

We only had two days and one night in Mauritius, so we decided to book a hotel in Pointe Aux Piments, a village up the northwest coast about 30 minutes away from Port Louis, the capital city where we docked. There are loads of 5 star hotels on Mauritius, which is a holiday destination for Europeans and Africans. Our hotel was more modest, but still included snorkeling, kayaking, pedal-boats, a lovely pool, and a trip on a glass bottom boat to see the coral reefs and snorkel from the boat. And we were right on the beach!

Our hotel had two eating areas and lovely coconut trees everywhere.

After a morning of snorkeling at the beach and swimming in the pool, we had lunch.

In the afternoon, we headed out on the glass bottom boat and saw colorful fish and some beautiful reef areas. The water was crystal clear.

Dinner was an Indian buffet.

The breakfast buffet included a lovely tropical fruit bar.

After a morning of snorkeling and boating, we took a cab back to Port Louis, passing the sugar cane fields along the way. In Port Louis, we ate lunch at the harbour.

Friends of the Phoenix Theatre in Indy will know all about Mauritius, as the Phoenix produced a play called Mauritius last season! Mauritius was the fourth country in the world to produce printed stamps, and we went to the Postal Museum to see the valuable stamps on display. The most prized stamps on display were the Penny Black, produced in 1840, and four other stamps produced in 1847 and 1848.

The streets of Port Louis were alive with markets and shops.

We went to an interior market that contained produce on one side and textiles on the other.


The town is a fascinating mixture of old and new and contains several mosques, Hindu temples and Catholic churches.

The sun was extremely hot, so we headed back to the ship. Our ship was docked in a new location, and the quickest way to get there was via taxi boat.


We wished we had more time to explore the interior of Mauritius, which is known for its mountainous region.

As we rounded the corner of the MV Explorer, we saw one of our crew members touching up the blue paint!

The process of entering and leaving a port is always fascinating. The boat in the first photo is helping guide us out of the port. We passed many ships along the way--and people from the boats in the second photo all called out and waved as we went by.

The third boat is coming alongside the MV Explorer to pick up the Mauritian pilot, who had been on board to guide us out of the port. By law, a local pilot must always be on board when entering and leaving an international port.

The first video is of our welcome to Mauritius as we walked off the gangway. One of the main forms of music and dance on the island is the Sega, which was devised by the African slaves as a way of blowing off steam from their difficult lives. Like the Hula in Hawaii, the Sega has now become a tourist attraction, and the main hotels in Mauritius have Sega shows. This group was doing an abbreviated version of the Sega.

The second clip is taken from the balcony off our room as we left the Port Louis harbour and headed towards Africa.