Mauritius, Africa

Pointe aux Sables, Mauritius, Africa.          Tuesday, March 3-Sunday, March 13, 2020

                Leaving Dubai at 10:15AM, our Emirates flight landed in Mahebourgh, Mauritius, Africa at 5:45PM....7 and a half hours later. Larry and I were surprised at how many people were on the plane. It was a double decker that had people waiting stand by, hoping to get on today.

Upon arriving we went through two Coronavirus checks....one a temperature check and second a passport check to make sure we weren’t coming from a contaminated area. Yes, they checked and double checked our China, South Korea, and Japan passport stamps from last year and they questioned the Italy passport stamp of February 14 this year. We got out of Italy just in time to miss the virus problems that occurred a couple of days later. We are so lucky to have missed those areas of contamination....we were just south of those areas.

Our prearranged driver did not show up at the airport, so we hired a taxi. It took about an hour to find our home on Golden Road  in Pointe aux Sables.

                                                                    Mauritius flag

                                                          Mauritius car license plate

        This beautiful bouquet was in the airport public restroom. What a nice welcome to us ladies!

After passing through the coronavirus checks, immigration, and picking up our luggage, we took a taxi to our home on Golden Road, Pointe aux Sables, Port Louis, Mauritius....arriving at 8:30 PM.

                           Our two bedroom, two bath home was really quite lovely...except it had no air conditioning and no screens on the windows. We were very surprised because the only question we asked before making an agreement was, “Do you have air conditioning?”  which the reply was, “Yes, of course.”  Sometimes things get mixed up and misunderstood in the translation between languages.

                                              The flowers around Anita’s house were lovely.

                 A little store was just a few steps from our house....how convenient is that?

                 The owner’s mother made fresh bread and people came from all over to purchase it.

The home’s owner, Anita, had her 90 year old  father, Sam, living next door. He has lived in Mauritius his whole life and is still working as a taxi cab driver. We spent a morning talking with him.  Sam shared so many stories about his country. He was really enjoyable to spend time with.

The French ruled The Isle of France (Mauritius) since 1715. Brits gained it during the Napoleonic Wars in 1810 through the treaty of Paris.The French language remained more highly used than English.  The Brits brought the abolition of slavery in 1835.  Indian immigrates arrived in the 19th century working as indentured laborers  after slavery was abolished. 

Sam, who is of Indian decent told us that his grandfather arrived in 1840. They labored in the sugar cane fields. Also in the Indo-Mauritian community are Muslims (about 17% of the population) came from the Indian subcontinent. The Indo-Mauritian population became numerically dominate, political power shifted from Franco-Mauritian and Creole to Indo-Mauritian.

Mauritius is a lively melting pot of many cultures.

Sam proudly showed off his avocado tree. It was loaded, but he was angry at the people who were stealing them....Everything in Mauritius is compounded, under lock and key. Lots of tall fencing and bars on windows. To say the least we didn’t venture out at night.

Sam also welcomed us with a local bottle of liquid refreshment.

On March 12, 1968 the Mauritians obtained independence  from Great Britain and Seewoosagur Ramgoolam became Prime Minister.

Interestingly, Sam told us that things ran much smoother when the Brits were running the country.

Larry and I boarded a bus to find a grocery store to get some supplies. Figuring out the public transportation system is part of our fun adventure. We enjoy talking to the locals at the bus stops  and on the bus. Larry always manages to put a big smile on their faces.

             We found a store and went in....no air conditioning. It was really hot inside and out. This store had only these few spuds, (Larry’s mainstay) but they sold huge economy size bags of rice...they probably would last us several years.

                          There was an isle with nothing but spices, many I had never heard of.

The dried legumes took up a long isle as well.

We came home from our shopping spree with 2 $5.00 tomatoes, oatmeal, two dozen eggs for $5.50, shelf milk, crackers, canned tuna, canned corn beef, canned fruits....this store had very little fresh foods. We were hot! No air con in the store, nor on the bus. We went back to our place, Larry and I collapsed in front of our two fans.....WHEW!....and started our search for an air conditioned Airbnb or VRBO.

Mauritius reminded us of our stay in East Timor.....the heat.

The houses are all in compounds...tall iron gates, 

cinderblock walls....

everything is locked up. Windows have bars over them.

Picturesque sunsets on this tropical isle were a daily occurrence.

Healthy palms.

Grocery shopping was very limited...this store/restaurant was a mile walk from our Albion apartment.

Mauritius had gorgeous natural beaches and warm waters for swimming.

Mauritius has an efficient busing system. Larry  and I rode  the buses all over the island. Taxis are very expensive.

Buses post seating and standing restrictions.

There are lots of stray dogs....they have the saddest, take me home with you eyes.

The locals are so friendly. They always went out of their way to give us help and directions.

Larry found a great two bedroom, one bath apartment in Albion through VRBO. So we took a cab to it to check out the air conditioning.  Turned out that the air con was not so great, but the owner called us later saying newA/C had been installed. We moved in the next day. Extreme heat zaps your energy but cool air pumps you up.

Sunday, our hosts, Régis and Kathy invited us to their church.

This is the pastor and his wife.

An hour of music...mostly in French and Creole. 

           Two interpreters sat beside us and translated the service....it was a very moving service.

Afterwards, we were invited to stay for their monthly luncheon. What a nice congregation.

Monday, we walked a half mile to catch the blue bus into Port Louis...45 to 60 minutes depending on traffic.

We passed some majestic mountains when taking the bus into Port Louis, the Capitol.

A local cemetery

We arrived at Harbour Front, a touristy area.

Port Louis was a mixture of....

Old and delapadated...

Street shops and

and modern luxury malls.

Poor and

rich.

                                                                  Dutch and

                                                               British Colonial architecture.

The town was decked out in its national colors in preparation of their Independence Day, Thursday, March 12 celebrating 52 years of independence.

                            Pictures of  the  extinct 50 pound Dodo bird was found everywhere on Mauritius.

                       The three floor city market was packed with several unusual fruits and vegetables.

The displays were...colorful and very fresh.

                                                    The flower market was bright.

Dried goods were plentiful.

The place was packed and extremely hot so we decided to head back to our apartment for some cool air and lunch.

On the way back, we stopped at Kathy’s dress design shop.

Kathy, our apartment hostess, is a French formal dress designer. She has a unique shop and business with her sisters. I enjoyed looking at her formal wedding gowns and catalogues. She and her sisters learned their craft from their mother who left Mauritius, opening her formal design shop in Paris. She shared a wonderful story of her families’ survival and return to Mauritius.

With the hot temperatures, we headed out early one morning for a two hour bus ride to Grand Baie...a beach resort town on the northern  part of the island.

We rode into Port Louis and found the correct connecting bus......there were three sections of about a hundred buses....organized chaos.

Our second bus of the day out of Port Louis heading north passed fields of vivid green sugar cane fields with sculptured mountains.

                                       Grand Baie was Larry’s kind of beach....lots of shade.

                                                       Lots of shade and beautiful views.

Our first swim in the Indian Ocean was refreshing from the summer heat.

Grand Baie was a typical tree lined beach town.

After touring the beach we found that the Islands Botanical Garden was about halfway back to Port Louis so we caught a bus for a quick stop to see the Mauritius gigantic lily pads.

These Lilly pads were the largest we’ve ever seen.

The gardens has over 80 species of palm.

Pink Lotus

We shared our picnic lunch with this Botanical Garden stray...she followed us throughout the gardens.

                                   We walked by a Hindu Temple on the way back to the bus.

We were so lucky to have an air conditioned bus  and a Lipton Mango Tea to sip on the way back back into Port Louis...awe, the simple pleasures of life.

Thursday, we grabbed a bus to Flic and Flac, the south western resort beach area.

Flic and Flac Beach was lined with lots of shade evergreen trees that led to a

                                               fantastic white sand beach....it was very nice.

                       Today families were enjoying the beach on Mauritius’ National Independence Day.

Mauritius had some unusual wildlife.

 We enjoyed watching the huge bats come out at night.

Mynah birds were easy to spot .

Fodies were the prettiest little red birds.

We enjoyed a cloudy super full moon while in Albion and

                                                     many, many colorful sunsets.

When we didn’t walk to the beach, we had this sunset view from our apartment.

On Thursday evening after getting an email from our friend Dan; Larry and I decided to cancel our cruise. Dan sent us a copy of the Washington Post that quoted the State Department directing US citizens to not board any cruise ships. 

That day I developed a cough.

Eeeeek! We were supposed to board our ship heading north towards Croatia  on Saturday, however 

that evening Larry booked us on a Saturday flight back to the states. We were heading home six weeks early. 

Friday morning, Kathy, our hostess, told us that they were getting ready to close the Mauritius Airport.

Eeeeek! 

Before breakfast, Kathy and Larry both got on their phones, calling the airport, trying to rearrange our flight for Friday. 

Finally after two hours of phone calls, we had a flight out of Mauritius at 4:45PM.

Kathy had her taxi driver pick us up at noon and delivered us to the airport at 1:30.

                                             Mauritius National Colors at the airport.

We boarded our Emirates flight to Dubai for a seven and half hour flight. We had a three hour lay over before boarding our 14.5 hour flight into Dulles International. We were shocked to pass through an hour long American immigration line without a Coronavirus temperature check.

We grabbed an Uber that took us to our wonderful Warrenton home where we hunkered down for a self imposed 14 day quarantine and a long winter nap after our 34 hours of straight travel.