I don't have internet to look up the exact quote, but Mark Twain, after a visit to Mauritius, said that God must have made Mauritius first, and modeled heaven after Mauritius.
Prior to that, when they were still planning on stopping at Mauritius for fuel only, they made so many efforts to lift our spirits; it was getting a little depressing in the end really, seeing them try so hard. First, on what was supposed to be pre-Mauritius night, they threw us an epic dance party up on the 7th deck. I wasn't there, because I was stubbornly shunning any attempts at making up for not going to Mauritius. But I hear it was like the best club you've ever been to, but out in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
On Mauritius day they gave us a barbecue, which was just as big a deal as Taco Day. Basically any day they give us a special meal, means a meal that isn't pasta and potatoes, and therefore is practically a holiday. Ok, I also admit that I took my money that I was originally going to use on scuba diving and treated myself to a massage at the spa. Yes, we have a spa. And their hot stone massages are to die for.
So basically they felt really really terrible for killing Mauritius for us, spoiled us like rotten children, and then found a way to let us off in Mauritius anyway, which I must say was really incredible on their part. I mean as far as I can tell they gained absolutely nothing by staying those few hours to let us off. In fact they probably lost out in the fuel consumption it will take now to get us to India on time. Anyway, Semester at Sea, ISE, UVA, I know I can speak for the entire student community when I express my most heartfelt thanks for doing that for us.
We arrived at 2200 last night. I, of course, was up on the observation deck watching us pull into port as has become tradition for me and one of my good friends. It was actually a pretty cool experience, first, because we are probably one of the only voyages to ever dock in Mauritius at night, and second, because we are actually banned from being in Mauritius at night and yet there we were. Of course seeing as we were there, and not allowed to get off the ship until morning, it was the longest night ever and I could not sleep for anything.
This morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to be first in the immigration line. No one is ever allowed to leave the ship until everyone on board has cleared immigration. They don't always do it in person, but what has happened the last two ports is that the immigration officials actually board our ship, we have to pick up our passports (they hold them all for us) present them to the officials, and then turn them back in. They usually set aside two hours for this entire process and so we were expected to be cleared by 8. Something Amazing happened though and it moved so quickly that they got us cleared by 7. One more hour in Mauritius!
We were off the ship as soon as the announcement sounded that we were cleared. We really had no plans. I hung out with two of my dive buddies and we had decided there just wasn't enough time to attempt a dive. So four of us found a cab and asked him to bring us to the closest beach. This guy was really cool. He stopped at a little street food stand along the way and bought us all breakfast - Faratas. They were this thin Indian naan-type bread, more like a tortilla really, with spicy curry filling, much like an Indian burrito of sorts. They were so good! Our driver was so excited that we liked them that he bought us all seconds. (I can't decide if he was really that nice or if he just overcharged us for the cab without us realizing and was feeling guilty).
A few miles later he dropped us off at a beach. I could have sworn I was back in the Caribbean, at Nautibeach, Isla Mujeres even. The sand was as white and fine as I've ever experienced it and the ocean was crystal clear and warm as bath water. I was actually surprised about how warm the water was because I'd had some delusion in my head previously that the Caribbean was the only sea/ocean water that was actually that warm. I would argue that the Indian Ocean here was even warmer though. Mauritius as an island is absolutely spectacular. I can see why it is considered Europe's Caribbean. It has the pristine beaches and they carefree island atmosphere. And the mountain ranges are simply otherworldly. The peaks come to such sharp steep points that they look like something out of a fantasy novel. The only difference is that the cultural influence comes majorly from India and China, and so every restaurant that isn't seafood is usually either Indian or Chinese. I am saying a lot for only having spent five hours there. Half of what I said is probably mere misjudged conclusions.
We swam and relaxed in the ocean for a good hour before deciding it was time to move on. As we were deciding what to do next, a small boat pulled up onto the beach and a local jumped out and asked us if we wanted to go snorkeling. Why not? Next best thing to diving, right? So we hopped into his boat, which turned out to be a glass-bottom boat, and off we went. The view out of the glass bottom was so much fun. The coral was mostly dead but the fish were bright and colorful and everywhere. My friend and I laughed at what divers we were because we would get all excited every time we sailed over a particularly live piece of coral. I don't know if you know this or not but the entire island of Mauritius is surrounded by a reef. The boat slowed, our driver asked if we were ok with this spot, handed us masks and snorkels, and in we jumped.
I love being underwater. I love marine life. I love the peace that comes from observing such beauty with no interference but the sound of your own breathing. My favorite fish to watch were the parrot fish. They were bright blue and yet somehow every other color of the rainbow at the same time. I don't know how everything always seems more colorful underwater. Physically speaking, colors get washed out the deeper underwater you go as the sunlight disappears until the only color you are left with is blue. And yet everything below the surface always seems so much more vivid and vibrant to me. I kept finding one particular parrot fish to follow and just watched and followed it around in crazy circles until I would surface and find myself a fair distance away from the others. I'd swim back to them and begin it again. The trumpet fish were also fun.
Our boat driver gave us 45 minutes to swim before heading back. It's always hard to believe how fast time flies below the surface. I swear we were only in for ten minutes. The boat dropped us back off at the shore and we found our cab driver who had agreed to wait for us. On the way to the cab we found a little stand that had been set up selling fresh, whole, pineapples, with the skin cut off and sliced into a spiral. I bought one for a little over a dollar and devoured it. I can't remember the last time I tasted fresh fruit, which is a tragedy because that's what I live on at home. I had dinner with my extended family the other night and Mama Pris asked us all what we missed most about home aside from people. The first thing that came to mind was the produce isle of Whole Foods. Sure, they serve us the occasional piece of fruit on the ship, but you can taste that it's been frozen; how else would they be able to serve bananas after a week at sea?
We had a cab driver drop us off in China Town, since we figured it would be a cheap place to find food and close to the ship. He dropped us off right next to a little street stand selling every kind of fresh tropical fruit imaginable. I handed over a couple rupee and helped myself to something called Fire Pearl. We walked around in search of a restaurant for lunch, but really didn't find much aside from endless hardware stores and street-food stands. We went into one market-looking store in search of souvenirs instead, and found a wide array of snacks imported from Hong Kong. We continued on our way, found another souvenir-ish shop where I picked up a couple shot glasses (I collect them), and then realized we had 30 minutes to be back on the ship. Every port we have "onship time" This is the time we have to be through the customs line, and have our id card swiped back on. If you are late, you get dock time, which means you are forced to stay on the ship for a certain amount of time when we reach the next port; I think it is an hour of dock time for every 15 minutes late you are. The closer to onship time it is, the longer the line is, the greater chance you have of being back on the ship late because the line was too long and you didn't get through in time. So the smart thing to do is show up an hour or two early, before the line gets too crazy. The only downfall there is you are missing out on an entire hour in port, which is pretty big when you are only there for five hours to begin with. So deciding when to get back to the ship is always a bit of a gamble. Having 30 minutes and not even being in the vicinity of the dock area is a "ding" Bad Idea.
We finally found a little Chinese home-cooked snack shop of sorts and hurriedly bought as many friend sesame balls and donuts as we could with our remaining rupee. And then we ran, somehow managing to shove food down our throats at the same time (they don't allow unpackaged foods through customs and back onto the ship). 25 minutes to onship time and we were in China Town, running through the entire city in a desperate attempt to get to the ship on time. We found the dreadfully long line with 15 minutes to go. Of course everyone showed up last minute and was in line at that moment. If you had five hours in Mauritius, what time would you go back? I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I finally swiped my card. The crew person told me it was three minutes til noon.
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