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Other entries in Port Louis

Mauritius/ On the way to India

We have some free internet time today so I'm going to try to send along some new pictures. Not to worry all who wrote re: sadness. I was fine after a good day spent in self-pity! And hot chocolate from Deck 7's Snack Bar.

And one really lovely, last day on Mauritius. Fellow Faculty Jo Ellen Jacobs and Annie Cleveland and RD Melissa Holland and I rented a driver and car for the day and went south to Blue Bay, an unbelievably beautiful little bay where we rode out in a glass bottom boat, where we saw all sorts of coral, parrotfish, two sea turtles, a passing cuttlefish, and tons of fish. Annie and Melissa, dedicated snorkellers that they were went snorkelling out in the bay while lazy nearsighted JoEllen and hung out in the boat, soaking in the sun and the cool breeze and talking to our amazing guide/driver Kingsley and the boat captain, who was one of those very good looking fishermen/life guard kind of guys.

After that, we went to a tea factory, Cheri Bois, which is THE Mauritius Tea Company. We saw all the innards of the place ( I respect tea even more, if that was possible) and then after a lovely tea tasting on a hilltop tea house that looked out over a good part of the island, I bought a lot of tea. I hope you all love tea, because that's in the big bag o' crap I'll be returning with.  More about that in a minute.

After the tea factory, we went to a holy Hindu Shrine to Shiva.  Mauritius is predominantly Hindu so there are temples all over the place, but this one, near a lake formed in a former volcanic crater (long cooled, don't worry!) is very holy. There we received bindi, the art on our faces, and saw a prayer to Shiva.  I'm hoping to post some pictures of the place eventually.  There were some really wild huge eels that lived in the lake that our driver managed to coax out of wherever they dwell, by throwing some bread on the water (which made little fish swarm).  Suddenly the eels' scary heads rose out of the dark water, their little bluish eyes swivelling, in hopes of nabbing a fish or two.  Just below the floating bread, they hovered, waiting for the little ones to make a mistake.  They were eerie to watch, sacred as they were. 

Finally exhausted we came back home to the ship.  The island was so beautiful and interesting that had we been there for weeks, I doubt we really would have gotten to the heart of it. 

The adventure goes on. We're all trying to gird our loins for Indian's surprises. Much more to come!

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