Reunion Island

Reunion Island is less than a 40 minute flight from Mauritius.. on a turbo prop!  The volcano erupting on Reunion Island is the same hotspot that formed Mauritius millions of years ago.

The immigration line at the airport had an express line for EU countries and most of them were French nationals. Stepping outside the terminal, Reunion's mountainous terrain is something spectacular and the closer you look, you notice small villages up in the mountains. 

We had a bad experience with a rental car with a manual transmission a decade ago in Sardinia, Italy where my lack of confidence in driving a manual and Melissa guiding us on a mountain route (this was pre-GPS) practically gave me a heart attack. There were countless switchbacks and a motorcycle club that would stop to have a beer in nearly every small town along our route. We would pass them in every town at the bar and halfway to the next town they would catch up and zoom on past us. Once we finally arrived at our hotel there, we didn't touch the rental car for the entire week we were there.

Anyway, back to Reunion Island, the only way to ensure we got an automatic was to get a full size sedan. Upon seeing the vehicle I got a bit excited - a Peugeot power diesel.. this was going to be fun!! It was truly a night and day difference between this beast and the Corolla we had just left in Mauritius. It had heads up display, comfortable seats, and even told us Good Day - in French of course. With the navigation programmed to our first stop - Cialos, we were off! With the GPS navigation not accepting the exact street number for our hotel, we had to just choose the town center.

  

The perimeter of the island is flat but when you go inland the elevation climbs... quickly. In the mountains the drive got a bit dicey as there were plenty of switchbacks that require you to get in the oncoming lane on blind one way passes and to make things even more uncomfortable,  there were a lot of crosses (memorials) scattered along the side of the road. There were a few shoulders where you can pull over for a photo, the views were amazing but once the clouds started rolling in there became less to see.

The GPS navigation allowed us to enjoy the amazing views instead of being concerned about getting lost or wondering how much longer to get to our hotel. 

Upon a closer look, our route looks more like the readings on a Richter scale - not a road!

There were at least two of these narrow single lane tunnels which were no fun.

When we started getting closer we saw a sign for our hotel along the side of the road, so at least we knew we were heading in the right direction. In the village we saw a sign for our hotel on a garage gate. So, I pulled in and began ringing the gate ringer. Turns out that was just another sign for our hotel - not our actual hotel! Glad to say I figured that out before the owner of the house came out. We found our hotel a few minutes up the road.

After getting checked in to the hotel, Melissa decided to stay at the hotel and have a pot of the local vanilla tea (a new favorite) and a crepe while I went outside to take some pictures. The village reminds me of Queenstown (New Zealand) with its amazing mountain backdrops. There was a narrow single lane main street where we saw a  pedestrian holding up traffic to collect his mail from the postman as he drove by, but my biggest shock was that no one honked!

We found a local restaurant for dinner. Melissa had the local sausage with lentils - I swear it tasted really good - much better than it looks! They grow small brown lentils in Cialos, they were 4 times the price of their slightly larger counterpart.

Our shower our first morning was painful.. I contemplated if the girl checking us in hated us by giving us the room with this tub. It had a place for you to sit I guess but the shower handle was coming out of the tub and not the wall. There wasn't even a wall holder higher on the wall.

The next morning the weather was beautiful! The clouds were just starting to buildup on the top of the mountain.  I went onto our balcony to take a few photos and realized my neighbor was doing the same thing...but I was in my boxers - oops!

Before breakfast we went on a walk around town. The villagers truly love gardening and it really shows. I saw some of the most beautiful personal gardens. Even along the streets,  many of the benches have trellises with fragrant jasmine growing up them.

 Our hotel for the night, Hotel Tsiallos

 Passing by this garden is amazing, but from the 2nd floor of our hotel it looks even more so!

They also had a picturesque little church

The view from our balcony

The stroll through Cilaos was very colorful

There were a lot of French DIYers with all the gardens but the hat was a bit of a surprise. No self respecting French village doesn't have a bakery and Cilos had one just across the street from our hotel, along with a dog hanging out front waiting for handouts.

We took advantage of the bakery and enjoyed a chocolate croissant and a baguette for breakfast in the nearby park.

Cilos attracts mostly retirees who spend their days perusing the local shops and landscapes and hikers who spend their days hiking the surrounding mountain treks.

Leaving the town I was a bit sad as we would have enjoyed a few days of hiking and there were plenty of cute little restaurants to try out.. But I thought this sign was a bit dramatic, I guess the French have their reputation... 

Fresh fruit roadside

How to frame when it is all so beautiful!

With the clear skies we made plenty of stops to take in and photograph the views

On this small stretch of road shown, there are three tight switchbacks.

On to our next stop.. another village on our way to the volcano!

Heading South - Last Day in Mauritius

For our last day in Mauritius, we drove to the southern tip of the island which is mostly undeveloped. Mauritius was formed by a volcano long ago and now all that is left is the caldera that is covered in green. It was a bit disappointing, really just a giant hole in the ground, oh well.. we saw it!

The Mauritian flag is just as colorful as the island, but like most, this flag is symbolic. The red represents the bloodshed at the time of slavery and colonization, blue is for the Indian Ocean, yellow is for the light of independence shining over the island and the golden sunshine, and lastly the green represents the island's lush vegetation. After a few days on the island I understood why each of those colors were chosen. 

Across the street from the caldera viewpoint there was a great view of some of Mauritius's pointy peaks.

Next stop was a waterfall which was recommended by the hotel and was conveniently preprogramed in our  car's navigation.

At one point the navigation tells us NOT to follow the road signs to the falls and to continue with their directions.. I guess I can blame it on the navigation. After driving on an unpaved road through a long stretch of sugar cane fields, we finally arrived.

The waterfalls were also a bit of a let down too. A local fruit seller at the falls told us we had to cross the river to get to the best vantage point under the falls. No thanks! I was not planning on slipping on wet rocks today... back on the road I guess.

The last stop I had patience for was some "colored earth" place I read about. Luckily shortly after getting back on the main road we saw a sign for it. It turned out to be a adventure park with zip-lining and ATVs. This was not what we were looking for, but the price was so reasonable we decided why not, lets do some ATV-ing and oh yeah they had some "colored earth" too.

Before getting started we went to the onsite cafe to have some lunch. I had the local shrimp in cream sauce and Melissa had the local shrimp and chicken curry. This was hands down the best meal we had in Mauritius!

After a brief introduction on the vehicle, we were off to our first waterfall. We ended up seeing 3 which made up for our less than positive waterfall experience earlier that day.

They also had some large tortoises. Next thing we know, our guide was asking us if we wanted to get in the pen with them.. He didn't have to ask me twice. These guys were HUGE.

The last site was a bit further so we got to do a bit of high speed offroading and I fully took advantage at every opportunity to floor it and fishtail around corners!

We finally arrived at what brought us to the park in the first place.. the multi colored earth. He said it was not dyed, but rather the natural colors from the decomposition of the volcanic rock and the minerals found in them... Whatever, it looks pretty cool!

When I asked if they did anything to the soil, he said all they did was remove all the vegetation and let the rain water erosion do its work.

The extended tour went to the top of the mountain, so we got some great views from up there. 

There were a few more smaller waterfalls and view point near the top of the mountain. When we got to the view point there was a few dozen deer, but they were really shy and didn't wait around for a photo... 

One more waterfall to end the day, I don't mind if I do. 

We just happened to stumble across that adventure park and we were glad we did, what a great afternoon! After the long drive back to the hotel I tried a local beer and we enjoyed our last Mauritian sunset. Beautiful island with so much to offer, we definitely could have spent more time here.