Round About Mauritius

FLY Emirates!

We recently went back to Africa, this time to Mauritius and Reunion. Both of these islands are off the coast of east Africa but neither are what you would think of when you think of Africa. The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and lastly the British all spent time in Mauritius, but the British had the biggest impact. They brought thousands of Indians to work in the sugar cane fields. Now, Mauritians of Indian origin make up almost 70% of the population.

We rented a car with navigation which made getting to the resort a breeze, except for all of the round abouts...just follow the car in front of me is my theory.

After getting all checked in and settled, we just enjoyed the weather which was sunny with a cool breeze - perfect way to end our first day in Mauritius.

Enjoying our first Mauritian sunset - the one thing we did every day

Our first day exploring, we decided to head to some of the attractions on the north side of the island, first stop the Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens. Melissa programed the navigation for the "easiest" route which must have made the assumption we wanted to drive through neighborhoods, a few minutes later we found ourselves at a Mauritian dead end in the middle of a sugar cane field. I could see the road in the distance, a few minutes of off roading in the sugar cane field, and we were back on the road.

  Mauritian dead end

We decided to eat before we got started in the gardens as we read it could take a few hours to visit the gardens. Luckily, there was a bistro across the street calling our name. I opted for the octopus curry which wasn't as good as Melissa's mussels in cream sauce... want to share? The cuisine in Mauritius was mostly Indian inspired with some French inspiration thrown in with local ingredients. YUM!

The gardens were pretty big, so this looked like a comfortable place to have a short rest. 

Ladies you don't have lips, so no chapstick for you!

They had some deer that are found in the forest, but were originally from the Indonesian island of Java. Melissa digging in her bag for some chapstick got their full attention.

They also have large tortoises which are originally from Seychelles. They don't look that big but once you get up close you see that they are actually HUGE! Surprisingly they can move quite fast when they are motivated, at least faster than what I had expected.

 Finally, the botanical garden's famous giant Victoria amazonica water lilies.

They also had some buildings with colonial architecture and the token French flag... the British were there last and for longer, where is their flag?

Our last stop was Grand Baie. The hotel recommended Grand Baie for some local shopping so we finished out our day there. We read there was a crafts market which could not have been harder to find but after getting directions from a few different people we finally found it! As soon as I set my eyes on it my hopes were quickly dashed as there was a large lucky Buddha statue in the front. Most of the items for sale there seemed to be imported from China.. we just came from there...umm NO merci!