Maurit-ish and Mauritius

Mauritius is sometimes referred to as the "Spring Break" of SAS, and I
was really looking forward to spending a day at the beach! It falls
in the middle of a fairly long stretch of sea, between Cape Town and
India, so it's a very welcome break. However, our time in Mauritius
did not come easily!

Right after Cape Town, the seas were getting very rough! Apparently,
we were following a cyclone, which was causing the rough seas and
making us go slower. A couple days before we were supposed to get to
Mauritius, the dean made a very sad announcement: Since we were
falling behind schedule, we would only stop in Mauritius to get fuel,
and no passengers would be allowed to get off. This was to make sure
we got to India on time. Obviously, the news was very disappointing.
Even though it isn't a major port, everyone was still looking forward
to it.

MAURIT-ISH DAY

However, to try to make up for it, SAS planned a Maurit-ish Day on the
day we would have gone to the actual Mauritius. This day was actually
a lot of fun! They served brunch until 1- very exciting, since
breakfast normally stops at 8:30! There were also various activities,
like a Zumba class and an improv workshop. The day ended with a big
barbeque on the pool deck. I was at the afternoon Zumba class when
they made a new announcement - we were going to Mauritius after all!
We wouldn't get to Mauritius until about 10 PM, but the next day we
were allowed to leave the boat for four hours, from 8-12. This was
very exciting news! Not only did we get a fun day off, but we still
got to experience Mauritius - for only four hours, but it was
definitely better than nothing. Everyone was in very high spirits
during the barbeque!

MAURITIUS DAY

Real Mauritius day started bright and early - the immigrations
officers got on at 6:30, and we had to quickly go through immigrations
to get off the boat as soon as possible. Around 7:30 AM, everyone was
cleared to leave. I went into Mauritius with my friends Kathy and
Lucy. We wanted to check out the beach and do a little shopping for
some souvenirs. When we got off the boat, everyone quickly remembered
that it was barely 8 in the morning - no shops would be open for a
couple of hours! We decided to head to the beach before really doing
any shopping, but we got to see a little bit of Port Louis. Port
Louis is Africa's wealthiest city, and it's very busy and chaotic - a
little unexpected for an island that is known for its relaxing
beaches! Kathy, Lucy and I got a taxi to take us to Pereybere Beach,
a half hour away. The beach was very nice, with white sands and
clear, blue waters. It reminded me a lot of the beach in the
Bahamas. We spent about an hour swimming, and it was a lot of fun.
We're constantly on the ocean, but we never get to swim in it, so the
chance to go to the beach was very satisfying!

An hour went by very quickly. When it was time to leave, Kathy and I
were feeling very hungry, so we asked the taxi driver if we could go
to a lunch place on the way back to Port Louis. He took us to a
little shopping center. It was still before 11, so many food places
still weren't open, but we found a little convenience store, and I had
a delicious salmon quiche. After lunch, we really didn't have time to
do much but head back to the waterfront. We ran into a little bit of
traffic, and by the time we got to the stores it was already 11:30 -
only a half hour before on ship time! SAS has a dock time policy,
where you get two hours of dock time for every 15 minutes that you're
late to the ship. Dock time refers to the time in the next port where
you are "grounded" on the ship, and can't leave and go into the
country. We quickly picked out souvenirs, and got on a water taxi at
11:45. The water taxi people wanted to wait until the taxi filled up,
which would have taken awhile, but luckily the ship photographer got
on with us and stressed to the driver that we needed to get back to
the ship immediately. We clocked into the ship right at 12 - perfect
timing to avoid dock time!

I thoroughly enjoyed my very brief visit to Mauritius! I'm very glad
I made it to the beach, and didn't just spend the day shopping at the
waterfront - I think Lucy, Kathy and I really maximized our four
hours! It was a welcome break from the ship, and now we are looking
ahead to India!