MAURITIUS SPRING BREAK 2K10

Mark Twain once said, “Mauritius was made first and God modeled heaven after Mauritius.” There are numerous variations of this quote but you get the idea. It is 8:42 PM and we just left Port Louis, Mauritius, the ultimate tropical paradise. Though many of you would argue that this entire voyage has been a giant spring break, Mauritius is in fact the “spring break” of Semester at Sea. We only had a mere night and two days on the island, (the SAS faculty does not like us going to Mauritius AT ALL because it’s usually one big party and more kids do stupid things here than in any other port, hence the short port stay) but it really didn’t matter. We were in Mauritius.

I expected most places in Mauritius to be a fairly short distance because the island is pretty small but I could not have been more mistaken. I had made plans with one group of friends to go on a day cruise/snorkel adventure in Grand Baie and another to stay in Flic-en-Flac over night. Grand Baie and Flic-en-Flac ended up being over an hour away from each other… The plan was to take a cab from Grand Baie to Flic-en-Flac after the booze cruise. This was not the brightest or safest idea and was soon forgotten. After the cruise, Ivy, Jill, and I would be living in the moment without plans of any kind.

Twelve of us headed to Grand Baie to meet the catamaran company that would be taking us out for the day. Unfortunately, yesterday Mauritius was definitely not a paradise and better resembled a giant hurricane. It was pouring rain and windy- two things that were not supposed to be part of the Mauritian Spring Break extravaganza. The coast guard would not let any small ships or in our case catamarans out until the weather cleared up. Though it stopped raining early we changed our day catamaran to a sunset catamaran in hopes that the weather would be nice.

Since we now had the entire day at our disposal, we hung out at the beach of the Ocean Villas (most people get villas in Mauritius) where the other nine members of our group were staying. It turned into a mini beach party with a good amount of duty free beverages. The entire time I was in the ocean near the beach I kept thinking I would step on a sea urchin for not having bought water shoes like the ship Doctor recommended. This fear was not a reality and I swam unscathed. The Ocean Villas included complementary water activities so all of us ended up banana boating. I had never been on a banana boat before and though it was fun, tubing is a lot more fun. A bunch of us purposely flung ourselves from the banana boat to make it more exciting. We soon made it to the outdoor hotel restaurant because all of us needed food for multiple purposes.

Ivy, Jill, and I agreed to find a hotel rather than crash at the villa and forced ourselves to leave the beach and trek Grand Baie in search of suitable accommodations. After walking on the sidewalk for a good fifteen minutes (there was apparently a sign that had said Le Meridian Hotel was five minutes down the road) we came across your everyday friendly Mauritian. He helped us call several hotels and it turned out that he owned the company that was responsible for building kitchens in all of the top Mauritian hotels. After making sure the phone call worked, he offered us a ride to the hotel in his car with his driver. Safe or unsafe- not really sure but sometimes you just have to go with it. We made it to the hotel which turned out to be an extremely nice resort (we sat in the lobby and were immediately given warm hand towels and glasses of pineapple juice) but way more than we expected to pay. Luckily the concierge lady was really nice and told us of a hotel that was just down the road and probably more accommodating. We made it to hotel Hibiscus which was perfect for our sole night in Mauritius. We got a room with three beds and everything ended up being complementary which was an extra bonus.

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel we went back to Ocean Villas for our sunset catamaran cruise. A dingy came to shore to chauffer us to the catamaran. Aboard we had unlimited drinks as well as appetizers and dinner. Though the rain had subsided by this point it was still windy and the water was choppy. Though choppy water does not translate to a calm, serene, sunset cruise, it does mean a wilder ride. After sailing for about an hour and playing on the water nets we anchored. The sun had set (the sunset was basically nonexistent because of the storm but I’m not sure any of us noticed at the time) and we were able to night swim. All of us immediately jumped in the water. We were night swimming in the INDIAN OCEAN, pretty cool. Night swimming, partial skinny dipping and lots of jumping ensued. Soon into our swim I got pretty tired of treading water- blame it on me being asthmatic, not having worked out in the foreseeable past, or just not being a great swimmer- and found a life ring to chill on. I think it’s worth mentioning that one of the coolest things about our Indian Ocean night swim were all of the stars. In LA you don’t really get to see a full sky of stars but in Mauritius you definitely do. It was amazing- the swimming, star gazing, and just being. When in Mauritius.

The catamaran brought us back to Ocean Villas around 9:30 PM and Jill, Ivy, and I still had to make our way back to Hibiscus to shower, change, eat, and attempt going out. Exhausted and disgusting from the day we put off showering to enjoy our complementary dinner which turned out to be a legit five-course meal. We had been expecting a quick buffet type meal but instead sat through five courses all of which were surprisingly good. On top of it there was a huge flat screen TV showing the Manchester United/Liverpool game so I was beyond content with the situation at hand. We returned to our room to discover an ant infestation in our bathroom (they were attacking our complementary cocktails from earlier that day after booking the room)- complementary cocktails, dinner, and ants, oh my. For some reason the ant war did not seem to bother us at the time and we all managed to shower without complaint. By 11:30 we forced ourselves to get dress in hopes of going to Banana Bar which is where a lot of SASers were supposed to be congregating at. Unfortunately after stepping into the street to hail a cab we soon noticed that a. the street was completely dark and b. it was completely abandoned. The desk receptionist soon came out to tell us that the chances of us getting a cab were slim and that three girls should be careful at night. Not wanting to take any chances and more importantly now having an excuse not to go out, we made our way back to the hotel beach and later to our room.

Jill returned to the ship early the next morning which left me and Ivy together in Grand Baie. From this point onward, this day will now be referred to as Ivy and Alex’s Day of Fun. For some reason our hotel was not crowded at all and as a result Ivy and I had our own romantic breakfast without any other hotel guests and more importantly an omelet maker at our disposal. After eating breakfast we used more of the hotel’s complementary services and went kayaking. A motor boat picked us up from our hotel and took us two beach areas over to where the water sports equipment was held. We shared a double kayak and no doubt my shoulders and arms will be sore tomorrow… it was worth it. The water was turquoise and beautiful and the sun was shining. Today Mauritius looked and felt like paradise. We returned back to our hotel’s boat house to see what other fun things we could do when the words “Underwater Sea Walk” caught our eyes.

After booking our reservations with the Underwater Sea Walk Company we were shortly picked up once again in a motor boat and taken to the middle of the bay where another boat was anchored. Ivy and Alex’s Day of Fun was about to get A LOT more fun. For those of you who are unfamiliar with an Underwater Sea Walk, think walking on the ocean floor with a Harry Potter bubble charm on your head or being a part of 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We were given a very quick five minute orientation of what we would be doing and the signs we were supposed to use if something went wrong and soon were rigged up and ready for action. We had to hold onto the boat’s ladder where the workers placed a large, weighted bubble on our heads. The bubble or helmet weighed us down and we were soon on the ocean floor. The bubble was rigged so that air was constantly being pumped in and connected to the boat above. Though I could breathe in the bubble I initially held my breath on the way down. I don’t think I smiled more or was more amazed for any given period of time in my entire life. Ivy and I walked on the ocean floor, touched the coral, and were surrounded by fish. On top of it we had a personal photographer and videographer to capture the entire experience. Though I was the only person who could hear myself speak, I caught my times saying wow a lot. The workers brought bread into the water and threw it near us so that even more fish would surround us. They were everywhere it was almost like you were in a giant fish tank. Ivy eventually made me hold the bread and I received my second fish massage in a month. After about twenty minutes we resurfaced. I recommend bubble or helmet diving to anyone and everyone- just bring some bread with you.

Ivy and I made it back to the ship by 2:30 and I had just enough time to get a hotdog from the grill and take it to the trip bus by 2:45. Not wanting to solely have a “spring break” in Mauritius I volunteered to visit the SOS Children’s Village in Baeu Basin. Though I had been to two orphanages before on this trip (Xi’an and Phnom Penh) I was unsure what to expect at the Children’s village. It was honestly remarkable. The village is designed (there are approximately 480 SOS Children’s Villages worldwide) so that there are multiple houses that each have a house mother. Each house is home to around seven to nine children. The children are ordered to the village by the state as a result of home problems (sexual abuse, domestic abuse, parents with drug addictions, etc.). The children remain at the village until they are 18 however if they decide to continue their education which many are beginning to do, they are welcome to stay as long as necessary. The children are property of the state and cannot be adopted. The concept of having multiple houses, each with a house mother, was amazing. The children are given a real family situation with their own house and I think it is a nice alternative to most orphanages. A lot more attention is given to each child and each child is cared for by a mother. More importantly I really felt that these children viewed each other as family.

I had a really amazing two hours with the kids. After being told the logistics of the organization we were told to go play with the ninety eight children and have fun. The fifteen or so of us that made it on the trip ventured outside and started mingling with the kids. Once again language was irrelevant (some kids knew a little English but the majority spoke in French and Creole). I saw a group of boys playing soccer and immediately joined in. At first I think they were a little skeptical of my playing ability but after juggling for a while and successfully performing a rainbow, I earned their respect and passed the test. I’m pretty sure they had never seen a girl actually know how to play soccer before and they managed to tell me “you play very well.” On top of it I told them my name was Alex but they saw my full name on my SAS ID Card and refused to call me Alex because it was not a girl’s name and called me Alexandra. We juggled and ended up playing games of keep away. I was defending one of the boys (we were playing barefoot on mostly dirt and rock) and as luck would have it hurt my toe. I legit think I broke it (I didn’t actually break it but it hurts a lot, is swollen and bruised, and in my doctoral opinion is at least sprained). Regardless that was the end of my SOS soccer career and I resorted to playing with the younger kids and giving piggy back rides (like I said my toe isn’t actually broken). This was the perfect way to end the perfect two days.

Mauritius was the best remedy to a full week of classes with two tests (we actually do have tests on SAS) after India. I am now the proud owner of not one, not two, but THREE, Mauritian Flags- in case I don’t find them I tell my friends to buy them for me if they see them… this time we all found them. Brooke managed to find me one that was the perfect size though. Flag collection is going strong. Up next: Cape Town, South Africa and Amanda Sussman. I’m expecting big things.