Impressions of Mauritius

Coming into port in the morning we saw a lovely, modern city. We quickly exited the city, however, and spent our day in the countryside of Mauritius which often looked to me exactly like India. Indeed, a large percentage of the population is from India and their traditions color Mauritius. We found the people to be lovely and friendly and since most spoke English we could easily communicate. Our tour took us to various scenic and cultural sites — an overview which didn’t include the city or the beach so it was probably a skewed view of the island but in the end it appeared that we chose wisely. Since it rained off and on all day long the people who went on the beach -type excursions didn’t have much fun and the colorful fish were all hiding from the snorkelers.

Like I said, it was raining. I just want you to see some of the landscape. The vegetation grows so fast here that everything quickly gets covered with green. I can’t imagine keeping up with my garden here!

And if one should leave for a long vacation…

Even the drainage system is covered with vegetation and the trees sport beautiful moss and lichen and, of course, their own interesting trunks and flowers.

The Seven Colored Earth wasn’t as colored as it would have been in the sun but we could imagine anyway.

It happened to be a Hindu holiday so many were making offerings at their sacred lake. I have to say that the colorfulness of the proceedings and the beauty of the architecture was offset for me by the futility and sadness of what they were doing.

These little boys were being more mischievous than this monkey but they were all very cute and seemed to like having their picture taken.

At this waterfall we were about as wet as we would have been had we been under it.

And, as always, here are my out-of-the-bus-window shots. Sugar cane is still a major crop of Mauritius and we drove by miles of it. They used to sell sugar to the world but today it is only used in the making of rum.

Like I said, lots of Mauritius looks like India. I’m sure I have a picture of a tire shop just like this one somewhere.

And this is my favorite picture from the day. I call it Picnic by the Side of the Road.