My Mauritius

The photo above is the Chamarel restaurant and rum distillery.

Rather than trying to coordinate with Jenni on blogs and blog photos we decided it would be easier to just record our own photos and impressions of the places we visited. Sometimes we might have a lot of overlap and other times it will look like we were on different trips, which could be true as we often split up and took different optional excursions. In Mauritius we took the same excursions but wondered off in different directions.

Mauritius is a strange and isolated island in the Indian Oceanarium. It is far from anything and everything and only has 1.6 million people but the impression is that it is a bigger place with more layers in the society and more infrastructure than larger countries. Most of the roads are well paved. There are poor people but there are also upscale neighborhoods and shopping malls and universities.

There are lots of late model cars and busses on the roads is high speed rail under construction. It feels bigger than it really is. 51% of the population is Indian and Hindu. The rest is everything you can imagine with all kinds of churches nationalities.

The Hindu population is so evident that not only are there numerous temples and shrines, there is a lake seeded with water from the Ganges River which is the destination for family holidays and pilgrimages. All in all it is a friendly tolerant multi-cultural place with lots of intermarriage. The people were very nice to tourists.

To be honest, there is not much there for tourism. You see another beach, another jungle, more tropical fruit and birds and some good local cuisine and get back on the boat. The only really different local industry I notices was the building of ship models. I have never seen so many hand made ship models out of solid wood. Great craftsmanship and good prices, challenging to pack and ship and let’s face it. Not everybody needs one.

Traditionally the island economy was based on sugarcane and rum but now there are only two large mills and a few small distilleries. Frozen seafood and tourism is more important now.

The Restaurant we visited during our day trip was fantastic! All the tour operators appear to stop there and it is like a country club botanical garden oasis in the middle of the jungle. It looks like it might also be a wedding venue for the whole island. I was immaculately clean, beautiful service exceptional food. Rum. . .not so appealing.

All in all we were totally surprised by this little country that tries so hard to look like a large

modern country.