Our Christmas cruise ended with a debarkation in Mauritius with the ship docking in Port Louis. Even though we were doing a back to back cruise, we still had to leave the ship. We had arranged to have the same stateroom on the second cruise, so we did not have to pack and repack. There were not many back to back cruisers, so there were no arranged excursions. We decided to get off the ship early and find a taxi who would take us on a tour.

We walked to the taxi parking lot and met Asin, who is of Indian descendent, which made sense, as the island was a British territory until 1968. Many workers came from India to work in the sugar cane fields. Asin charged us $200 USD for a 3.5 hour tour., which we were fine with. Given the exchange rate for dollars, he came out very well. He didn’t talk much so we asked him lots of questions.

They drive very fast in Mauritius and abit crazy. Not a lot of traffic rules are followed.

Mauritius is located in the Indian Ocean, just east of Madagascar. Even thugh it is 1100 miles from Africa, it is still considered to be part of the Africa. The island has a population of 1.2 million people. The country covers 790 square miles, but it has an Exclusive Economic Zone that covers 580,000 square miles. An EEZ means that they have exclusive rights regarding exploration, use of marine resources, as well as energy production from the ocean and wind.

The island was most likely discovered by the Portuguese in 1507, but was not officially declared a territory until 1598, by the Dutch. It was named after Maurice, the Dutch Prince of Orange. There were numerous attempts to establish settlements, with the Dutch finally giving up. In 1715, the French began a colonization effort and renamed the area Isle de France. In 1810, the United Kingdom took control under the Treaty of Paris and the name reverted to Mauritius. It became Britain’s main sugar-producing colony and remained as such until their independence in 1968.

The main industries are farming, textiles, sugar and recently finances and health care. Tourism is very successful as the island is known for it’s snorkeling and scuba diving opportunities…it is home to an underwater waterfalls. Many of the guests from our first cruise, were staying extra days in Mauritius just so they could go see this phenomenon. Unfortunately it was too far away for us to see it in our short time in port. The currency is Rupees and the languages spoken are Mauritian Creole, French, and English.

There are areas that have modern architecture…

And areas that are still in a developing stage

Asin took us to the Kaylasson Hindu temple. Interesting fact…Mauritius is the only African country where Hinduism is the most practiced religion. The temple was built in 1854 by spice traders from the area of Tamil in India.

The temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva- the Destroyer. You must remove your shoes and we were the only people there.

From the temple, we drove along the beach area. The beaches are very popular with local families for camping

We could see why Mauritius is a popular tourist designation, as the beaches are truly amazing.

We made a quick stop at Grand Baie. The beach area is known as La Cuvette.

The workers, were cleaning the beach. That might be a never-ending project.

We stopped for a view of Coin de Mire or Gunner’s Quoin. This is a rock formation off the northern coast of the island. It is known as an amazing diving spot, where you can get up close and personal with the circling sharks.

We went to the English Citadel known as La Citadelle de Port Louis or ss the English called it Fort Adelaide, after the wife of King William IV. It was built in 1830 under the direction of Sir Charles Colville. A lack of unskilled labor on the island, led to the recruitment of stonemasons from India. The fort was built to guard against attacks from the French as well as revolts by local citizens.

At the Citadel we saw the Le Pouce aka the Thumb. The island has a very diverse eco-system and was the only known home of the now extinct dodo bird.

We walked to the city viewpoint, where we could see out cruise ship. It is also the starting point of the Citadel trail.

We passed by the bus terminal…it is a very busy place

Asin had given us a fast and furious tour of the northern end of the island. As we were leaving he gave us a Le Pouce…lol

At the port, we went back through immigration and thanks to the ship’s general manager we did not have to wait the hour to re-board the ship like the newly arriving guests. We could not go to our room as the stewards were still cleaning and readying the rooms, so we headed to the buffet. It is probably the only time that we will ever be alone at a ship’s buffet…lol

The views from the back of the ship of the Thumb were pretty amazing.

With the new guests on board, we were off on the for another adventure on our second half of our cruise adventure.