Mauritius

Mauritius:

A stop over for just the day at Port Louis on our way from South Africa to India.

Beautiful Mauritius surrounded by a coral reef and benefitting from lush green tropical vegetation covering a series of volcanic hills/mountains down the central plateau of the island is a gorgeous spot in the middle of the sea. Along a line of islands that includes the Seychelles and Madagascar,  Mauritius only is home for 90 Americans among its population of over 1 million.

Nevertheless, it is the destination of many rich Europeans seeking a warm holiday on the beach with snorkeling, scuba diving and sailing as recreational opportunities along with hiking inland among the lush tropical vegetation of the mountainsides.

Well appointed resorts dot the coastline outside of the main town which is filled with little shops and some tall buildings holding banks and IT companies.  People understand and speak English as well as a French Creole. It is said that movie stars like vacationing here because they can be anonymous.

Famous in the past for its sugar industry, today it is an international textile center and its population is doing very well.  In fact, this is the only African country that is doing well with textiles---the rest of the work in textiles has shifted to Asia.  People are hard working and we were told they only take one annual four day vacation at year end. Otherwise, they're at work 7 days a week. It may be because they work so hard, but you do not see the abject poverty of the Townships in South Africa or Ghana in this island paradise and prices are about the same as in South Africa.

 

We visited Pamplemousses and the SSR Botanic Garden which features a stunning variety of native and exotic plants. Incredible giant Amazonica Water Lilies from South America provided the excitement --- the flowers first bloom white then after one day turn pinky red but, most spectacular, the young leaves unfold from a tight ball into a tea tray shape about two meters in diameter. The Palm display is enormous and we saw an astonishing variety of shapes and forms.

Some of the students went hiking in the volcanic mountains--Black River Gorges National Park is beautiful and provided great hiking opportunities and views. Others went snorkeling along the
gorgeous coast line in the glittering blue waters.












First inhabited by the Dutch in the late 1500s, this island had French and British colonization until independence. Its culture is diverse with Indian, South African, and British and French cultural and social influence. While the diversity of the population is striking, the rain forest plant material is even more so. Biologists and botanists have discovered tremendous diversity among the native plants in Mauritius' rain forests. Now protected, these may hold some new cures for all of us.


From the one day stop in Mauritius we are off again-onward to India.