More-itius

Mauritius has exceeded my expectations by a million times.

To be honest, I didn’t really care about this port when I first heard about it. Mauritius. Some random island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Whoopdie Doo. On our itinerary of amazing, culturally deep countries, it seemed kind of… random. Why in the world would we go here? Because we need to stop someplace before India? We have to add another port to our itinerary for some reason? I heard that Semester at Sea just chose Mauritius because they couldn’t go to Kenya anymore, and that they were going to take it off the itinerary next year because nobody took this country seriously. All the students did was rent villas, get drunk on the beach, and call it Spring Break. In short, I wasn’t expecting to have a good time.

Well, a lot of students did rent villas, a lot of students did get drunk on the beach, and a lot of students did call it Spring Break. I don’t mean to be judgmental or pretentious or anything, but honestly? HONESTLY? If you’re going to travel around the world visiting different countries, you should at least have the decency to be sober enough to REMEMBER the country once you leave. And I’m not only talking about Mauritius. Sorry, I get a little angry at some people who just reinforce the stereotype of the ignorant, drunk American that so many countries have. Ok, I’m done complaining.

So the first day of Mauritius I went on a SAS trip called Adventure Park and Beach. I knew it involved ziplines of some sort, but I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. We had to drive a fair distance to the top of some mountains which had an AMAZING view of the country below, and the countryside was gorgeous. I think the reason that the ziplines were so fun was because we didn’t really have a guide. There was some guy in the beginning who showed us how to attach the carabineer to the wire, and then he kind of disappeared until the end. The bridges were rickety and old, and the obstacle course was legitimately tough. Tons of fun. Then we went to a nearby beach to see the drunk Semester at Sea kids who chose to get villas and stay at the beach all day. Fun. (There was one word in the last sentence that had sarcasm in it.) The second day we went on a catamaran to go snorkeling and view Mauritius from the ocean. The snorkeling was ok, but I got a real bad sunburn. I applied sunscreen three times. It didn’t matter.

This is how Mauritius hits me: The landscape and countryside remind me of Hawaii. There are tall, green mountains that I can only describe as island-mountains, and fields of sugar cane and some pineapple. The people and most of the buildings remind me of the Caribbean. There is a definite “island” feel with a similar degree of poverty among the local houses, but there is a good degree of tourism to contrast it too. Lastly, there is a hugely apparent splash of Indian culture. Dot, not feather. There’s a lot of curry in the food, and you can see a lot of Hindu temples on the side of the road when you are driving somewhere. This has largely to do with Mauritius being 52% Hindu. This leads to the best day I’ve had in Mauritius: today.

We are here at Mauritius during one of the biggest Hindu pilgrimages in the world. I think it’s the second largest Hindu pilgrimage outside of India, but don’t quote me on that. My friend Jeanette wanted to go also, so we got in a taxi and tried to make it there. We had heard before that people from Semester at Sea had tried to go there, and some had made it, but others couldn’t get close because the roads were blocked by the mass amounts of people on their pilgrimage. They get about 100,000 people a day, and it lasts for 5 days. Considering Mauritius has a population of 1.2 million people, that’s quite a crowd. It ALSO means that not all of the 52% of the Hindu population are doing a pilgrimage there. Hmm…

Somehow we made it there, and it could very well have been the greatest day I’ve had so far. From a distance you could see a 108 foot tall statue of Shiva jutting up from the forest, kind of like when you’re driving to Disneyland and you first see the Matterhorn or the Hollywood Tower of Terror. It was not touristy at all, so Jeanette and I stuck out like a sore body part. Usually people would choose thumb, but you can go with whatever you like. Perhaps a toe, or a kidney. There were thousands of people there, all around the huge lake that had pedestals around the edge for worship and offerings. There were so many temples stuck everywhere, and everyone was so nice. Food was free, which surprised me a whole lot. I can’t even begin to describe the experience there. I wish I could upload pictures, but the internet here isn’t good enough for pictures. Everybody there was so dedicated to what they believed in, and they were not hostile towards us for being different. I can’t even describe it. All I can say is wow. Wow.

Maybe I’ll finally have pictures up in India, if the internet is good there. Who knows?

Disclaimer: Not everyone who got a villa got wasted every night. Only most.

Did you hear about the cannibal who came late to the luncheon? Everyone gave him the cold shoulder.