Mauritius Week Two

Outside the Market

                                                                                

Park commemorating Mauritian history

Old Immigration Depot

                                                                               

Cathedral with citadel on hill behind

Mauritius Week Two

July 10 2016, at home

We continued to enjoy being in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius. The tourism office and sites are not advertised very well so it took awhile to track down some of the more interesting places. I guess most people are on tours.

There is a Unesco World heritage site along the harbour called Aapravasi Ghat. It is the former immigration building where the indentured workers first disembarked and went through their few days of getting checked in. It has been rebuilt as a museum. When the British government abolished slavery in their colonies, they chose Mauritius for what they called the "Great Experiment", ie the use of indentured labour to replace slaves. Its success there led other colonial powers  to adopt the system.

We spent a morning reading all the details and history in the museum. The museums have been free which I enjoy because you don't feel you have to read everything in one day. There was some abuse of the system over the years, but pressure from abroad kept improvements happening. Most of the population of Mauritius arrived this way between 1834 and 1920.

We also visited a small natural history museum. There were many displays of the fish, insects, plants, animals of the area. There is a citadel on one of the hills in town built by the British. The climb to the top gave a great view of the city. Today it overlooks the horse racing track. Being a Saturday, we watched a few races. We have walked enough streets now to have found the Chinese and Indian areas, and seen much of the old colonial architecture.

During the week other boats were arriving from Rodrigues. We enjoyed visiting and sharing info during  several "happy hours". The day we left was the last day of Ramadan and all the stores were closed so no last minute shopping. I enjoyed seeing all the beautiful Indian dresses being worn around town. At 5:15pm we took the last bus to the airport, an hour and a half trip to the southeast.

The four boats in the BPO are to sail to Reunion Aug 30. Two of them have still not crossed the Indian Ocean. The consensus now is to do the trip to Durban about mid Sept. From there we would work along the coast whenever the weather allowed to Cape Town. On average this takes about a month. Rob and I haven't decided yet whether to spend Christmas in Cape Town or Brazil. Lots of water under the keel before then.

First Week in Mauritius

Grand Baie anchorage

Grand Baie

Caudan Waterfront Promenade

Maggie and Tom Tom at Caudan Marina

One of many parks and many more monuments!

Music festival on the waterfront

Customs wall - quite a climb up at low tide!

First Week in Mauritius

July 1, 2016  Happy Canada Day!

We are enjoying our visit to Mauritius. Of course part of that is knowing we are secure for a few months. There are lots of boat chores, cleaning in particular, but no imminent deadlines. Some of our guide books say the harbour is dirty, your boat is not safe from thieves, and the island uninteresting. But we have been pleasantly surprised.

Mauritius is a real mix of peoples, cultures, religions, and standard of living. Most speak French or Creole among themselves even though the official language is English.  About half the population are descendants of indentured Indian servants and are mostly Hindi. Many of them wear traditional Indian dress. There are Africans, Chinese, French and English, as well. In this area there are also many tourists. There are very modern buildings, old colonial buildings, and simple shacks. There is a huge market near the bus station with better prices than the high end shops near us.

The marina is part of a waterfront development that includes a shopping centre, restaurants, promenade, museum, hotels, etc that encircles the harbour in the downtown area. It looks quite new. There is a lot of art about and usually live music. Last weekend, in particular, there were many performances as part of a music festival. The hotel across from the marina often has a live (and loud) band. The motorway from the north to the south of the island follows the water through town but two pedestrian underpasses have been built to get into the downtown area.

The tour vans park right next to the boats so there is a steady flow of tourists around. It is amazing how many have stopped when they see the Canadian flag and mentioned that they come from there. (One of the men in customs has two children at Canadian universities.) Tourists walk by and take photos of our boats. You do feel a bit like you are living in a fish bowl. We are rafted up to Tom Tom. Three more boats arrived from Rodrigues yesterday with more following soon. The marina is a bit unusual in that the office is manned by the security company, not marina staff. They need to call someone for most of your requests. Although you need to get the key for the washrooms each time you use them, it is a treat to have hot showers. I wish we could take advantage of the free power but it is 240 volts and we don't have a way to convert.

Bob was here for one day and got a rented car. We, Bob, and Zeke drove to Grand Bay in the north of the island. This is the area most sailors anchor so we wanted to see it. It was a scenic place with many services. The local yacht club offers a month's free membership. We had been thinking of leaving Maggie on a mooring ball there, but they are no longer available to rent. The north is flat and former sugar cane plantations.

The north and south bus stations have very many and standard sized buses, the preferred mode of transport. We have been out twice to the south, first to a hardware store in another town, and another day to a marine store. The south drive goes through mountainous areas. We want to eventually get to some of the tourist attractions, like the volcanic crater, the National Park and its trails, and a museum dedicated to the abolition of slavery.

The next BPO planned event is sailing from here to Reunion on August 30. Tahawas and Joyful hope to be here by then. We have decided to take advantage of the time to make a trip back to Canada. The flight leaves here July 6 and Toronto August 17. Chris will be back in the UK and return with his girlfriend about the same time. He and Rob have finished the process for leaving a boat here. Your skipper status is noted in your passport when you arrive and you cannot leave the country without another qualitifed skipper left  in charge of your boat. They have had several visits with the local skipper and backup hired to give directions for moving the boats if needed, and twice to visit the passport office with all the paperwork required. The sails and canvas will be in a sail loft for repairs while we are away. We are sure looking forward to seeing everyone at home! (Wish we could have a visit with Dan and Becky, too. We were thrilled to hear about their engagement yesterday!)