Country #131: Mauritius. What the hell, eel?

A few years back, my friend Angela was staying with me for a couple of days. We were both scrolling on our phones when one of us came across a post about Mauritius' underwater waterfall. It looked cool as hell and quickly sent me deep into an internet wormhole. Within minutes, I had located Mauritius on a map (I'd had a general idea but not much beyond that), priced out flights from Miami and was already looking up where to stay. Angela laughed that she was watching my madness play out in real time. 

Due to time and financial constraints, I was not able to follow through and all Mauritius related research went into the extensive pile of "things I want to do someday". Fast forward to a couple of months ago, I was on the Saudia Airways site looking through their destinations in order to take advantage of their stopover program. One routing stood out. A direct flight from Jeddah to Mauritius. The plans were back on. 

I would have one week to explore this 790 square mile island. As with every single trip I have ever taken, that is not enough time but looking back, I did alright. 

For the first couple of days, I based myself out of Grand Baie, the most happening of the beach towns. I would love to boast that I rolled into town with meticulous plans. But that would be a lie. I showed up at the wonderful Welcome Holiday guesthouse a couple of hours late due a delayed flight and with no real idea as to what to do next. The lovely Vilasha, who I had already been pestering with questions via Whatsapp, greeted me at the door with two of my favorite things: a cold local beer (keep in mind for the past three days I had been in Saudi Arabia, a dry country, so that beer tasted extra good) and an excellent plan of action for my first full day. 

She suggested I do a catamaran tour of the Three Northern Islands. I had seen this offered online for around $100. Vilasha's guy would do it for $35, including lunch and open bar. Sold! With that settled, I wandered into town, which was just a 5 minute walk away to catch some live music and continue my appreciation of Phoenix beer. 

Come morning, I woke up to the realization that I was going to be on a boat all day and had forgotten to pack a hat. It was 8am, boat departure was at 9am. I was cooked, literally. Or I would have been but for the fact that Vilasha and her family had a wonderful habit of coming through for me. Her dad walked me to the meeting point and somehow along the way, managed to get a guy to open his store early so that I would not go hatless. 

Our outing began with an hour long sail. The day was gorgeous but there were times when the water was a bit rough. That doesn't bother me in the slightest but I only mention it because at one point a German guy I'd been talking to asked the Captain "Did you expect it to be that rough today?" and his response was "It wasn't rough". Dude, your staff had to help me walk 3 feet when I couldn't reach the railing. I had to wait for this service because they had to be Walking Miss Daisy every other passenger that wanted move across the boat. I was drenched from head to toe without ever going in the water. It was not unsafe, at all, it was actually pretty fun but you can't tell someone who has been tossed around for an hour that it wasn't rough. 

Along the way, we passed Gunner's Quoin (or Coin de Mere). It is technically one of the three islands on the tour , although none disembark there.

The first actual stop is at Gabriel Island, where lunch was served and the bar officially opened. It was lunch with a side of amazing views. Between eating and drinking, I kept running into the water. Both the temperature and the visibility were absolute perfection. 

Post lunch we were shuttled via dinghy to the nearby Flat Island. More perfection but if I had one note, it's that it's a bit too pristine. As in, there was no commerce. Our food and drink had returned to the catamaran so if you wanted anything on Flat Island and didn't bring it with you, you were out of luck. I would have happily rented snorkeling gear and gotten another drink but that simply wasn't an option. 

Once back on the boat, the party resumed with music jamming and drinks flowing. The ocean had settled, or maybe we just didn't mind the rocking, but the ride back felt like it only took 20 minutes. 

We were soon back at Grand Baie. Time to figure out what to do on day two. Prior to arriving in Mauritius, I had contacted a dive shop and scheduled a dive for my second day, only to have them message me last minute with a significant change in price. How do you say "Fuck off" in French?  Vilasha to the rescue again. Her cousin, Tum, owns Merman Diving so she suggested I drop by, which I did. I spoke with Mani, his son (who for the record, asked how the catamaran was with such rough waters) and left with all my diving needs sorted out. 

With that taken care of, I found a spot to watch the sunset. During that time, I met two locals. One was a dude playing soccer on the beach. I was so happy with how these Phoenix beer/silhouette pics turned out that I offered to send them to him. The next day I ran into him and he informed me that this was now his profile pic.

The second was a guy promoting the Sega cultural show at Cafe de la Plage, right next door. Sega is a blend of African and Indian music specific to Mauritius. Was this show going to be super touristy? Yes, of course. Did he promise me a front row seat, an off menu vegetarian meal and a free drink? Also yes. Did I get up and dance during the audience participation segment. Again yes.

Day two, I was scheduled for a night dive, leaving my whole day open. It was time to venture away from Grand Baie. In order to get around the island, there are three options. Most sites agree that renting a car is best. I considered this but a) I don't like driving and b) they do it on the wrong side of the road. Add to that, these are a roundabout loving people. When designing the roads, there must have been one hell of a roundabout BOGO sale because it is excessive. Option 1 was a no go for me. Option 2 is taxis. They don't have Uber or anything comparable so taxis tend to be quite expensive. Option 3 is public transit. I had read that it was slow and complicated, which I believe is true in the interior and the smaller towns. In Grand Baie, it is actually super easy and about $1 a ride. 

I took the express bus to the Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden (or Pamplemousses Gardens for short), the oldest botanical garden in the Southern hemisphere. Dating back to 1770, it one of the main attractions on the island, although you wouldn't know it in the early hours of the day. For a good while, I felt like I had the 91 acre park to myself. 

I sat and enjoyed the park's famous water lilies, listening to a chorus of birds singing. 

As the day went on, I started encountering more people on the paths. Most of them were lost, which is very easy to do in a park this size. One guy was frantically trying to find the exit because his cab driver was waiting for him. In our short conversation, he mentioned something about a tree full of bats. What?!! Had I been walking amongst bats this whole day and not seen them? I love bats!!

It was now noon, there was a cruise ship in port and the tour groups had arrived. After trying in vain to find them, I approached a guide and told her I had heard that may be bats in the park. Her answer: "Yes, it's true. Look up." We were standing under a tree chock full of Mauritian Flying Foxes. 

To say I was giddy is beyond an understatement. I laid down on the sidewalk (and probably on top of a lot of bat shit) to better observe them. As one beautiful specimen flew directly above me, I yelled out- with my full chest- "I love you, bat!". Only seconds later, did I notice yet another tour group passing by, staring at the strange woman laying on the ground. I don't care because bats. 

                                           

A lane of Cuban palm trees, proving that we Cubans truly are everywhere.

As the park continued getting more crowded, it was time to move on. I returned to Grand Baie and took another bus, this time towards the north to Cap Malhereux. The Unlucky Cape (that is a literal translation of the name) is known for its beaches and one very picturesque red roofed church. The name of the town comes from a British invasion in 1810 that caught the French by surprise and led to their defeat. 

On this particular Sunday, It was definitely more about beach bbq's and general chilling than any kind of invasion. I would have wanted to join in but it was getting time to get back to the dive shop. 

By going out at 6pm, the tour doubled as a sunset tour as we waited on the boat for darkness. This was only my second time doing a night dive and to be honest, I'm still not convinced. It's cool that you have a more concentrated focus, seeing only what is in your beam of light but not being able to have good peripheral vision made me feel like I was constantly about to crash into a reef. 

I very much preferred the next morning's outing. The other scheduled divers had canceled and I was willing to do the same to prevent Tum and his son from taking the boat out for just one person but they are Vilasha's family and they rock. They insisted and I now had a private dive trip. 

The first stop was at the Merville Patches dive site with Tum himself. It's a shallow dive with plenty of small fish and moray eels.

Normally when you see eels, they are shyly poking their heads out from behind rocks, which made finding one on the ocean floor kind of unusual. Tum, who has been diving these waters for 30 years and knows its inhabitants' behavior decided to go play with him. I, who am not so well versed in eel behaviors, chose to stay back and video the interaction. So there I was, just a bystander, when the eel decided he was over it. Instead of lashing out at Tum, that fucker turned around and tried to eat my GoPro. What the hell, eel??

                                             

My favorite part of the video is that you can hear the eel hissing while Tum screams for me to move. Meanwhile, all I could think was "Man, this is going to be a cool video." The truth is that it happened too quickly for me to ever think I was in any kind of danger...and I did get a cool video. 

The second dive was at the Aquarium site with Maneesh, Tum's son. True to its name, there were loads of fishies, particularly when bread was introduced into the equation. 

This funky dude (dudette?) is a Chinese trumpetfish.

It was a fantastic way to start the day. We were done by 1pm and there was still one thing I wanted to do before I moved to the south end of the island. I wanted to see a dodo bird. This was going to be a bit tough since the last time the endemic bird was seen was in 1662. They were driven to extinction by humans (mainly of the Dutch variety) who hunted them and unleashed predators (mostly cats, pigs and rats) into their home. 

I would have to settle for the only known complete (as in all the bones from one bird) dodo skeleton in the world. It can be found in the National History Museum in Port Louis, the capital city. 

The dodo gallery goes into great detail about their most famous resident and creates a vivid picture of what it would have been like to encounter one in the wild. 

It's a shame that humans suck because they seem like such unique birds. The country of Mauritius is rightly proud to have once been their home and feature them prominently in souvenir stores, the national currency and even a brewery, Flying Dodo, that sadly I was never able to make it to. 

I could have easily spent the whole day exploring bustling Port Louis but I was warned about rush hour traffic- probably because of all those roundabouts- and the scarcity of buses after a certain hour. I had just enough time to wander around the Cauden waterfront mall and pay a quick visit to the Aapravasi Ghat.

The name Aapravasi Ghat translates to Immigration Depot in Hindi. This UNESCO world heritage site is a series of buildings through which half a million Indian workers were processed. Once slavery was abolished, the British still needed cheap labour for the sugar plantations and the idea for indentured servitude was developed. The exhibits explain the functions of the various rooms and as well as the history of this cruel period. The practice continued until 1923 but the effects on the island's multicultural population can be seen to this day. 

Back in Grand Baie, I had one last night to enjoy this chill town and say goodbye to all the people I had met during my brief time. Now that I have returned home, I can say that it was my favorite part of Mauritius. But there was still more to see in the south, perhaps even an underwater waterfall.