Exploring the South

My friend Jimmy played tour guide for me and Ervin for a full day of exploration in the south.


Walking from Souillac to Gris Gris provides views of the more rugged Mauritian coastline. The black rocky cliffs are due to a break in the coral reef that surrounds most of the rest of the island.


The far rock in the picture to the left is knows as La Roche qui Pleure (the Crying Rock). It is said to resemble the profile of a man and when the waves crash over, he looks as if he's crying. I didn't see it but Jimmy said the weather was too calm.





The term gris gris traditionally refers to 'black magic' and looking at the tortuous coastline, you can see how the area got its name. There are signs at the "beaches" warning against bathing, but every once a while we would see a lone fisherman out on the rocks.

Next we visited Rochester falls. The path winds through sugar cane fields, and with the sun beating down, entering the serenity of the falls felt like a beautiful escape. I, of course, went swimming. The river water and shaded trees reminded me a lot of summer days in western Massachusetts. It also reminded me a bit of those swimming pools in skymall that have a continuous push of water coming at you so that you can do laps without actually moving. I enjoyed attempting to get to the rocks in the middle but to no avail.

Next up was Ilo Sancho. The island we are standing on here is made entirely from dead coral. We waded across from the main island to stand on the spiky earth and survey the coastline we had just covered.

As I sat looking out at the ocean from the south of the island I could feel it's enormity. Travelling due south behind this wave, there is nothing until Antarctica.

Mahebourg

Mahebourg is beautiful. While it is the main town in the southeast of the island, it is mainly a small community of fisherman with a population of about 20,000. It was in Mahebourg that the first colonisers set foot on the island (although they later decided that Port Louis would make a more convenient capital). There is a great market near the bus station on Mondays, but my favorite part of Mahebourg is sitting by the waterfront. The blues and aquas show the various coral and sandy bottoms of the ocean. The view of the small island shown in the top photo is the cover of the Lonely Planet for Mauritius, Reunion & Seychelles and I would have to agree with the cover designer that it is one of the most beautiful sights ever.

Bicycling to Blue Bay

Blue Bay is a beautiful lagoon in the Southeast of the island. My friend Julia and I started in Mahebourg where we rented bicycles from a small shop (at least they fit the general definition of bicycles) and biked the coast to Blue Bay. The bikes were rusted and had some gear issues but the views were spectacular. Small, colorful boats line the edge of the water.
Blue Bay is a small beach, but on a weekday at the end of winter is was relatively quite.




The lagoon makes for wonderful snorkeling, even within the ropes of the swimming area.

Scuba Diving

A Note on lack of pictures/posts: From what I've heard from most of you, it's the pictures that keep you interested in this blog. Don't feel bad, they're what keep me interested too. Unfortunately, about two weeks ago my camera was stolen and I haven't quite gotten around to getting a new one. And without pictures I've been reluctant to write new posts. But I'm working on getting a camera and will be up to speed before you know it. Until then, I'll have to rely on friends and tourist websites.



So, Scuba. Yesterday I went scuba diving in the way north of the island off of Cap Malheureax, near the small island shown in the picture above, Coin De Mire. On the way to the first dive site we saw humpback whales from the boat. We didn't see them from under the water but oh my goodness could we hear them! I felt like I was in a National Geographic documentary. They're long, low cries sound highly emotional and are followed by responsive whistling. Their communication made for incredible background music as we explored a shipwreck surrounded by thousands (maybe millions) of tropical fish. We saw a yellow spotted eel that was not much smaller than me and huge rays which my friend Kenny insisted were still babies, but were way bigger than any I've ever seen. We also did a drift dive, letting the current take us through coral arches and over bustling marine life. So far, all three dives I've done in Mauritius have been wonderful and I cannot wait to do more!

How small is Mauritius?

you mean other than one-tenth the size of New Jersey?

Well, the answer is: small enough for one traffic accident to cause the entire country to shut down for four hours. Tuesday at 7 am on the motorway to the capital city, Port Louis, a truck carrying 30 tons of sugar crashed into a bus. The tragic accident proved fatal for four of the bus passengers. The news of the accident spread fast as the motorways came to a halt. There is only one road leading into the main city and almost everyone in the country works in Port Louis. Therefor, traffic over most of the island was back up for at least 3 hours while the motorway was cleared. Offices were unable to open or were forced to operate without enough staff. University classes were canceled because professors and students could not get to campus. The buses ran off schedule for the rest of the day. In short, one road accident shut down the country.

Moreover, no one thought this was weird.

Ganesha Chaturthi

Ganesha Chaturthi is a Hindu festival celebrating the birthday of the Lord Ganesha (also spelled Ganesh), the elephant-headed son of Shiva and Parvati. Ganesha is widely revered as the Remover of Obstacles. To celebrate Ganesha, communities come together to make offerings of fruit and money to the deity and pray that he will remove obstacles in their lives for the upcoming year. I was able to observe and participate in this celebration. On Sunday night, I went to a friend of a friend's home where about 80 friends and family members had gathered to eat and pray. In the main room was an alter with a large statue of Ganesha. As people arrived, they took off their
shoes, entered the room and waited to give their offerings of fruit and prayers to Ganesha. In return for your offering, you receive some fruit back. The room smelled heavily of incense and sweetness with a touch of coconut. After our prayers were offered, we sat down outside in plastic lawn chairs set up in rows facing a stage where a dozen or so men and women sat singing prayers and playing a harmonium, various bells and drums. The tunes were rhythmic and slightly somber but people swayed and sang along creating a palpable spirit of positive energy. After the singing came dancing. Two men sat facing each other, drums on laps, playing both with each other and against each other to create a sensational beat. The other men and women put down their instruments and began a call-and-response sort of singing as they danced counter-clockwise around them. Not long into the dancing I was called for to come on stage and join the circular dance and song. The rhythm of the drums echoed through the floorboards to my feet making all of our movements as fluid as the songs themselves.
After dancing, we went out to the back yard to sit at a long picnic table under a tent and were served rice and Dal and all sorts of other vegetarian Indian dishes that I need to learn the
names of. Being exhausted from hiking all day, I opted out of coffee, thanked my hosts and headed home.
Monday, the celebration and prayer continues much in the same way for the morning and afternoon. In the late afternoon, the statue of Ganesha is either carried or transported on a vehicle to a body of water. Everyone follows the statue in a colorful procession. Around 5:30 pm the statues are brought into the water, dunked three times and on the third time fully sunk where they are left to melt back into the earth. As the statue sinks last prayers are sung out as this is the moment when Ganesha is listening to all of the prayers so that he can help to remove obstacles in this coming year. I watched from a beach in Flic en Flac where multiple processions had met up to make a great big crowd. The statues were lined on wooden tables and were brought one by one into the ocean. By 6:30 all of the statues had been put in the sea and the festival was officially over. The beach, which only an hour before had been filled with colorful saris, magenta paint, flowers, candles, fruit and beautifully decorated statues, was dark and quite but the feeling of prayer and celebration remained and a cheshire cat moon smiled down.

la randonnée

Hiking Piton de la Petite Riviere Noire (Little Black River Mountain) - 828 meters, the highest point in Mauritius

Through friends of friends I found a group of Mauritians who organize hikes around the island a few times a month. The word "organize" should be used loosely here because I'm not sure putting 60 people on a bus, bringing them to a remote area, taking them on a 14 km hike and then leaving with whoever ends up back on the bus is the most organized outing. And, while playing with the English language, I think I must also attempt to redefine the word "hike" in a way which more appropriately describes my experience. Apparently what I know as hiking, is, in Mauritius, more like a walk or even a stroll through the outdoors. The hike began on a large, well cleared path, but after hopping over a small river, we took a detour directly into the forest. The hike took us scrambling up some small rock faces and through dense branches. It felt a
bit as if the forest was a kindergarten bully, attempting to trip and scratch me while pulling my hair (and probably laughing at me behind my back). After a few hours of battling the forest, we stopped in a clearing overlooking the valley of hills for lunch. We had some food, chatted, got rained on a bit and continued back into the forest which had gained a new and exciting element - mud! The same branches that were still threatening to permanently change my ability to see became handles on either side of a path of thick, oozing mud. The whole thing was pretty hilarious. The very last push to the top was the densest part of the forest. But just when I was having a hard time believing anyone had actually been down this "path" before, we reached a small summit and a torn white flag on a stick announcing we had made it to the top of the island. And the view was amazing. I'm not sure these pictures do it justice, but I hope they'll give you an idea.






This was were the path became quite steep. We assumed we were at the top which is funny looking back on it.







The view from the top.



























There are a few different groups of people that do this sort of hiking around the island, so expect more stories like this!