Port Louis, Mauritius
March 30, 2024 - We are back on land on the island of Mauritius in the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean. After 5 days at sea it is nice to be back on land. Mauritius is a small island - 28 miles wide and less than 800 square miles. It has been an independent nation only since 1968 and you can see the influence of African, Indian, British, French, Portuguese and Chinese cultures in this small, relatively poor but very proud nation.
We were scheduled for an afternoon panoramic driving tour of Port Louis and a brief stop at the National Botanical Garden, so we decided to take an early morning shuttle bus into town to walk around in the morning. We boarded the shuttle bus at 8:30 AM, as soon as the ship was cleared by immigration. The shuttle bus did a quick 10 minute drive to the harbor area (shopping, dining, etc) but first did a quick drive along the main street where the locals shopped. So when we got off the shuttle at the “tourist” shopping area, we walked across past the harbor, crossed the main road and walked through the locals shopping district and through a lot of the old town. We knew we would likely see some of this on our afternoon tour, but wanted to experience a little of the local culture from the ground vs. from a bus window! We enjoyed 2 hours just walking through the streets, the markets and the parks in the middle of the city center with the incredibly large trees with wide, braided trunks and “weeping willow” like leaves. We then headed back to the shuttle bus to have a quick refresh on the boat before heading for our tour. We enjoyed a short bus ride to the botanical garden, where we walked through with our guide for an hour, admiring the varied palm trees and huge water lilies the garden is noted for. We also saw the oldest tree on the Island (over 200 years old) several deer and the large turtles they have in the garden as well. After our visit to the garden, we drove back towards town, sat in some local traffic on the very narrow roads and then drove up to a fort for a panoramic view of Port Louis and the harbor. We then headed back to the ship for our departure for our next port tomorrow in Reunion on Easter Sunday..
