News from the Boat: Mauritius

I’ll be honest, here: Before I took a look at the Semester at Sea itinerary, I’d never heard of Mauritius. Port who? Mauritius is so small that it’s the most densely populated country on the planet – with a grand total of 1.3 million people. The only real native, the Dodo bird, has been extinct for several hundred years, so the island culture is a funky mix of Indians, Africans, and the leftovers of European settlers. And, of course, tourists.
Mauritius is what people mean when they talk about a tropical paradise. The water is a gentle turquoise, the sand pure white, and the palm trees look like something off of a poster. There are villas to rent right on the beach, catamarans to take you snorkeling, scuba diving and jet skies. Add 600+ bored, over-worked college students and you’ve got Party Central for 36 hours straight.

        Tropical paradise + cheap booze + 604*(18-22 year olds)^bored = disaster.

That’s not to say that I didn’t have a good time. After 6 weeks of non-stop action, I was as ready to just let loose for two days as the next person. But just to give you an idea about Semester at Sea and Mauritius: The Mauritian government won’t allow Semester at Sea to stay for more than two days. Not even the administration takes it seriously. We did not have a cultural preport (or rather, we had a guy at the cultural/logistical preport saying, “We are not here for the culture, guys. This is Spring Break.”), we did not have a postport, we barely even got a fifteen minute segment about it in our Global Studies course (which just today did a 75 minute lecture about Indian art and economy alone). So yes, I was a little bit disappointed in Semester at Sea for that.

Which doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy myself. I had a blast. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so beautiful, the people were amazingly friendly, and I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of lying on a boat and occasionally going diving with tropical fish to cool off. I asked our cab driver about the UNESCO world heritage site in Port Louis (a museum dedicated to slavery), and after initially thinking that I was asking what UNESCO was – which I’d laugh at, but I’ve met to many people who’d never even heard of it before this trip to feel safe doing that – he went on a 20 minute rant about the history of Mauritius, the top sites, best shopping, what we need to do before we leave, where to go out at night, and oh, by the way, this is sugar cane growing by the road, do you want to stop and pick some? So he taught us how to peel it with our teeth, how to bite it off right (which is harder than you’d think), and how to get the many many fibers off your tongue once you’re done.

We spent the entire day at the beach, and the entire second day on a catamaran cruising around the island, looking for good snorkeling spots. The funny thing about tropical fish is that they look really boring from far away. Yes, there are angel fish and a couple of see-through ones, but those get old fast. But then you dive down some and the black fish suddenly has blue dots all over, the blue one has green fins, and the grey one is really rainbow colored. Mind you, when a sea urchin lights up in red, green, and blue, it’s about to shoot its quills at you – as someone on the trip had to find out. Nevertheless, it was still a great trip (the kid is fine, dumb as he is) and we were all definitely sad to leave.

One thing that I will say about Semester at Sea, and how I can feel it changing me, is this: I’ve stopped being able to fully enjoy places like Mauritius. I had an amazing time and would love to come back for a full-fledged vacation, but at the same time, there is always that nagging feeling at the back of my mind that this is a third-world country. People here are *poor*. The only reason you can get designer clothes at factory prices is because the laborers here are so badly paid that Billabong or Hugo Boss find it feasible to have their clothes made here and not in, say, China. The only natives you find at the beach are the ones trying to sell you necklaces and shells. And even digging up coral in the sand loses its magic when you realize that these all pieces come from the coral reefs surrounding the island – and the only reason they’re there is because the reef that’s dying. It’s a bittersweet thing, going to all these amazing places. It certainly makes you understand why people say ignorance is bliss.

Lots of love from 11? 10.0N/081? 1.7E
Alexa

P.S. Pictures from Mauritius are here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=248848&id=834707681&l=4d03133a7f