10/9/11
Port Louis, Mauritius
We had approximately 10 hours in Mauritius. As the years have gone by, we have slowly spent less and less time in Mauritius due to the stupidity of the students. Mauritius is known as the “spring break” port for people; in years past people go on booze cruises or get villas and basically sit around at the beach and drink. Many end up trashing wherever they are and so we are no longer allowed to stay there. It’s a tropical destination that is fairly modern and since it is such a tiny island, not much academic work happens there. It would have been nice to spend the night there but I have no idea what people did when they spent four days on the island. As we drove through the city of Port Louis to get to our destination where a select 180 of us would meet our catamarans for our booze cruise, my friend mused that Mauritius looks kind of like Mexico (I believe…). I was surprised at how….not nice it was….Mauritius is like the Caribbean-vacay spot for Europeans but when we were driving through Port Louis, I wasn’t impressed at all. There was trash on the road (like all the other countries), shanty houses, fences; it was dirty and the buildings didn’t look very nice. When we got to a different part of the coast about 45 minutes away, the buildings were nicer but it wasn’t exactly the beautiful, tropical vacation paradise that I had pictured.

But back to the main event of this lovely, super classy booze cruise I signed up for. We took buses to a different beach, surrendered our shoes and loaded into a dingy that carried us the 50 ft to our catamaran. There were 5 boats with about 30 people on each. Upon boarding the vessel, the first question on everyone’s mind was “where is the alcohol? I need a drink”, mind you this was also before 10 AM. However, our captain, Potato (but he goes by Chip) informed us that there was no alcohol on the boat. Obviously, no one was happy about this especially considering the main selling point of the trip was the open bar. Thus, a handful of people rowed back to shore and went in search of a liquor store and successfully came back 20 minutes later with a couple boxes of various bottles. Almost immediately cups of rum and coke were being poured and everyone had either a cup or a bottle in their hand and the party began. It was at least an hour and a half ride to our beach destination of Gabriel Island but it went by really quickly. The water was pretty rough but it only added to the enjoyment when people went flying and got soaked by the waves. Salt water was everywhere but it was warm and everyone was having a great time. We anchored in pretty shallow water at this island and took the dingy to shore . The sand was pretty rough and the water wasn’t good swimming water because it was so shallow and there were rocks everywhere. The water was also incredibly salty, little bit different from the Puget Sound lol. We got some sun and a couple of people snorkeled with the snorkels they snagged from the boat until we were told that our bbq lunch was being served on the boats. We went to the edge of the beach and waited for our dingy to come and get us for a good half our before finally it showed up. At this point we were all a little peeved at the company through which we had signed up through for our lack of booze, mediocre beach and neglectful catamaran crew. Obviously being surrounded by stumbling drunk girls did not make this situation any better. We contemplated swimming back but I for one had a bag of stuff that was not waterproof. Finally Potato Chip sent the dingy out and we made it back to the boat. We ate and then watched a guy puke off the back of his catamaran for a while before heading back to the first beach. The ride back was much calmer, both energy and ocean wise. People were sleeping and tanning, quite a few people were very red by the end of the day. I did not escape unscathed unfortunately. I’ve been sporting a pretty sweet sunglasses tan for a couple days and my face is peeling a little. I was a genius and only put sunscreen on in the morning and never reapplied it. After an excruciating bus ride back complete with stupid drunk people passing around a half-gal of rum (because getting wasted right before getting back on the boat is obviously a super smart thing to do) we made it to the main gate and waited in line to go through security. We watched as various people were pulled out of line to be breathalyzed which gave me a little bit of pleasure considering the antics I had to put up with throughout the day. I feel like there is a line between being drunk and having fun and being freaking obnoxious and I have even less patience for those obnoxious people when I am not drinking which I had stopped doing at about noon. But about the breathalyzing- they basically said if you get on the boat and are really drunk you will be sent down to the health clinic (the drunk tank…dun dun duuunnn) and will not be released until you are more sober. They also breathalyze you and usually don’t keep you unless you blow above a 1.5 but I think they were letting people slide with below a 2.0 unless they were really sloppy. Hence why I couldn’t comprehend why people would be chugging really bad rum right before getting in line to get on the boat. But we all made it on without issue and waved sadly at Mauritius as it disappeared from view.

We will be in India tomorrow and the crew has been covering the stairs with cardboard and plastic in preparation. I didn’t realize people actually got THAT dirty in India but apparently they do…I’m not gonna lie, I am mildly terrified for India. They say it’s a complete assault on your senses so wish me and my senses luck!