There isn’t a lot to say about Mauritius, because I didn’t do much except lie around on the beach all day, but there are a few tidbits I’ll write about.
On the first day, I was one of the first ones off the ship with a group that was going hiking up La Ponce, a mountain overlooking Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius where we’d docked.
The hike was very rigorous and it took about three hours of steep climbing to get to the top, but the breath-taking view was definitely worth it. I have a bunch of pictures, but as I’m sure you’ve realized by now, uploading pictures is a pretty big task and it might take me awhile to get them up. (I hear the Internet cafes in India are very fast and very cheap though, so maybe I’ll have some more luck there.)
After the hike, we were taken to Flic en Flac beach, which is about 30 minutes away from Port Louis. A few friends and I had rented a villa there for the week, and when I got to Flic en Flac, I found my friends already lying on the beach. Our villa was right across the street from the beach, and it cost about $100 US for each of us for the entire week. It was a little shabby but for the next few days it was the place to be and we had a bunch of people drive in from the ship to stay with us.

My friends Eric and Alan got up early one morning to go snorkeling with an SAS group. They had been at it for about 20 minutes when Eric suddenly started convulsing in the water. Alan grabbed him and ran back in to shore – they were in fairly shallow water but there was coral everywhere, and by the time Alan got back, his feet were completely sliced up. (We asked him about this later, and he said the adrenaline was pumping so hard he didn’t initially feel his feet getting cut.) The rest of the group swam into shore and started calling for help.
A doctor happened to be lying on the beach nearby, and helped to adjust Eric, who by this time was starting to regain consciousness but had dislocated his jaw. The coast guard came shortly after, and Eric was air-lifted to the nearest hospital in Port Louis.
According to the doctors, he’d had an epileptic seizure, although he wasn’t diagnosed with epilepsy. He’d had one a few years ago, and they concluded that the combination of dehydration, bright sunlight, overexertion and fatigue was the cause of his seizures.
Anyway, Eric had his jaw popped back in and spent the night in the hospital, but the next morning he grabbed a taxi and came back to the villa, perfectly healthy. By the way, in the picture of us petting the cheetah, Eric is the one in the middle in the white shirt.

Other accidents that occurred in Mauritius:
One girl had had a lot to drink and slipped off her chair at a bar. She hit her head extremely hard on the concrete floor and lost consciousness. They took her to the hospital (at the same time that Eric was there, which is how I know this) where she lay in ICU in critical condition, apparently due to bleeding in her brain. Eric said he heard that there was long-term mental damage. She was sent home before we left Mauritius.
Another girl was walking with a group of people and got side-swiped by a bus – she broke her arm and sprained her ankle. She’s sort of been a joke for the past couple of days (she thinks it’s sort of funny too). The traffic in Mauritius goes the other way, but you probably shouldn’t walk in the street in any country.
Another girl apparently had something slipped into her drink and had to have her stomach pumped, but I’ve heard less about that one.
One guy performed a song at Open Mic night with the lyrics: “It’s kind of suspicious, that night in Mauritius, when everyone came back with bruises and stitches.”
Needless to say, future Semester at Sea voyages will not be going to Mauritius.

The last day I came back to Port Louis so that I could see the downtown area. I went to the open-air market, which was pretty cool – very hustle-and-bustle, with lots of bargaining going on. I got a couple trinkets to bring back with me.

I should also mention that the MahaShivratri pilgrimage was going on while we were in Mauritius. It’s is a huge Hindu pilgrimage (Mauritius is 52% Hindu) during which many families walk from one end of the island to another carrying colorful floats that depict Lord Shiva (“floats” isn’t quite the right word – they’re like statues, almost, or miniature temples). I took a few pictures of the pilgrims as I passed them and I’ll try to post those a.s.a.p. I’ve learned a lot about Hinduism from the class I’m taking on board the ship, and I think it’s a really beautiful, interesting religion, so it was awesome to see a pilgrimage first-hand.

I think Mauritius was a real turning point in our voyage – it was the last place that we could still have many Westernized things at hand, like nice toilets, hot water, and electricity. It was a lot like spring break – a lot of partying and laying out on the beach and relaxing, but now we’re off to countries like India, Vietnam, and China where we’re not going to be able to do that. It’s time to get serious (at least until Hawaii).

It was also a turning point in terms of friendship – like I wrote earlier in my South Africa entry, there have been a lot of little dramas spurring up in different places, people getting angry at each other. So my original group of friends has more or less divided. I’m really lucky to have stayed out of everyone’s little personal fits (mostly because I’ve been very careful to keep my mouth shut and to not perpetuate gossip – harder than it sounds, believe me), and now I’m trying to branch out and meet other people – 50 days on a small ship and I still see people every day I don’t recognize. How does that work?

I’m trying to keep my head and my confidence up – I can tell you that cabin fever is a very real thing and people are definitely starting to go a little crazy.

In lighter news, here’s a tidbit from my Fiction Writing class that I wrote. It’s an experiment with magical realism:

Their feathers were beginning to turn a blanched magenta, but the flamingoes didn't seem to mind. They just bowed their heads against the arctic wind and continued to march, wiry legs twisting in the snow. Their beaks, now robin's egg blue, were glossed with ice. Most had gone blind. When the first bird collapsed, none stopped.
Night seized the crystal landscape. Stars began to appear, and then the Northern lights. For the first time in days, the flamingoes stopped and gazed upward. Carefully, they dislodged their frozen wings from their sides, ice cracking as they flapped experimentally. Then, as one, they pushed off the ground and broke into the blue and green light, a new brilliance exploding from the absence.

Okay, I’m off to class.
I miss you all! Xoxo.
Lots of love,
E