Delicious Mauritius

For those of you who don't know what or where Mauritius is (as I didn't prior to this voyage) it is a small island not too far from the east coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It was colonized by Dutch, French, and English people but now currently has mostly Indians living there.

We stopped in Port Louis, Mauritius for one day only. It was basically a day off of school. After the diplomatic meeting, Isaiah, Butters, Taylor, and I headed off for our catamaran and snorkeling adventure. The bus ride took about an hour and at around 10 or 10 30 we got on one of four catamarans full of students from SAS.

This was one of the most relaxing experiences ever. We hovered out in the Indian Ocean, with the clearest blue water I have ever seen, snorkeling, jumping, swimming, socializing, tanning, and hanging out with professors. That's right, some professors came, including the academic dean Reg Garrett (with whom I got a few pictures) who took a pretty daring jump off of the side of a catamaran, and my personal marine biology teacher John Kastendiek, who helped me identify some creatures we found in the ocean.

Never would I have ever had an experience to go snorkel with a professor, who could tell me what I am seeing right then and there, and remind me that we did, in fact, learn about them. I think it was a good call on our part to take a marine biology class while we're out on the ocean. It just seemed like a cool thing to do, and after seeing things in the ocean that I had learned about, I felt more knowledgeable about the marine world.

We were on the catamaran from 10 until 4-ish. The lunch they gave us consisted of garlic bread, potatoes and onions, rice, skewered beef and some kind of fish. I ate it all. Yes mom, fish too.

After the catamaran we went quickly into town by way of water taxi to buy patches and flags and various other souvenirs, and retreated back to the ship for a BBQ by the pool.

We weren't in Mauritius very long, but I really enjoyed it. I got a small taste of the culture but a larger taste of the tropical marine life, and I don't feel bad about taking some time away from learning about the people of nation in favor of learning about the marine life of a nation.