Weekends in Mauritius - UniBreak week 2 & 3

Blog: Week two.

This week we learned what it means to have all plans and back up plans spoiled by the weather. After a good week of getting more involved in the MMCS dolphin and turtle watching programme, and gaining a much better understanding of how things work, we planned a very eventful weekend. A boat party around the giant coral rock formation off shore, tamarin falls, and a Port Louis adventure or the markets in Quartre Borne lined up for the weekend.

None of these things came into fruition as a cyclone off coast of Madagascar brought with it plenty of rain to ruin our weekend. We spent a very antsy Friday night and Saturday indoors, frustrated that we couldn't be exploring the island in our time off. It rained so much that later in the week we drove passed some roads on our way back from Le Morne that had collapsed with the down poor.

Lucky for us, Daksh - our in house host - made hasty plans for a visit to the North for a rendezvous with the other Antipodeans group staying in Blue Bay. Late Saturday afternoon we all piled into a van and traveled up to the North, where we ate at a very nice restaurant that had generous servings for very small amounts of money.

The other group had planned to meet us there, and did so, but not after a long trip of mechanical issues and so we had already finished by the time they arrived. Afterwards we proceeded to have a night out in our first Mauritius night life experience. It was pretty fun, the dance floor was (thankfully) so air conditioned it felt like stepping into a freezer, which was very welcome as outside was pooring with rain and more humid than we would have liked. The boys - having indulged in a little too many gin an tonics at the restaurant - joined our driver for a nap in the van, the other group headed off similar time, and Amy, Ella, Daksh and his friends and sister danced well into the morning. Once we had had our fill, we piled back into the van and made it back home in time for the sunset.

We may not have got to visit the tourist attractions we would have liked, but good fun was had by all.

Week three.

What a perfect week! After the dreary weather of the weekend, we were thrilled that the sun was out once more for our boat expeditions. We soaked up the sun like only people who have had their entire weekend upset by clouds and who are keen to get a tan only can. So you can imagine our stress when - come Friday - we were alerted that Cyclone Ethel hanging out pretty close, and there was a small possibility than it might come out way, or just bring some generally unforgivable weather. However I think we are still thanking our lucky stars that cyclone Ethel did not come to visit.

It was a long weekend this week for Chinese new year. On Saturday we went to Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, to meet with Ralco, who was to show us around and about. Port Louis was loud and busy. The bus trip there could only be likened to a ride upon the Knight Bus from Harry Potter, however things didn't magically jump out of the way. There were so many close shaves with cyclists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and drivers.

I was very happy to be off that bus. Once we'd arrived, got lost, and then had some lovely locals walk us five blocks to where we were meant to meet Ralco - which was one of two McDonalds restaurants in Mauritius and the only one that served beef - we were all very thirsty hungry and hot, so as we were early we decided to compare Maccas in Mauritius to our own. I got a chicken big mac, which is as it sounds, a big mac but with chicken instead of beef. It was better than I expected, though I was very disappointed that it did not come with Mac sauce, but I suppose you can never really please an ex-McDonalds employee. At the waterfront we saw a great Chinese dancing dragon display, which had so many firecrackers going off that no one could hear anyone else talk! It was wonderful to see.

Then after a quick look around the expensive waterfront 'craft markets' we headed off to the more authentic Mauritian markets, where we were constantly hailed, requested to look at some special item and generally over charged. After the first purchases though we soon found our feet in the bartering word, and made a few purchases. Two of us purchased two supposed water proof watches, however we are both so worried about getting a watch tan that we have hardly worn them anyway. From there we did a quick walk through the meat market, in which none of us were over keen of buying any meat, as most of it was hooves or other unpleasant things.

We were quickly losing time so we said farewell to Ralco and then headed to Pamplemousse gardens, which was absolutely beautiful, all the trees were huge and old and interesting, and the lilies were metres wide, however they had no shortage of mosquitoes and we regretted not planning ahead for that once we were all scratching madly. They also had tortoises, which were huge and strange! Afterwards we visited Daksh's families restaurant, which we stumbled upon by chance and were very shocked to see him there.

On Sunday we went to blue bay to help the other Antipodeans group in a coral awareness day on the beach, where there was live music, face painting and free glassbottom boat rides out to the marine park where we all went snorkeling. The coral was much bigger than where we usually snorkel, but it was sad that it was fairly bleached. Afterwards we chilled out on the beach, and spent some time talking to tourists and locals about dolphins, and of course we all got our faces painted by the other group.

Our weekend concluded with a Catamaran trip on Monday which has been the highlight of my trip so far. We nearly lost all of the money we spent on it due to my poor organisation skills and booking it on the wrong day, however after some hasty begging emails and phone calls, and a small fee, the day went as planned where we spent all day soaking up the sun, being waited, snorkeling and generally just enjoying ourselves. On board was open bar and buffet barbecue lunch. Then it took us to Ile Aux Cerfs where we went parasailing, and those who were keen went wakeboarding and shopped in even more markets. Ile Aux Cerfs had been described as a secluded island paradise, which was only half true, there was definitely no shortage of people or shops on the island, but it still was very beautiful. We all came home smiling, burned and with incredible sunglasses tans.