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Goal on my Life List: Grow tulip bulbs.
As of New Year's Day 2012, this has been accomplished, and we even see that there may be some new flowers still to come from the remaining bulbs. Next green thumb ambition is an herb garden, inspired by this article. Go greenery!
One last post about Mauritius. We read a lot of books while on our trip, and in PJ O'Rourke's "Holidays in Heck" he writes:
"But, Dad," said [ten-year-old] Muffin, "this time would be different. See, we fly a million miles, all the way around to the other side of the world. And then we go to someplace that's exactly the same. That would be so cool." The entire travel and tourism industry explained in three sentences.
On our holidays, we like to explore and see all of the unique elements of a destination, but on this trip, we also created a nice routine that was quite like what we do in Dubai, "we fly a million miles... [and create something that's] exactly the same." We did a lot of fun excursions throughout the country, but we also got up early every morning and hit the gym, then headed over for a breakfast of fresh fruit, yogurt and tea (and the occasional pain au chocolat). We spent our afternoons putting our feet up and reading good books.
But even our ordinary routine felt like it was exotic and memorable.
And then we celebrated New Year's Eve while flying over the Indian Ocean.
One morning, we had to set our alarm so that we'd be up early for a taxi into the capital city of Port Louis (some pronounce it "Por Louee," while others say "Por Lou-iss," so I don't know what's the official designation). Our taxi took us along yet another zigzagging crazy route, with sudden turns down alleys that turned out to be main roads, and downshifts to get up to the highest point on the island. At one point, our French-speaking local driver shouted out, "MONKEY!" and there was a macaque just chilling out in the bushes on the roadside. This was the only exotic animal that we'd see the whole time, other than the gorgeous red birds.
Port Louis was a bustling place, but we didn't have much time for sightseeing as we quickly met our connection and found ourselves whisked away to various "errands."
We then got back in the same dude's taxi and roared back to Chemin Grenier, where we turned down a random back alley for our last errand of the day. We then celebrated with our traditional "samosa and cone" snacks, asking the kind taxi guy to meet us in the parking lot of the store where we emerged with our ice creams.
One morning, we planned on joining a bike tour organized by the hotel, but in the morning there was a drizzle and when we got to the meeting place, they said it was cancelled. Our exercise plans for the morning were suddenly foiled so we decided to go for a walk back along the road that we had followed earlier in the stay, in a taxi. Passing fields of sugar cane and woodsy areas near rivers, we enjoyed the long walk.
We passed lots of empty beaches along the way and found the warnings to be quite impressive.
A few hours into the walk, James came up with a brilliant idea: rather than turn around and walk back the way we came, how about if we just kept going to Chemin Grenier and then caught a taxi back? Remembering that I'd enjoyed a nice ice cream cone on our first trip there, much needed in the heat and humidity, I found instant motivation. Onward, to Chemin Grenier!
We took the turn-off and then marched up the steep hill, which gave a gorgeous view behind us.
Taxis kept doing their toot-toot as they drove by us, to make sure we weren't desperate for a ride, and we would wave them off, "a pied!" These tourists were equipped with our rucksack, and we were earning that cone. We also saw more friendly people in the town, waving at us.
No samosa vendor on this visit, but we did take a peek around the fresh produce market. And then made our way to Winners where we got our ice creams. Taxi ride home after a nice 8- or 9-km walk, felt just right. And back at the place, we settled into our relaxing afternoon routine with an ice cold, thirst-quenching Phoenix, sipping while reading our books.
Total change of topic, wanted to also get our golf shots into a post, so I thought I'd slot them in here. We hit the 9 hole, par 3 on a morning during our stay, and I survived. (So glad we had the place to ourselves, so I didn't feel rushed or self-conscious as I would whiff.)
Highly skilled golfer, who was an excellent caddy.
Action shot of yours truly.
LPGA, look out.
Never one to mind a little rain since I'm living in a city with NO rain, we had a few rainy grey days in Mauritius, and it was still quite beautiful.
We borrowed some bikes one morning and decided to head out in a new direction, and then the road just kept going and going, past beautiful beach after beautiful beach. There were enough hills to get our hearts pumping, and enough nice places along the way to stop for a look.
You can see the road that we followed in the photo below, and another street food vendor who was selling coconut water from the whole coconuts. We didn't try this, but stopped at this point to climb the steps to a viewpoint.
In the photo below, you can see a couple of guys fishing on the rocks.
A kid was windsurfing in this little town. As we approached Le Morne, there were a few kitesurfers slicing across the water.
This is the civil office in one of the little towns. Later, we would visit the civil office in Chemin Grenier and it was a little bigger, but had a similarly rustic feel to it.
I loved primary colours when I was younger, and the Mauritian flag would have been a favourite - stripes of red, blue, yellow and green. Here we stopped at the town's village hall and I took a photo of the main street, where you can see a bus stop and a little general store. On our bike ride back, we stopped at one of these little stores and for a couple of dollars, we got some snacks and a Coke (because ice cold Coca Cola always tastes best after outdoor exercise) and ate these on one of the many empty beaches on our way back.
After landing in Mauritius in the afternoon, I loved everything about our drive to the hotel. This was the first glimpse of the greenery everywhere, but also town after town of narrow streets and alleys, bustling with people. In L'Escalier, police officers in the same uniforms as Parisian Gendarmes were directing traffic as kids played in the sport court of the school on the corner. "It's the Christmas carnival for the town," our driver told us. Storefronts with handpainted signs in French. Adorable stray dogs scampering alongside the traffic. Public transit buses, painted with bright colours, massive in the narrow main streets.
The next day, we caught a taxi to the nearby town of Chemin Grenier so that we could explore and stock up on some groceries for our room. In our cart: cases of water, needed in the heat; cans of local beer called Phoenix; rounds of soft cheese flavoured with walnuts & figs and pepper; crackers for the cheese. We started an afternoon tradition, eating plates of crackers with cheese and sipping an ice cold Phoenix on the breezy porch.
Meanwhile, back in Chemin Grenier, we had strolled the main street, full of things to see. Lots of street food vendors - I liked these handwritten signs below, advertising "Briani Poulet Mouton Poisson."
And this guy, with his box of hot samosas. We bought two each on this first day, fried crispy dough filled with spiced potato, absolutely delicious. On subsequent visits to Chemin Grenier, we would look for the same guy, but never saw him again.
This reminds me of a story from many years ago, where I had driven to Brooklyn to wander and explore, and a kid approached me as I was walking an empty street, holding out a cooler, asking if I wanted to buy one of his Mom's homemade empanadas. I didn't buy one that day, I wish I had.
I took this photo because I loved the makeshift boutiques along with the ladies' saris.
Here's one of the buses I mentioned before. A lot of them had neat painted flourishes along the side. It was impressive the way that they would navigate the narrow streets.
See what I mean? Who would guess that this was the bus route? Later, on a drive to the capital of Port Louis, our driver kept taking sudden turns down lanes that felt like back alleys, but soon revealed themselves to be main routes.
Lots of fresh veggie and fruit vendors.
I liked how you could see the rolling green hills in the distance. So much to see, a favourite part of our trip.
And it was - rolling fields of sugar cane and tea plantations. Big skies. Thick humid air. The air full of birdsong. The night skies scattered with crystal clear constellations. The radiant blue of sky and water.
So beautiful.
We've arrived back from Mauritius, with many happy stories to share. But first, how nice to walk in the door and glance over at our planters to find three tulips had flowered in time for our return on the first day of this new year.
