Spring Break in Mauritius

A very wise professor said; treat Mauritius as if it is your Spring Break… Immediately following that statement 600 college students cheer loudly to the notion that this tropical island in fact was our Spring Break, as Mauritius just entered spring and we all had a night to enjoy some R & R… Immediately after that SAS staff shook their heads for they could foresee how the next 32 hours would pan out.

Well Mauritius was a great 32 hour break from the school work and mid terms I had just endured from my time leaving South Africa to my time reaching the “Paradise Island” Knowing that time was of the essence I made sure to utilize all my time starting off with the first day as Marcus and I got off the ship around 10 AM and headed to Black River Gorge for a hike on the highest point on the island. The hike was suppose to be easy, ha funny story two buses and a three mile hike to the entrance of the National Park later, we ended up on the wrong trail which was legitimately a steep incline that I thought was going to end my life. Thankfully the views from the top were unbelievable and well worth as you could see the entire island from the top, the hike down I felt like I was going to just drop to my death, but we made it out of there around 3 PM, yeah long hike then headed for some outstanding lunch at a little café on our journey back to Port Louis. FUN FACT: transportation is very unhelpful on Mauritius, you can never go direct from point A to B, there’s always a stop somewhere.

So now its around 6:00 and we stop at the ship to pack for the hotel and then we are off to the InterContinental Resort, as soon as we get there we get a nice surprise from our friends a room upgrade to THE PRESIDENTS SUITE, which consists of two floors, three decks, two being roof top decks, one with a private hot tub on it, and then a giant great room where we all hung out. Probably the nicest place I ever stayed and for a minimal $300 American, gotta love new hotels that need business. So that night we enjoyed Spring Break the best way we know how and headed down to the beach/pool area/bar area where we met up with about 400 other SAS kids.

The next day we got up around 8 and headed to the beach where I did nothing but sit on a lounge chair order some drinks and enjoy the views and the ocean. You know the typical paradise postcards and computer backgrounds, I am convinced that is Mauritius because it was unreal how amazing it looked. Then we headed back to the ship around 5:30 and were on our way by 8 after a BBQ dinner.

Currently we are on track for India, which I am surprisingly really pumped to visit, Mauritius was a great break, but the only culture there is the beaches and the rum (not that I am complaining), but come India I am going to the Taj Mahal and that is going to be unbelievable especially since it is a “Wonder of the World”. Ship life is back to being redundant as usual, but its great relaxation time where I can just focus on schoolwork and now I am a tutor for a preschool kid, god help both of us, but hey gotta keep the resume building.

Until India Later,

Ed