Mauritius the port that almost wasnt

Mauritius the Port that almost wasn’t.

So Mauritius, it is a little island off the coast of Madagascar and we very nearly didn’t go to it. We were forced to reduce our speed while en route from Cape Town due to rough seas and a tropical storm that was passing just north of the island. Two days before we were suppose to get to the port they announced that we would only be stopping long enough to refuel and then we would be on our way. This didn’t sit well with the ship board community, but there was really nothing we could do about it. Some of us took it in stride and began working on our plans for India. Others raised all hell and made scenes. In some cases it was rather pathetic. However, the night before we were suppose to get to Mauritius we were told that we would get 4 hours from 8 am till noon to enjoy the beautiful island. We were all ecstatic! When we finally got cleared by customs most of us made our way to the water front but everything was closed until 10:30. So Mike, Alex, and I just went roaming around the city of Port Louis until we found a little market where we could get fresh fruit and a few souvenirs. Then we decided that we should check out the country side and then go to one of the legendary Mauritian beeches. The drive to the beech took about 45 minutes and in that time we saw some amazing scenery. Most of the mountains were partially obscured in clouds and everything was just as green as can be. We got to the beach at about 10:00 and I got a local lager called a Phoenix and it was great! We only got to spend about 30 minutes on the beach though until we had to head back to the ship. We got back to the ship at about 11:45 and after Mike and I were cleared, we went up to the top deck to have lunch and watch the show on the gangway. A lot of people had tried to stretch their time there a little too much and there was still a pretty significant line when we hit noon. So a fair number of folks ended up getting dock time, and believe it or not 17 got thrown into the drunk tank. Overall, this port was a lot of fun and I wish we  would have had the full day were suppose to so that we could have explored more of this fantastic country, I really hope that I get the chance to come back one day.