Port Louis, Mauritius to La Possession, Reunion

April 6 – Here we are in Port Louis, Mauritius (they pronounce it More-reshus’). In French, which is the primary language, along with English and Creole, it’s Il Maurice. We don’t have a tour until the afternoon so we hopped off and caught a water taxi on the pier just astern of the ship. We can see downtown Port Louis from the ship but it’s across a small harbor. The fastest way to get there appears to be the water taxi. We were his first customers of the day. He’s charging $1 for the crossing and that seems to be very reasonable. They have four small boats lined up to provide service and we rode over on the largest one with the ship’s dentist and his wife, Lynn, Diana’s bridge partner and his wife and Eric, one of our tablemates. Eric sat on the engine housing facing aft and looked very much like Winston Churchill from the back.

The taxi dropped us off on a small dock right next to a shopping area. After walking through an archway in the city wall we found ourselves in the midst of a shoppers paradise. Happily, the very first store was a factory outlet for the wooden ship model factory on the island. The models were great, very detailed and complete. They ranged from 6 inches to about 6 feet in length. The factory makes replicas of sailing ships for museums around the world and is famous in the model ship community. Apparently this is the best shop in the world or maybe tied with one in London. I bought a very small teakwood model of the HMS Bounty in a rectangular glass case for $28. In the states the case itself would have cost at least that much. I felt like I got a good deal.

We walked around the riverfront area, Diana shopping and me looking for good photos. I found a casino and went in to add to my chip collection. It was a machines only casino, no tables and therefore no chips. I did get a token that the machines use. I got a diet coke and some fried calamari and sat at a table on the water while the shopping safari continued. Diana found a good book on Mauritius, Reunio n (where we’ll be tomorrow) and Seychelles where we were two days ago. She also bought two very nice embroidered shirts.

After that we walked back to the water taxi and headed back to the ship to get lunch and prepare for the afternoon tour.

Arab traders knew of Mauritius as early as the 10th century but never stopped to settle it. Vasco de Gama’s voyages in 1498 resulted in the Portuguese stopping here but aside from introducing pesky monkeys and rats they had little effect on the island. The Dutch came next. They established a supply base for ships headed to Java and finally left in 1710. In the meantime they has hunted the dodo bird to extinction and introduced African slaves, Javan deer, wild boar, tobacco and sugar cane to the island. According to our guide they failed at plantation farming because they were too lazy. The French came next and established successful sugar plantations and built a sugar mill, road network and a hospital by 1736.

Our tour emphasizes the multi-cultural aspects of the island. Our first stop was in the city of Pamplemousses (which is Grapefruit in French). The city takes its name from the grapefruit groves planted here by early settlers so they could reprovision ships with citrus to help fight off scurvy during long ocean voyages. It’s the site of the first Catholic church on the island, Saint Francois (right), built in 1756. It’s built out of blocks of dark grey volcanic rock. Very appropriate as the island of Mauritius is volcanic in origins, not granite up thrusts like the Seychelles. Mauritius is surrounded almost completely by a coral reef. The diving here is great as it was in the Seychelles also. This coral reef broke up the Boxing Day tsunami to such an extent that only 3-4 foot waves reached the island. Not bad at all.

The church was very interesting. Simple in design, it has Dutch architectural features in its construction. It looks almost like one of those old black workingman’s lunch pails up to the roofline. Of course, the bell tower sets atop this lunch pail shape. It has a black and gold pulpit and laver (left) that appears to be carved from volcanic stone and then applied with gold leaf. I suspect that they were painted to look like that to match the church’s color but were actually carved from wood. The Stations of the Cross are apparently cast in plaster and remain in their natural color. They’re very detailed.

Our next stop was in the Sante-Croix section of Port Louis at the shrine of Father Jacques Laval. He is renowned for his work among the poor of the island in the 1800s. His grave became a site for pilgrimages in the late 1800s and he was beatified in 1979 when John Paul II visited the island and prayed at Laval’s shrine. I paid 10 rupees for a candle to set on the altar, that’s about 35 cents. The attendant said I could take a picture of the crypt if I wanted and I asked if he would pose in it. He said he would and that’s when he told me about the Pope’s visit. The burial site of Fr. Laval is on the grounds of the Church of the Holy Cross. The current structure is very modern. It was finished in 1968 after cyclone Carole damaged the 1848 church so badly it could not be repaired.

The inside of the church is unremarkable except for the use of mosaic tiles. An irregularly shaped mosaic spans the entire front of the church. On the left is the last supper, in the center is the crucifixion, and on the right is the healing of the leper. Various scenes from the life of Christ connect them. The mosaic is not rectangular but the edges loosely follow the border of the various scenes. Very unique! The largest tile is about 1 inch square but many of the tiles are smaller and irregular shaped to form the picture. Stations of the Cross (right) are also done in mosaic around the sides of the church. They are not individual scenes as in most churches but are connected by a band of mosaic tiles about a foot across with various images in between. To avoid confusion, the actual stations are marked with a wooden plus sign below them and a roman numeral in the mosaic itself indicating which station is depicted. I have never seen this treatment of the connecting band with additional figures before.

One building that remains from Father Laval’s time is the Presbytery (left). This was the place where the priests lived and it was also used for religious retreats and meetings. It has a very colonial look to it with its steep tile roof and shuttered windows and doors.

Our next stop was at a Hindu Temple (right). It is done in Tamil style as most of the Indian population of Mauritius is from southern India. It is the oldest temple on the island which is 60% Hindu. It’s very ornate as most of them are. The main shrine is dedicated to the god Shiva (below left). We could not enter the main building, as the requirements to enter are very strict. You must have just bathed, not eaten anything non-vegetarian in the last week, have made an offering to Shiva and several more things any one of which would rule all of us out. We could roam around the rest of the temple as long as we removed our shoes and hats.

The hall of the temple has 5 rosettes in the ceiling that were about 4 feet in diameter. The center one was a lotus flower cast in relief. The two flanking it were pretty nondescript. The two on the end were a great curiosity. They look like a multicolor chrysanthemum blossom with a very strange center. The figure in the center looks like an elephant with its tail to the right and a bull with its tail to the left. The heads merged in the center with elements of each merging into the other. I had to ask our guide about this and she said it showed the unity of strength (the elephant) with divinity (the sacred cow). You just never know and that’s why you ask.

Our next stop was at the Nam Soon pagoda, the oldest of its kind in Port Louis. It’s a Chinese Buddhist shrine. The Buddha here looks very different from those in Thailand and Southeast Asia. He has a Chinese style mustache and Chinese features. He looks more like you would picture Confucius or Charlie Chan. The front piece on the altar (right) is very ornately carved and overlaid with gold and silver. It contains scenes from Chinese live and mythology.

The pagoda is directly across the street from the Champs de Mars racetrack. (below left) It has both turf and regular tracks. The English built it during the British colonial period and is the oldest continuously operating racetrack in the world behind the English Jockey Club. It’s in a beautiful setting with the volcanic peaks in the background. Speaking of the British colonial period, it’s odd how little vestiges of the English remain. They never moved here in any great numbers and most of them have been merged into the Indian or French lines on the island. About all that remains of The Empire are this racetrack and the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road and have lots of traffic circles. OK, roundabouts for the Anglophiles among us. Our guide was a very pretty mainly Indian girl that typifies the ‘melting pot’ aspect of this island. Almost no one I saw that was a local was pure white or black. Everyone seemed be some shade of brown from café au lait to mocha and a large percentage of the women were very striking.

After this stop it was back to the ship and onward to the island of Reunion tomorrow. Ouch, two ports in a row and no 25-hour days. I don’t know if I can stand the pace!

April 7 – Today we are in La Possession, Reunion, France. That’s right France! The island of Reunion is a Department of France just as though it was geographically connected to Europe. The island of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea has the same status. They elect members to represent them in the French parliament and have all the rights and privileges of any other Frenchman. I guess it’s like Hawaii in the USA. It’s a state like any other. As a result of this status the island is a member of the EEC and uses the Euro as its currency. Being French, they are loathe to accept US dollars so I converted some $ to Euro on the ship.

The island is volcanic of origin, like Mauritius, but is much younger. Consequently it does not have a well-developed surrounding coral reef and the mountains are much higher and steeper. Only 40% of the island’s land is available for development or agricultural use. The remainder is too steep to be used for any purpose. As we approached it was quite a sight to see the villages meandering up and down the hillsides. There is very little flat land even at the seacoast. In fact, much of the land bordering the sea is sheer cliff.

The island has four main cirques, French for the caldera of a volcano. Three are very dormant and perhaps extinct volcanoes, Mafate, Salazie and Cilaos. The fourth, Fournaise, is very active and erupts every few years. Fortunately for the island it is at the extreme southeast corner of the island and there is no development east of the cone where the lava goes. It’s a Hawaiian type volcano, which means that very thick lava flows slowly from its vents. It does not explode like Mount St. Helens did. The eruptions are a big tourist attraction here.

We are heading up to Piton Maido a 7,222-foot high mountain. From a viewpoint there we will be able to see several peaks that surround the Crique de Mafate. These include Piton de Neiges. Neiges, at 10,070 feet, is the tallest peak in the Indian Ocean. The sides of these mountains are covered in foliage. There are cities in the valleys, attesting to the length of time it has been since these volcanoes were active.

We left the port and drove southwest on the island’s only 4-lane, divided road the city of St. Paul where we turned east into the mountains. At first the roads were pretty normal two-lane blacktop but shortly we entered the mountains and drove up the sides in a series of switchbacks that came ever closer together and sharper. The guide told us that in the space of 14 miles we would negotiate over 400 turns. The last 7 miles to the top of Piton Maido took us 40 minutes; very slow going indeed. At some places the road had no shoulder. It dropped off on both sides into deep culverts that carry away the monsoon rains they get in the wet season. We were riding in a fairly large bus and keeping all 4 wheels on the road around the turns was an exercise in driving excellence.

When we arrived at the top of Le Maido we had to walk up to an observation area (right).

Fellow Traveler Note: A huge percentage of the passengers on this cruise are well over 70 years old. There are quite a few people well into their 90s and a large group in their late 80s. It appears to me like the average age must be in the high 70s if not the low 80s. Most of these people live at sea level in Florida where the biggest hill they climb is the lip of the sand trap on the local golf course and the highest they get above sea level is the bar stool in the golf club on the 19th hole. I am not much of a physical specimen but on this ship I’m nearly the youngest passenger aboard. Back to the main story.

At over 7,000 feet it was a little scary to watch my fellow passengers try to walk up the hill. Many were complaining of lightheadedness and shortness of breath. My advice was to sit down and take it easy. The last thing I wanted to see was any sort of coronary incident that far from professional medical help. Some just returned to the bus but others persevered to the top. You have to admire their spunk if not their judgment.

When we got to the viewpoint the valley and the mountains across it were completely obscured by clouds. The wind was blowing the clouds against the face of Maido and we could see them rushing by drawn upward by the winds. It created a strange view. If I looked sideways along the cliff face I could see for hundreds of yards to my left because the winds were taking the clouds straight up from the cliff face. If I looked forward or to the right (I was standing at the right end of the cliff face) I couldn’t see more than 8 feet the clouds were so thick over the open space. Every now and then an opening would appear in the ascending cloudbank and you could see the valley below and the mountain peaks across. It was a truly spectacular sight. Then, very quickly, a new cloud would come up the cliff face below us and obscure the scene again. It was almost like a curtain being drawn up from below. There was no fade out; just now you see it, now you don’t.

When the view was clear (above) we could see seven peaks in various directions across the valleys. They range in height from 6,832 feet for Col du Taibit to 10,070 feet for Piton des Neiges. The slopes of the peaks were mostly green with vegetation except for the tallest which extended above the vegetation zone. There were villages in the valleys and on any reasonable sized flat spot on the slopes. There was a series of cascades down the side of the mountain that looked like silver fingers reaching toward the valley. With the clouds swirling about it was an awesome sight.

We were up there about 45 minutes and the view was great for about a total of 10 minutes that whole time. The view would tease us by becoming a little clearer so you could see the outlines of the opposite mountains only suddenly disappear completely. When a clear break did come it was magnificent. The air was so clear and the visibility was extraordinary.

We retraced our path down the mountain about 7 miles to the La Petite France, a very small village. Here we stopped at a geranium distillery (left). The geraniums were brought here from South Africa in the 1800s. They are not the same species of geranium that we are used to in the USA. They have a mild rose smell instead of the strong distinctive smell of ours. They use the leaves and stems in the distillation process. It takes about 45 pounds of geranium to distill out one ounce of essential geranium oil and the process takes about 3 hours. The oil is used in perfume making and the Reunion oil is highly prized by French perfume makers. The oil adds a little fragrance to the perfume but its main quality is that it evaporates very slowly and makes the perfume’s scent last much longer. Because it has a mild rose smell it is mostly used in floral or citrus overtone perfumes.

The distillery we stopped at was a one-man operation. He grows the plants and distills them on site. The owner/operator gave us a presentation in French that our guide translated. His still looked exactly a like bootlegger’s still from the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. A large metal retort where the mash is heated with a tube attached to the top to collect the steam. This tube slopes downward into a coil that is wound around the inside of a barrel that is filled with water to act as a condenser. The tube comes out the bottom of the coil and the liquid drip into a funnel that feeds into a crockery pot on the ground. The crockery pot has a hole in the upwardly sloping top. A bottle with its bottom cut out fits tightly in this hole. There are two products of the distillation, water and the geranium essential oil. The oil is lighter than the water and rises to the top of the crockery pot and into the bottle. As the process continues the water eventually fills the pot and the bottle and forces the oil through a curved pipe in the top of the bottle. The pipe leads to a small container that holds the processed oil. All fairly primitive, but effective. His wife has a small store on the property and had many types of oils for sale at very reasonable prices when compared to the USA.

After that it was back to the ship. We have 3 days at sea coming up and I think two of them will be 25 hours. That I can take.

April 8, 9 & 10 – Three days at sea and two of them were 25 hours long. Doesn’t get much better than that. We’re coming to the end of out Tai Chi set, the Plum Blossom. It’s divided into three sections and the each gets progressively more challenging. The last few movements of the last set are somewhat confusing at first. It starts with a block through the back and then goes into four jade ladies, one to each corner of the box. That involves two 180-degree turns that are only two moves apart. When the ship is rolling like it has been it’s even a little difficult for the teacher and it’s really tough for the students. Other than that I’ve just been reading and goofing off since I finished my reports and have renamed all my picture files. I’ve taken 1,728 that I’ve kept. Glad I don’t have to get them developed.

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(c) Rod Longenberger - 2005