Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay on posting. It’s been a crazy trip since Cape Town. After leaving Cape Town we traveled for five or six through pretty rough waters. The first day especially was rough and we were actually delayed out of port due to massive fog. Everyone on the ship for the first two days were really out of it. People were exhausted and trying to catch up on work. The ship gets in these group moods, it’s pretty ridiculous actually, but everything happens in group waves. There are times when everyone is exhausted and times when everyone is excited. It makes sense, it’s just weird to be a part of.
The plan for Mauritius was to rent a villa and hang out on the beach and relax. The day before Mauritius everyone had a big Global Studies exam and a bunch of papers due so we were a little stressed. When we got to Mauritius, Matt, Ryan, Zach and I got off the ship as soon as we could and found a taxi driver. We rented a villa on Flic-en-Flac beach which was 45 minutes away from our port. So we took a nice drive to the villa and checked in and it was beautiful. We had a villa less than five minutes from the beach that was three stories and had a big pool with a bridge connecting it to more villas.
We got situated in the villas and went grocery shopping for the week so Natalie and I could cook! Unfortunately our stove didn’t really work, so we had to use our friends’ villa to cook, which was annoying but not too frustrating. Then we spent most of the day at the beach and in our pool by the villa.
The next day we all woke up pretty early and made our way to the beach where we ran into about 100 SAS kids. It was fun just hanging out at the beach all day, swimming and lying out. My friend Matt and I came upon a beach volleyball tournament which was fun to watch. It was hilarious because in Mauritius they speak a strange version French so the announcer would babble off in this bizarre French and every 20 words or so he’d say Pepsi Beach Challenge because it was sponsored by Pepsi. Matt and I figured out the rhythm and would join in every time he said it.
The next day I woke up early again and went for a long run on the beach. It was so so hot which made the run a little challenging, but it was very worth it to run on the flat ground. Plus it was pretty amazing to run on the beach. When I get a chance I’ll post pictures and you’ll see how beautiful it really was. After that I made my way back to the villa where I met up a bunch of girls and we went to the beach to go snorkeling. I saw some really cool fish and enjoyed swimming in the warm Indian Ocean. After that we went back to the villa to relax and clean and hang out by the pool. Spent the rest of the night with all the kids in the villa and had a blast.
The last day I woke up early and made my way back to the Port city where I walked around Port Louis’ downtown area. It was like any other small city which was nice to be surrounded by. I love the hustle and bustle and after ship life it was a much welcomed change. I also got to window shop and hear all sorts of languages and smell all sorts of strange foods.
After that I made it back to port and was able to finally make a phone call home!
Since then we’ve been at sea making our way to India. Yesterday was the Sea Olympics and I’ll write a separate post about that soon. Miss you all and keep sending those e-mails!! Peace
E
