Mauritius

When I first looked at the itinerary of this trip, there was one place that I had never heard of before- Mauritius. I didn't know what continent it belonged to, what language they spoke, or even how to pronounce its name. I quickly learned that Mauritius is a small island (only 205 mile circumference) off of the eastern coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It is a very diverse country consisting of Indians, French, Africans, and Chinese. I also heard from past SASers that there isn't much to do on the island therefore the 4 days on land consist of renting villas or hotel rooms on the beach, sipping pina coladas, getting a tan, and going out at night. This was a pretty accurate description.

We arrived in Mauritius on March 1st. Right when I got off the ship I went on an SAS sponsored trip to Grand Bay where we went on a submarine trip! We went out into the crystal clear waters off the shore and got into a cramped and closterfobic submarine where we went 112ft deep in the ocean. We were under the water for about 45 minutes looking at the fish and singing “yellow submarine” repeatedly as a group. I can understand why many people loved this trip; however, the whole time I was under the water I felt like I should be scuba diving in the open water rather than cramped in an uncomfortable submarine. Nevertheless it was a cool experience being in a submarine.

That afternoon my friends and I headed to the hotel we had booked a few weeks prior and settled in for a relaxing next 2 days. I ended up getting my first migraine ever that afternoon so I layed in bed while everyone else sat in the sun which was frustrating but luckily it went away so I could go out to dinner with friends that night. The next 2 days were spent lying out on the beach and swimming in the clear blue waters. The hotel we stayed at was better than expected…a little small but right on the beach and all inclusive.

On the last day in Mauritius my group of friends and I went to a place called Adventure Park where we walked over hanging rope bridges through the forest and did a ropes course which they said was for people with intermediate physical fitness levels but was actually for experts…the ropes course reminded me of overnight camp except an extreme version of it. It was a lot of fun attempting to complete the course even though I was sore for the next two days, bruised and mosquito bitten.

Overall Mauritius was really fun and relaxing. It was great to learn about a country I had no idea existed before SAS. The island was fun but made me appreciate the other countries we are visiting more because I feel they will have so much more to offer…like my next stop- INDIA.