Today ends up being a sort of nothing day, as we sort of expected. We started off in the gym – all the doors are locked now. Smart move on behalf of Vipin and housekeeping, so we have to wait for them to open, then do our normal routine, arriving in the Den well before tendering time to pick up our tickets. Wresly arrives with everything, hands out our passes, and we are on the first tender shortly thereafter. And it is literally the first tender! Only about 20 independent passengers, no tours, and all the equipment and personnel they need to set up the tender dock. We’re really crew, they just don’t know it yet!
After some negotiation with the shore folks – all in French – they finally figure out where to dock and we are let off into the sweltering heat and sprinkling rain of Mayotte. We are on our own today because all the tours are trips to resorts or beaches or water related and that just isn’t our thing. Our plans are to go hike to a viewpoint near the town, which is actually a tour from the ship as well, but ridiculously expensive, especially when we can do it ourselves, alone.
As we are preparing to leave out of the port, it starts to pour rain, so much so, we go and hide under the eaves of the ferry station to see if the rain will abate. It takes about 10 minutes, but finally the skies clear as the humidity bumps up to some ungodly, uncomfortable percentage. On our way out of the port, we navigate through the taxi stands, local food stands and then along the water on a busy road with very little shoulders, but enough for us to pass without too much trouble. However, once we get to the road leading to the viewpoint, we had 2nd thoughts. First of all the road is basically just a very muddy track that seems sort of sketchy to us with a car parked at the beginning of the track, and a couple of guys standing on the trail a ways down. While it was probably fine, we decided it wasn’t worth it to hike somewhere just to see a view of the water and the ship. And panoramas of Mamoudzou – it isn’t that attractive of a town, TBH. Plus, as previously mentioned, it was ungodly hot and humid and totally uncomfortable.
Thus, decision made, we turned around, went back to the pier, wandered through their very well managed market (didn’t buy a thing) and came back to the ship. Didn’t even see the cool stone carving and I Love Mamoudzou sign on the water behind the market. But we do have photos of the stone, courtesy of Audrey (Harmony Hive) who did find the darn thing and took great photos (thank you for sharing)!
We considered it an additional sea day! And the big bonus was that we actually got a load of laundry done. Sweet! So now all our hot sweaty clothes are nice and clean for the next adventures! Beyond laundry, the rest of the day just sort of floated by – blogs, reading, gym, after gym drink in the Living Room – we can actually sit at the bar as we are late enough for trivia to have cleared out. But, horrors! For some reason, the Living Room no longer has the Chenin Blanc I’ve been drinking, they say they have changed the wine offerings and that no one is drinking it. Huh? I’ve been drinking it! The relief bartender – not Aldin – gets a runner to go get a bottle and after a while he does find one which Marvin (one of our great bar servers) promptly hides in a different cooler than normal. I tease them telling them to write my name on it. Well, sort of tease them……
Then down to the balcony to enjoy a beautiful sail out….
…and onto the rest of our evening: dinner – yay! big portion of Poke! – and the Living Room for Harmony Hive where Abby sang an Adele song for me. They are so good and tight – and Abby has the pipes for Adele, that’s for sure! Aldin is back, looking for the wine as I tell him where Marvin has hidden it, and then we have this big discussion about no more Chenin Blanc – but the dining room has it????? Putu, our bartender friend, is in the Wine Cellar this cruise, so we jokingly tell Aldin to call Putu, or call Nathan, our lead bartender friend, and tell them to rustle up all the Chenin Blanc for me! Little do we know, Aldin actually did call Putu to put the word out! These guys are just too great to us.
Then it is down to the cabin to read, relax and hit the hay after our not so adventurous day.
Andiamo 