And, we’re back!  Just like that.  We have a private tour booked for 10am, so it is a rather slow morning….except there is immigration which starts at 6:30a and we have been warned to go out early to beat the crowds and the lines.  Duly noted, we are up before 6am, coffee’d and out the door at 6:30, 2^nd people to go through immigration, and back on the ship in a jiffy.  Perfect!

Upon our return, we break into the gym, do our normal workout, manage the chaos that is Windows for breakfast, then retire to our cabin to get refreshed and out of the way until we need to leave.  Figuring we’ll go a little before 9, we instead get antsy and decide to head down about 20 before 9.  OMG!  Good call as the line is crazy.  Stretching down both sides of Deck 4 with people coming down the stairs and cutting in.  We came down the stairs and went to the back of the line, like any normal, considerate person would do.  Sigh.

At any rate, the line inches along, until finally we are close to Deck 3, but they are holding the line so we can wait inside in the A/C – the immigration line stretches out of the building in the sun, it is so long.  We don’t have to go through that though, we’re already done and are supposed to be able to just skip the line.  Finally managing to get Ngawhira’s attention, we tell her we’ve already been through – and poof, we are allowed out and get to totally skip the line to the complaints of everyone still in the line.  Oh well, you people could have done this too you know!

Free of the morass, we hop on the first shuttle to get over to the waterfront.  It is so brutally hot and humid, no way we are walking.  We’re deposited right in front of the Blue Penny museum which is on our plan for tomorrow, winding our way through the Caulden shopping area on the harborfront to our tour meeting point in front of Café Lux.  And since we’re so early, bonus!  We hang out in Café Lux with a great cappuccino, and reasonably priced for where we are to boot. 

Outside we meet our tour mates, a guy from Switzerland on sabbatical to figure out what he wants to do, 2 guys from Colon Germany and a husband and wife and grown daughter from Denmark.  Dourvesh, our guide shows up right on time and off we go through the waterfront to begin our city tour.  He takes us through the waterfront complex, pointing out historical buildings here and there – the Old Post Office, now a museum, the Windmill used for grain in the day, the mural of the Dodo (the Mauritian National symbol) on the wall of a building.

Our first stop is the old Granary – now a carpark – built in 1931 to store grains and cereals to fight against food scarcity.  Modern for its time, the first floors contained nothing but an empty space, all the grains was unloaded from cargo ships on the seafront side by conveyors and elevators to take it straight up the top floor.  Designed to be rat-proof, they constructed these twisting grain shoots that rats couldn’t climb. Workers entered the granary on ladders – that rats can’t climb – stretched out to reach the little window like doors on the top floor for workers to enter.  Ingenious.

Moving on, we pass a Banyan tree growing right over a concrete wall.  We have to guess how old it is – only 20 years!  None of us got that right.  Then we marched onto the Aapravasi Ghat slave museum.  A fascinating walk through Mauritian history – that being the vast majority of the population here began as slaves.  Some 462,000 slaves entered and were sold here in the Ghat buildings, the vast majority from India but also from China, Madagascar, Mozambique and SE Asia – all to work on sugar plantations.

The displays are interesting and informative – from a dedication plaque that incorporates the wood used on ships with documentation holders that slaves wore hanging from it to historical photos of all the old buildings.  Interestingly enough, Mauritius is the site of the first large scale use of “indentured labor” in the world – they considered it a “great experiment.” Indentured basically equals slavery – they were paid, but hardly enough to live and from those meager wages they had to pay taxes, rent and board.  Yeah.  Slaves.  Sadly though, the success of the “experiment” here led to the migration of more than 2.2 million indentured laborers across the world.  Horrible.

Two more fascinating things though.  Roughly 2/3 of all the laborers stayed on the island once they were freed – which means 70% of current day Mauritians are descendants of these slaves.  Unfortunately, though, it is incredibly hard to trace family roots here. When the slaves were brought here, they typically only had one name sometimes the same name.  The slave owners switched those names to surnames, adding a first name so families were separated and never linked together on a genealogy chart.  Many people here only know their lineage for a few generations.    

Leaving the museum and waterfront area, we move further into the city, walking on the crowded sidewalks past the market and into the Chinatown area where we stop for our first snacks:  dessert!  Yes, dessert first!  Stopping at a local whole in the wall shop that sells both food and little anime and other toys, we sample the delectable Gato (Creole version of Gateau) Zinzi (lovely sweet sesame balls), a pineapple and some other fruit tart and a lovely little ‘Nepolitain’ cookie.  All while standing on the sidewalk in front of the shop.

A few blocks down we stop at the Moussa Snack bar for a beef Samosa – yummy – and some little deep fried dahl ball or some such thing made of chickpeas, again yummy.   

Then it is off to the Jummah Mosque, the 2^nd oldest mosque in Mauritius, built in 1853.  Originally housed in just the small 2 story building in the front, the mosque was enlarged over the years to what we see today.  They essentially built up around the original building, including the huge tree in the back courtyard.  Really interesting – but the most intriguing element is fish pond at the end of the prayer room.  Stocked with all types of fish, Dourvesh tells us that people bring their fish here when they grow too large for their home aquariums!  Never have seen that before. Another interesting feature is that the mosque is built right in the middle of and attached to the retail store fronts that line the main road.  You’d never know it was there if you didn’t look hard or see the sign.

Passing into Chinatown, through the ceremonial Chinese gate we can look back for a multi-cultural view of China and India (the gate and the mosque) peacefully residing side by side.  Our next stop is a really fun little Chinese street food vendor with tables in this narrow, narrow alley that our group totally fills.  Here we dig into the best dumplings – fish, chicken and beef – along with some really great fried noodles.  Perfect snack for this time of day.

Walking off our dumplings we delve further into the city to the mural alley – filled with awesome murals of all types and this great app you can download that animates them.  Fortunately Dourvesh has downloaded all the videos – so we don’t have to – and shows us on his phone.  He also plays photographer with this 3D type painting on the street.  It is supposed to look like we are on top of a skyscraper and I’m pushing Ed off.  We’ll leave it to your imagination…..(we don’t really see it)…..

Since we are in Chinatown, of course we have to visit a temple – this one an unassuming, but pretty little temple.

Then it is on to more murals – all over the place – we had no idea. Reminds us of Penang.  So fun.

Our last mural stop is a parking lot with giant paintings that have some semblance that I never quite got – maybe the fertility of the island?  Don’t know. But there is also a mural of a slave – using the barred window in his face as symbolism – and right across the street a mural of a Bulbul bird signifying freedom. The juxtaposition – slavery and freedom – is hard to miss.

Next up:  The central market where we delight in a whole cup full of fresh fruit – incredible mangos, sweet pineapple, roseapple.  Great dessert.  We have 30 minutes to wander the market, which we do snapping pictures of the wonderful fruit….all of which I want to buy, but obviously don’t as it doesn’t make much sense bringing it back to the ship. But we do score a great Dodo t-shirt for Ed – and at a really great price.  We were a little surprised, figuring the souvenir side of the market was the tourist market. 

Our last food stop of the day is in the other side of the market where all the food stalls are located.  We are treated to a roti stuffed with some sort of curry – which is really good, but oh so filling after all we’ve already had.  We also are having a Dahl Puri – but they are making the flatbread fresh and it is taking a while.  So, not to waste any time, Dourvesh gets us our final dessert now:  an Alouda shake, the famously popular drink here in Mauritius made of sweetened milk, basil seeds and Agar-Agar Jelly (those little strips of pink in the glass) along with various sweet syrups.  Really good if you can get past the texture of the jelly strips – which after a while I can’t.  Nice to try though.  Finally our Dahl Puri is ready – hot off the griddle (or however they cook them). And we mean hot.  So hot in fact, we can’t eat it right away – but nibble on the sides until it cools enough for bigger bites.  Again, really good, but oh so filling and rich.  We’re stuffed!

Fortunately, the food portion of our tour has ended and we are off into the streets, crossing through the Place d’Armes where they have used all the old cannons as fence-like posts in the park.  Great use of old weapons – one that should be followed in other parts of the world…..’nuff said! 

We end our tour in the Company Gardens, filled with towering Banyan trees, where we get to see the Fruit Bats, more commonly known as flying foxes.  They are of course sleeping way up in the trees and are actually a little hard to find. But we do manage to spot a few big guys shaking their wings and moving around up there.  As well as this cute little weaver bird hanging in the Banyan trees. 

Dourvesh walks us back to the harbor where we met, giving us excellent directions to the grocery store in the mall (SO much better than Google maps!  Thank you.) where we head off to for snacks and crew gifts.   Then off to the shuttle and quick trip back to the ship where we are able to embark without any difficulties even though I did manage to forget the bloody Transit Passes.  Don’t go there……

Back aboard in the delightful A/C, we do our norm – gym, drinks, dinner, Harmony Hive in the Living Room. But tonight we have a special local show out on the pool deck with Traditional Mauritian Sega music and dancing.  They’ve set up chairs on Deck 10 – but none in the back which would be the best seats – so we dutifully move 2 chairs for our own personal front row balcony viewing! 

The show is fun – 6 band members playing the Ravanne (a goat-skin drum), an interesting version of a Maravanne (basically a rattle, but this one is in the form of a metal sheet with something inside it that makes noise when moved, really interesting) and the triangle – plus dancers swirling to the beat of the music.

A delightful way to end a great day here in Mauritius.