Once Upon a Time in the East

We decided to see what the other side of the island looked like a few weeks back.Imagine! A drive lasting longer than 20 minutes! (This will be more impressive to my Turks Island readers rather than my Canadian readers). You could drive around the entire perimeter of the island in a day, but if you took the motorway you could also get straight across in an hour an a half from one side to the other. Sometimes it's nice to take the scenic route.

This island is seriously beautiful. I never ever get tired of seeing the varying landscapes. And I hope no one else does either, because there will be a lot of landscape photos on this blog :)

We stayed overnight at a Moroccan themed boutique hotel which was cute although lacking a bit in the service department. For example, it took us three requests over four hours to have them change the sheets (there was a small bloodstain - not the most welcoming site) and I left my massage with a large scratch down my back which the therapist chose to ignore. Aside from that (oh and being overcharged at "happy hour"), it was a great weekend!

Steep Ascents

LES ALPINISTES! Our First Climb: "La Pouse" (The Thumb)

There are loads of mountains to hike in Mauritius and we are blessed to live as close as you can get to the National Park (Black River Gorges). Another great thing is that all the peaks are climbable in 1-2 hours as they are only around 600m or so. Having said that, they aren't all the easiest ascents, as we found out a couple of times...

Our 2nd voyage was to La Piton de la Rivere Noire - the highest peak of Mauritius

ENTERING

HALFWAY....

DEFEATED!!!!

We actually only made it up to 20m below the summit. There was a crazy, slippery vertical wall that we just couldn't get up. Not to mention a strong wind that was slicing sideways. It was scary. For reals. Unfortunately, this has been the rule of our hikes rather than the exception as the same happened on La Pouse....

...But! Today we made it to the top of Piton Caton

I know, right! Hoooo hum.

I'm was more interested in our almond/raisin mix.

*bonus points for those that realized we are on the mountain in the middle of the "halfway" photo above*

It was not without it's scary moments either. I definitely gouged the earth with my fingernails and let out a few whimpers. And also had a few thoughts of "this is NOT worth it."

But it turned out, it was. Especially when I perfected my descending technique of dirt-skiing-in-crouch-formation:

(photo pending - camera malfunction...)

Next up: Corps de Gards!

August Dawn

Beautific site, Horrific story

OK, the jury is out on google as to whether or not "Beautific" is a word, but I'm using it anyway.

LE MORNE

Le Morne gets it's name from a very sad story about the slaves who were once brought to Mauritius. Firstly, you should know that there were no people here when the Europeans first settled, so there was no massive war followed by the enslavement of the natives (for once). However, that didn't Europeans from bringing slaves over. Now I am not going into the whole history, but suffice it to say that one day, the slaves had enough and escaped to the top of this mountain. Just shortly thereafter, slavery was abolished and messengers were sent to find the runaways and tell them there were free. When the slaves saw the messengers, they assumed they were about to be re-captured and, rather than submit, they jumped off the cliff in a mass suicide. And so stands this site today, a mountain forever in mourning.

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Chris came home yesterday with a little pressie from the gardener at his worksite: a bag of mental looking mushrooms. The gardener reckons that these are rare and quite expensive; however I reckon they could mean our untimely demise as much as they could be good eats.

Anyone seen one of these before? (I'm looking at you Sarah Leone...)

Dr. Tupperware

I was told one day early after our arrival that I would have to have a medical in order to obtain a residence permit. After going with Chris to get his done, I wasn't too enamored with the idea of going back to the hospital (I would not use the words "state-of-the-art" to describe the place, nor would I use the word "clean"). Anyway, off I went through the manic traffic and upon arriving I parked in one of the 4 spaces reserved for patients. I bumbled upstairs to begin the waiting game and watch a hoard of locals go ahead of me.

Actually it wasn't so bad, I suppose I was only in there for an hour the first time and an hour on the second follow-up trip (they had to wait for blood work to go through). It was my return trip that was the most interesting. My doctor came in about 30 minutes after I arrived, fully clad in a burqa and glasses, so my first impression was a mysterious and serious woman, who had definitely worked her way up in a man's world. Toward the end of the checkup she was writing down my info and I saw she had a pen covered in soccer balls. Fresh off my trip to the World Cup, I decided to ask her about it. "Oh I sell Tupperware and this was my gift for being 3rd in the region!" What? 2 Things wrong here. A PEN is the reward for 3rd in your region for selling plastic cases that are now cheap and abundant in grocery stores? And, more importantly, why in God's name is a DOCTOR selling Tupperware?? Surely her salary is more than adequate and SURELY she doesn't have the time?! It seemed that she just loved it, and I soon realized it must be just hobby she was truly passionate about. After taking her card and blubbering a series of "no I can't make your next showing" and "yes, if I want to host a Tupperware party I'll call you", I was able to duck out. You never know who you're going to meet in Mauritius.

Oh, the weather DOES change here.

Saturday was the first, slightly un-beautiful day we've had in 6 weeks. You see, we arrived at the peak of "winter" aka: clear skies and perfect temps. It's supposed to rain in winter they say, but I haven't seen much of that. Chris has experienced more at his worksite in the mountain. I hear that summer (Jan - Mar) is HOT AS - but I'm pretty sure it can't beat TCI in September. I'm trying to consciously be grateful for every day I'm not sweating when I wake up and swatting mossies 24/7.

Top 5 Things We've Learned So Far

5. The hot months will be Jan - Mar. Just like Provo's June - Sept spell, we will probably wish we could take a 3 month sabbatical from paradise around this time.

4. Contrary to what I thought was a sure thing in a French-Indian culture, the restaurants are, unfortunately, crap. Ok, maybe that is too harsh but we have yet to be inspired.

3. You MUST be a confident driver: Overtaking here is madness. MADness. Just like weather, when it comes to drivers, I know that everyone believes the city they live in, or have just come from visiting, has the worst. Let's all just admit that there are bad drivers everywhere and each place has it's own traits. Well, here people overtake like they're all in the Indy 500 or like the person with them is in labour or like simply being one car ahead will relieve the massive tumour that must be growing in their prefrontal cortex. I can't think of any other reason for them all to take everyone's life into their hands as they approach the back of the car in front of them ahead of turns, blind crests, roundabouts and even spectacularly close on-coming traffic.

2. The bananas in Chameral taste like banana cream pie.... yuuummm.

1. This is the land of the 'misunderstanding'. First pointed out to us by Nigel (Chris's coworker), it's a somewhat different situation from not understanding English or not someone just not 'getting' you. It's a combination of both with a different 'island' feeling to it. When you're receiving customer service, generally the english is quite good, and they ask all the right questions, leaving you and happy sure you will get what you want. But then you are ever so disappointed when, say, the internet line is not reconnected and it takes 5 followup calls, 4 emails and 3 written letters to find yourself in the same place 2 weeks later. Oh well, at least we have internet.

This is for YOU, friends and family, wondering where the hell I am now and what I'm doing.

After living in Taiwan, Thailand, Turks and Caicos and South Africa, I have now moved to another tiny island; this time in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

Where?? You ask?

Well, not the middle of the Indian Ocean, but it's in there. Madagascar is the closest thing. It is a 4 hour flight to Jo'burg and a 6 hour flight to Bengalore or Perth. Here!

For those of you new to technology (mom), by clicking on highlighted words, such as that above, you can see relevant links (other websites) which can contain pictures, or in this case, maps. Go on, give it a shot!

I should have started this upon arriving but a friend of mine only just inspired me to do this now.

So here we go!