MauritiusJanuary 5 - 8, 2025
I woke up at 3:30 AM on the debarkation day of our 2-week Mideast/East Africa cruise. We were already docked at our debarkation port - Mauritius. Traci had not slept at all. She had taken Robitussin before she went to bed the night before not realizing that it was the non-drowsy version of the medicine.
We had our last breakfast in the Venetian dining room. Traci managed to eat some fruit even though she still did not have much of an appetite. Debarkation was orderly. We collected our luggage that had been offloaded overnight and were led to a motorcoach for our final Norwegian shore excursion - Mauritian Heritage Debark Tour
rhythmic cruise port welcome
Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean. It is Africa's most densely-populated country (Note: not Africa's most-populated country. Nigeria held that title at the time of our visit.). This is in contrast to Seychelles where we visited earlier in the cruise. Seychelles is Africa's least-populated nation.
Mauritius is an interesting mix of culture. It was once a French territory and then later a British territory. Mauritius became independent in 1965. Today, people drive on the left side of the road as is done in Great Britain. The official language is English. All of the signage I saw was in English, yet the locals seemed to all speak French when they were not speaking the local Creole language (mix of French and African languages). The radio stations, airport announcements, television, etc... are in French. Fortunately, for us American tourists, many of the people of Mauritius are multilingual with English being one of their languages. As for me, I was able to speak quite a bit of French that first day thanks to our tour guide who is passionate about languages. She speaks 4 languages - Creole, French, English, and German. She does the tour in the latter three languages. When she found out that I was a member of a French conversation group at home, I became her student for the day. We chatted in French when she was not giving commentary in English.
Our shore excursion took place mainly in the capital city of Port Louis. After leaving the cruise port, we were driven through the city and up Signal Mountain for a panoramic glimpse of the city. We viewed this through the windows of our bus.
view of the capital city, Port Louis, from Signal Mountain
From Signal Mountain, we were driven to the Caudan Waterfront. We were given 30 minutes to wander around it on our own. As the name implies, the area is built around a harbor. It has a pedestrian-only region that features many restaurants, trendy stores, nightclubs, etc... Most of them seemed to have a dodo bird emblem or theme since the now-extinct dodo bird was native to Mauritius. The Caudan Waterfront looked like a fun place to hang out. Our problem was that we were there on a Sunday morning. Almost everything was closed except for a few food trucks that were pumping pop music to attract customers. Port Louis on a Sunday certainly does not live up to the statistic of Mauritius being Africa's most densely-populated nation. The place was a ghost town.
We continued through the city and made a stop at the Kaylasson Temple. This was impressive to me. Mauritius has a large population of people of Indian lineage. After the enslavement of Africans was outlawed in Mauritius in the 1830s, the island turned to the labor of indentured servants from India to work in the sugar industry. Many of these indentured servants practiced Hinduism. The temple we visited is a Hindu temple. The colorful sculptures and artwork were mind-blowing. I found it difficult to take it all in. I would later find out that temples like this can be found throughout the island but on a smaller scale. In fact, Mauritius is the only African nation in which most of the population practices Hinduism.
Our tour took us to the outskirts of Port Louis to see the Eureka Creole Mansion. Its construction was completed in 1836. It is an example of a Creole house. It was featured in the 2024 film "Ni Chaines Ni Maitres" ("No Chains No Masters") about slavery in Mauritius. We were given 45 minutes to explore the mansion and its grounds. The mansion has been furnished with period furniture and old portraits. The grounds are beautifully maintained with tropical flora. There is a path at the back of the yard that leads to a waterfall. Traci and I started down the path but decided to turn around when we realized we would need to walk a long distance to get to it - not to mention the uphill walk required for the return. I just did not want a repeat of Traci's scary health issues that we experienced in Madagascar. Like in Madagascar, it was a hot and humid day in Mauritius. Surprisingly, Traci did not give me any resistance this time when I suggested that we abandon the waterfall walk. Some of our group members who made the journey would later show us pictures of the waterfall. It was not that impressive. By the time we returned to the front of the mansion, a snack table had been set up for our group. It contained vegetarian selections and fruit.
coco de mer seed - largest seed in the world
dodo bird replica
path to the waterfall
We were driven back to Port Louis where we were taken to a souvenir shop. This shop had many model ships of varying sizes. The details of these models were stunning. These model ships are popular souvenirs as is merchandise containing a picture of a dodo bird. As usual, I bought a Mauritius fridge magnet for our collection. And yes, the magnet has a picture of a dodo bird. Even though the currency of Mauritius is the Mauritian Rupee, the Euro was accepted as well at this shop. I paid for the magnet in euros that I had left over from previous trips to countries that use the currency.
model ships are popular in the souvenir shops
That was pretty much it for our shore excursion. We were dropped off at the airport as a convenience for those who would be leaving the island that day. The name of this airport is a mouthful: Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport. Our group had to wait at the airport for more than an hour due to a delay with the truck that ported our luggage from the cruise terminal. When our tour guide found out that Traci and I were staying in Mauritius for three nights, she was delighted that we would be spending time on her island that she loves so much. But then she was kind of concerned when she found out that we would be staying at a resort in the town of Flic en Flac. Flic en Flac is almost an hour drive from the airport. I knew about this distance and had planned to use an airport taxi as our transportation. Our guide became eager to help us out. She told me that the airport taxis would overcharge us. She negotiated with our bus driver to drive us to the town. The driver would do this using his personal car after dropping off the motorcoach. The thing I was starting to notice during our Mauritius experience is that everyone seems to have a friend or family member that can give you a discount on a ride. In fact, one of the immigration officers who stamped our passports aboard our ship the night before was trying to get us to use his family member's taxi service on the island. Traci and I ended up accepting the ride from our bus driver for $55. I liked that he was willing to accept U.S. dollars instead of the local currency (Mauritian Rupees). This was convenient because none of the ATMs I tried on the island accepted my ATM card. Furthermore, the currency exchange window in the airport was out of cash when I tried to exchange money there.
The truck carrying our group's luggage eventually arrived at the airport. Not long after that, our bus driver arrived in his car. We said goodbye to our tour guide and then set off with our driver for Flic en Flac.
The ride to Flic en Flac was beautiful. Mauritius is a volcanic island. We could see the jagged peaks as the backdrop of the tropical scenery and sugar cane fields. I was finding it hard to believe that Mauritius is Africa's most densely-populated country. I saw plenty of open space that was occasionally interrupted by a town with shopping centers and residences. It was not until we arrive in Flic en Flac that I started believing the statistic. We passed the beach where there were people everywhere. There was music, vendors, and eateries. The people really seemed to be enjoying themselves.
riding through Western Mauritius
Shortly after passing the beach, we arrived at the resort where we would be staying for the next three nights - Sugar Beach. Sugar Beach was the result of a somewhat frantic search for our post-cruise stay in Mauritius. About two months before our cruise, I searched our go-to brands of Marriott and Hilton where we have accumulated a significant amount of loyalty points for perks and free stays. Neither of these brands had vacancy for the dates of our stay. This was the same story for several other familiar chains. Therefore, I did an internet search for Mauritius resorts and read reviews. I came across Sugar Beach which not only had vacancy but also was reasonably-priced and had stellar reviews. I am happy to say that I concur with the reviews. I was very pleased with Sugar Beach.
We were greeted by the staff of Sugar Beach with cold towels and iced tea. A soft-spoken young lady walked us through the paperwork of the check-in process. She led us to our accommodation (#736). We had to walk outside to get to it. Not only was it extremely hot and humid that day but the sun reflecting off of the white decor of the resort had us squinting.
We had a very nice "Deluxe Sea View Room" from which we could see the palm trees with the pool and beach in the background. Our room had a mini fridge stocked with drinks and snacks. We were supplied with a large glass bottle of drinking water each day. We also used it to brush our teeth. It was not advised to drink tap water in Mauritius.
view from our balcony
I was really excited about staying at this beautiful resort, but Traci's health started to take a frightening turn. She complained that the air conditioning in our room was too cold. To remedy this, she decided to sit on our balcony. Now that we had access to the resort's fast, reliable Wi-Fi, she took out her phone to catch up on social media. I watched her attempt to type into her phone and then nod off. She would do this several more times until finally, I opened the glass door to balcony and ask her if she was okay. The look she gave me still haunts me as I write this. She slowly turned to me with blood-shot eyes that were only half open and in an airy whisper said, "I'm fine." She then nodded off again. She was lethargic. I was horrified!
I called the reception desk of the resort. As I started to explain that my wife needs medical assistance, I was relieved when the polite receptionist told me that the resort has a medical clinic on the grounds. I called the medical clinic and put Traci on the phone to answer the nurse's questions. The nurse offered to come to our room or meet us in her at the clinic which was in the next building. Traci said she was okay with walking to the next building so off we went.
The nurse had such a bubbly personality. She examined Traci. Traci did not have a fever, but the nurse was concerned about Traci's low blood pressure and blood-shot eyes. I was delighted to learn that the resort has a doctor on-call. The nurse was able to contact him on the phone and talk in French to him about Traci's condition. The doctor said to have Traci try the off-the-shelf medicines first. If her condition did not improve by the morning, then he would come to the resort to see her.
The nurse administered antibiotic eyedrops that cleared Traci's eyes within minutes. Now that we had reliable Wi-Fi, I was able to find the active ingredient in Musinex that I knew would help Traci deal with the excess phlegm. I showed the active ingredient to the nurse and she immediately showed me a drug of a different name but the same active ingredient. They had a supply of it at the clinic. She gave Traci a box of the medicine in addition to other medicines and vitamins to help Traci deal with the rest of her symptoms. She wrote instructions of when to take which medicine when. She said a charge of $12 for the medicine would appear on our bill at check-out but I don't think the kind nurse ever charged us. There was nothing on our bill from the medical clinic when we checked out of the resort.
We went back to our room. Traci tried to get some rest but every time she laid down, she would start long bouts of coughing. She was miserable. The two of us wanted nothing more than to go home at that point. We still had three nights before that would happen. I worried about how she would handle the 23-hour journey home if her condition did not improve.
Later, Traci was feeling a little better, so we got dressed to go to dinner. The resort has a dress code for dinner. You do not have to be dressed to the 9's. It is just required that you are not dressed as if you are going to the pool or beach.
The resort has several levels of all-inclusive packages to choose from. I booked the half-board package in which breakfast and dinner were included with the price of our stay. However, drinks were not included in the price with the exception of fruit juices and water at breakfast. There is a charge for all beverages at dinnertime - even water.
As Traci and I walked to dinner, we were greeted warmly by the resort staff we encountered. They would place their hand on their heart and give a slight nod as they said, "Good evening." I noticed that the language we were greeted in changed depending on how we were dressed. The evening that Traci wore her African-inspired dress to dinner, we were greeted with the same gestures but in French - "Bonsoir."
Sugar Beach has a few restaurants: the buffet, Buddha-Bar (seafood), and an Italian restaurant. Reservations are needed for the latter two. We never got around to making dinner reservation; therefore, all of our meals were eaten at the buffet. The buffet was served under a large pavilion at the main building. Its offerings were extensive. There was food from around the world: Chinese, Indian, Mexican, American, etc... There was a different theme each night we were there: Italian, Mexican, Indian, etc... There was a room dedicated to desserts. There were cook-to-order stations. The friendly staff always smiled and took time to explain the offerings.
Traci and I sat far away from other diners so as not to scare anyone if Traci got into one of her uncontrollable coughing spells. I felt bad for her. There was all this delicious food available, but she still did not have much of an appetite. She nibbled at a few things but most of it went to waste.
.As much as I enjoyed the buffet, there were some undesirables. Being in an open pavilion, you are accessible to wildlife. There were always a lot of opportunistic birds hanging around the pavilion. This led to a musty animal smell. Anytime someone left their plate unattended, the birds would swoop in for a meal. We also needed to be vigilant against the ants. The resort had some type of contraption on each table to trap ants and other insects, but occasionally, a few ants would evade the trap and head for your plate.
It was very dark as Traci and I left dinner to go back to our room. During our walk, I enjoyed seeing all the stars in the sky. The planet Venus was shining brightly. There were large, screeching bats in the trees, but they did not bother anyone. It took us longer than expected to get back to our room that first night because we apparently did not pay enough attention earlier in the day when the receptionist led us to our room. We eventually found it. In entering our room, I found that one of the small nighttime flying insects had hitched a ride on my neck - you just got to love the tropics. In fact, there was a note in our room reminding us that we are in a tropical environment. Wildlife encounters such as birds, reptiles, insects, and rodents can be expected. Fortunately, we never saw any rodents.
Traci took the medicine that the nurse had provided for her. After a long coughing fit, Traci finally fell asleep. She coughed a lot during the night. I, on the other hand, was not sleepy. I ended up watching what became my favorite TV channel. The channel was in French, but it showed music videos from around the world - most were by U.S. artists.
The next morning was our first time waking up on land after two weeks on the cruise ship. It was quite pleasant to hear the birds chirping and singing. The view from our balcony of the palm trees, pool, and ocean was refreshing.
Traci was dealing with a lot of phlegm that morning. She took her medicine and then we walked to the breakfast buffet. The breakfast buffet selection was impressive. You could get traditional American breakfast items. You could get Chinese dim sum. You could get a European-style breakfast items. Traci ate slowly but she ate better than she had in several days. Surprisingly, it was me who did not eat much. I felt fine but I think after eating all the hearty meals on the cruise ship, I was a little burnt-out with breakfast. Traci and I spent almost two hours relaxing at our table at breakfast.
We did not do much the rest of that day. Traci was not coughing as much and she did not have as much phlegm, but she was feeling fatigued and stiff. We spent most of the day in our room. I got caught up on email while watching music videos. I sent an email to our next-door neighbor at home to ask if her snow removal service would take care of our driveway and sidewalk when the forecasted snowstorm hit.
I left our room briefly. I went down to the beautiful beach. The beach was empty. As I said before, African heat is on a different level. No one goes to the beach during the heat of the day. I ended up spending an hour in the adult-only pool that was not far from our building. The resort also has a family pool near its main building.
The next morning, Traci and I decided to leave the resort for a tour. Traci still was not feeling all that great. She was feeling fatigued but assured me she would be okay.
You do not need to book tours in advance at the resort. You simply go to the reception desk and choose from a list of fixed-price taxi tours. There are taxis waiting outside the resort all the time. Reception will even do a currency exchange so that you can pay your taxi driver in the Mauritian Rupees. You can probably save a few rupees by doing your own booking of a taxi service such as Taxis Mauritius, but I did not mind paying a little extra for the convenience and flexibility of booking our tour through Sugar Beach.
We chose to do the 8-hour South Tour which shows you the highlights of the southern part of Mauritius. Very few of the sights we saw on this tour were memorable, but it served the purpose of checking the boxes of a Southern Mauritius sightseeing itinerary. We were told that we would have an English-speaking driver, but our driver's English was extremely limited. Therefore, we got no commentary of the things we saw other than the name of the attraction. If we really wanted to know more about a place we visited, I would sometimes have to ask our driver in French and then translate his answer to Traci. However, most of this tour consisted of being driven to a place in silence and the driver telling us that he will wait at a designated spot while we explored.
More than anything, I liked riding through the different scenery of the island. We started in the beach resort town of Flic en Flac then rode through open fields with jagged mountains and ocean in the background. We rode through urban areas where we saw the busyness of cities. I was surprised to see that Mauritius has a metro. We rode through rural areas and forested areas.
Our first stop was an urban area called Floreal. It is known for its shopping. Our driver pulled into the parking lot of a shop. A friendly lady greeted us and took us on a tour of her factory/shop. It contained a lot of very detailed model ships. There was an artisan there who was in the painstaking process of creating another model ship. We were taken upstairs to a room where people make clothing. There were all types of machines for dying fabrics and sewing. We were, of course, led to a showroom where model ships, clothing, souvenirs, and other merchandise was available for purchase. The lady who was guiding us began her explanations and sales pitch to get us to buy something, but Traci and I were not interested in shopping. We had already bought a souvenir fridge magnet when we first arrive in Mauritius. We had no intentions of buying anything else.
constructing a model ship
Our driver took us to another factory/store in Floreal where we had a similar experience to the first shop. We quickly escaped the sales pitch and then told our driver that we are not interested in shopping. He understood and said that he would show us a volcanic crater. This piqued my interest.
As we were being driven to the crater, I thought maybe I had misunderstood our driver's English. We rode through a residential neighborhood. The craters I have seen during my years of travel tended to be in remote areas - not residential neighborhoods. We continued to climb through more neighborhoods until finally our driver pulled into a small parking lot. Traci and I walked over to a railing and looked down at a bunch of trees and bushes. If no one had told me that this was a volcanic crater, I would have thought we were just looking down a forested hill. Obviously, this volcano has been dormant for a very long time. While the crater was a bit of a letdown in my mind, just across the street was a very nice view of Southern Mauritius.
volcanic crater
I found the next stop on our tour to be the most interesting of anything we saw that day. We made a stop at the Grand Bassin Sacred Lake. In addition to the Sacred Lake, it is the location of a large Hindu temple and complex. Gigantic statues of Hindu gods are visible in almost any direction you turn. There were quite a few people praying and burning incense. Hinduism is the major religion in Mauritius. Traci and I walked around taking pictures of the colorful statues and temple.
Our driver took us to see natural attractions such Alexandre Falls and Black River Gorges. They were scenic but not breathtaking. It was at this point that I was becoming more concerned about Traci. The extreme heat of the day was upon us. Each time we arrived at an attraction, Traci wanted to know how far we would have to walk. Our driver would always say five to ten minutes which was accurate in all cases. I could see that even these short distances were taking a toll on Traci. She searched for benches where she could take a break. She was doing a lot of coughing. She slept every time we returned to the car. I wanted to end the tour or better yet, end the vacation and go home.
Black River Gorges National Park
Our final stop of the tour required about a 45-minute drive on a curvy, two-lane road through a forested region. All of the twists were starting to give me motion sickness. We eventually arrived at the entrance to Chamarel Seven Coloured Earth Geopark. We actually had to wait in line to pay an entrance fee. The main attraction here is the Seven Coloured Earth. It is another volcanic area. The phenomenon here is volcanic soil that appears in a rainbow of colors - at least that's how it looked in the pictures I saw before the trip. You have probably guessed by now that the Seven Coloured Earth did not look like the pictures when we were there. It just looked like a field of dirt mounds surrounded by a fence. I guess the vibrancy of the colors depend on the time of day that you view the attraction. The nearby Chamarel Waterfalls was cool though. It is a twin waterfall. The weather was extremely hot at the time we visited Charmarel. Traci and I took a picture of the dirt mounds and the waterfalls and then sat on a bench in the shade. Eventually, we made the 5-minute walk back to the parking lot where our taxi driver was waiting.
Seven Coloured Earth
Chamarel Waterfalls
On the way back to the resort, our driver made a stop at a scenic overlook that gave an awesome view of the ocean and surrounding mountains. I was glad to be back at the resort. Both Traci and I were tired. I felt like I was coming down with something. I felt off and seemed to be developing a sore throat. At dinner that evening, neither one of us had much of an appetite.
scenic overlook
When I awoke the next morning, I concluded that I must have had a fever that broke overnight because I was drenched in sweat. I still had a slight sore throat. The shocker came when I saw that Traci's pillow had a considerable amount a blood on it! The blood was coming from her nose. Despite this less-than-ideal start of our day, I was feeling upbeat because it was our departure day. Of course, we had 23-hours of travel ahead of us, but I just wanted to get home to find out what was going on with Traci's health. I had another reason to be upbeat that morning. Despite Traci's bloody nose, she actually seemed to be doing much better. She said she had had the best night of sleep in several days. She was now the one starting our conversations instead of me constantly asking her how she was feeling. It was the first time I had seen her smile in several days. She actually said she was hungry! We both ate reasonably well at our final breakfast at Sugar Beach. The only things that seemed to be bringing her down were the fatigue, coughing, and starting to lose her voice.
We got to the airport about three hours before our departure. Emirates Airlines actually recommends arriving at the Mauritius airport four hours before your flight but there was a 45-minute delay at the resort before someone was available to collect our luggage from our room. No problem. We still had plenty of time before our flight despite the long security lines. I still found it odd that the official language of Mauritius is English, yet the airport public announcements are in French.
Our flight itinerary was a 6-hour flight from Mauritius to Dubai where we had a 2.5-hour layover and then a 14-hour flight to Washington Dulles Airport. It was our first time flying Emirates. Both legs of the flight were on an Airbus A380 double-decker aircraft. The upper deck of the plane is for first class and business class passengers. Since we were flying economy class, Traci and I had seats in the lower deck of the plane. I asked one of the flight attendants if I could have a look at the upper level, but she apologized and told me that only first class and business class are allowed upstairs.
I was really impressed with the language skills of the flight attendants. They seemed to effortlessly switch between French, English, and Arabic. Just to keep myself challenged, I decided that I would see how far I could get by speaking only French during the Mauritius to Dubai leg. It worked. No one switched to English on me.
With me worrying about Traci's health, the flights seemed like an eternity. She had a few coughing fits which I am sure rattled some passengers. At one point, she became lethargic and confused. I almost asked a flight attendant if there was a doctor onboard. Traci eventually came out of it and watched a movie. I was never so glad to land at the Dulles airport. Traci immediately took out her phone and scheduled a doctors appointment for that morning. We were able to skip the long immigration and customs lines at Dulles thanks to the MPC (Mobile Passport Control) app. We took a Lyft ride home, put on our winter jackets to deal with the polar vortex that was gripping the area, and drove straight to the doctors.
Traci tested negative for the flu and negative for COVID; however, the doctor suspected pneumonia when she listened to Traci breathe using a stethoscope. She sent Traci across the hall for a chest X-ray. By the time we got home, the doctor had called to confirm that Traci had pneumonia. She prescribed a course of antibiotics. After two days, Traci's health had improved dramatically. She still did not get clearance to return to work for two weeks but she was able to work from home.
As for me, I had a full-blown sore throat when we landed at Dulles and also, for the first time in my life, I had lost my voice. I was not able to talk beyond the volume of a whisper. The sore throat went away almost miraculously by the second day. One minute it hurt to swallow and then suddenly it no longer hurt to swallow - weird! It still took another day or two for my voice to return to normal, but I had to deal with a nighttime cough for almost two weeks.
It is unfortunate that our vacation ended the way that it did, but I am happy we both made a full recovery. I would have really liked to have explored Mauritius and the offerings of the Sugar Beach Resort. The island seemed like such a cultural gem. I was amazed by all the places we visited on this cruise. It was an itinerary of interesting contrasts. We saw places that I don't know if we would have ever planned a trip to visit. I am just happy we had the opportunity even with the health scare. [Back to the Main Page]
Magnet Purchased At This Destination: (click to enlarge)
Entire fridge magnet collection...