ReunionJanuary 4, 2025
I had a terrible night of sleep. I woke up at 3:30 AM to use the bathroom but was not able to fall back to sleep afterwards. I finally gave up and got out of bed at 6 AM. Traci no longer had a fever, but she had a different set of symptoms - stiffness and a cough. At least she said that she was hungry. She had barely eaten anything for the last two days.
I watched from our cabin balcony as our ship docked in Pointe Des Galets, Reunion. Reunion is a French island in the Indian Ocean. Its citizens carry French passports. My first impression of viewing the island from our ship was its green mountains.
docked at Pointe Des Galets, Reunion
Traci and I had breakfast in the Venetian dining room. Traci had mentioned that she was hungry, but her appetite still had not returned. Some fruit and a glass of orange juice was all that she managed to get down.
We waited in the Stardust Theater at 8:30 AM for our excursion group number to be called. We would be doing the 8-hour Cirque of Salazie shore excursion. We followed our group off the ship to the awaiting motorcoaches at this industrial pier where our ship docked.
The immigration process was strict on this island - even more strict than Abu Dhabi. We had to stop so that immigration officers could board our motorcoach and check the passport of each passenger.
The difference in infrastructure between where we visited in Madagascar the two days ago and Reunion was striking. Reunion has great infrastructure - paved streets, highways, solid buildings, etc...
Our first stop was at a family-owned vanilla farm. The matriarch of the family explained in French the laborious job of cultivating vanilla. Our tour guide translated the explanation to English for our group. The most interesting thing about this visit was hearing about how much work goes into monitoring the plants and making the appropriate adjustments to yield a good crop. It takes several years of work by hand to produce vanilla that can be sold. The cultivation cannot be done by machine.
Leaving the vanilla farm, we began our journey to the town of Hell-Bourg. It was a journey along a narrow, winding road in the beautiful mountains full of greenery. We made a stop at a scenic overlook for a view of Piton d'Anchaing. It was named after a runaway slave. Africans and Indians were slaves and servants on Reunion. Slavery on the island ended in 1848 but indentured servitude continued up until 1933.
We continued on into the mountains where we rode through Cirque of Salazie. It is a large caldera that is part of the volcano that formed the island. Cirque of Salazie contains gorges, streams, and numerous waterfalls - its most famous being "Bride's Veil" (Voile de la Mariée). I was thrilled to learn that Cirque of Salazie is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I was able to add our visit to my list. I was starting to realize that Reunion Island is paradise for those who enjoy hiking, kayaking, cycling, camping, and other types of back-to-nature activities.
We eventually reached the town of Hell-Bourg which is nestled at the foot of tall green mountains whose summits were obscured by clouds. France recognizes Hell-Bourg as its most beautiful village. We were given 30 minutes to explore the town. We were let off at its narrow main street which was lined with shops, eateries, and other small establishments. I was hoping to find somewhere where I could buy Mucinex to help Traci deal with all the phlegm that was bothering her. I asked our tour guide and she had us follow her to a pharmacy. I was happy to let her translate for us in this situation because I did not want to misinterpret something and end up buying the wrong type of medicine. As I was listening to our guide converse with the pharmacist in French, I realized she was asking him for medicine to help Traci with seasickness! I am not sure how she came to the conclusion that Traci was suffering from that, but I interjected to let the pharmacist know that Traci had cold symptoms with a lot of phlegm and coughing. It kind of caught the guide and the pharmacist off-guard when I spoke French. At that point, pharmacist presented us with a few medicines that might work. None of them were Mucinex so we decided that we would try somewhere else.
By the time Traci and I left the pharmacy, it was almost time to get back on the motorcoach. We made a quick stop in a souvenir shop so that we could buy a Reunion refrigerator magnet to add to our collection. I was happy I remembered to bring the euros leftover from past travels to Europe and other regions that use the Euro as currency. I had enough to buy the magnet. The friendly shopkeeper even threw in souvenir Reunion drink coasters for free.
Our lunch stop for this excursion was at a restaurant in the mountains that specializes in the local creole cuisine. Some of the offerings were curry chicken, curry shrimp, and dish made from "chouchou". Our guide spoke quite a bit about chouchou earlier in our tour. It is chayote that can grow wild on the island. The chouchou we had at lunch was prepared as fritters which had a slightly sweet taste. I really enjoyed this lunch stop. The food was good. The servers were friendly. The meal was served family-style. This allowed us to have good conversations with our fellow travelers who came from several different countries.
Our final stop before returning to the ship was the capital city of St. Denis. It is not a place where you will find skyscrapers but there are plenty of businesses there. We were given 30 minutes to check out a pedestrian-only street that was lined with restaurants, souvenir shops, and other establishments. Traci and I made a stop in a chocolate shop where we had the opportunity to sample some of the products. The rest of our time was spent at a pharmacy. Although, the pharmacist found several drugs that might help relieve some of Traci's symptoms, we did not buy anything.
Arriving back at the port, everyone had to get off the motorcoach, walk through security in the customs building, and then reboard the motorcoach. As I mentioned before, Reunion is strict when it comes to immigration. However, the guards seemed pretty relaxed in the customs hall.
Back on the ship, Traci and I got cleaned up. Our evening entertainment was the finals of the karaoke competition. The contestants performed with a live band.
It was our final evening of the cruise. We had our "Last Supper" in the Aqua dining room. It was not a great experience for Traci. Her symptoms tended to flare up in the evening. As a result, she did not have an appetite. The maitre d' personally brought Traci a bowl of chicken noodle soup. We thanked him but Traci barely touched it.
We had a bizarre misunderstanding that evening. Ever since we returned to the ship after our excursion on Reunion, we would periodically hear ship announcements asking passengers who "did not pass immigration for Mauritius" to report to the Spinnaker Lounge immediately with their passport. The ship collected passports from everyone at the start of the cruise and returned them later during the week. When I heard the announcements for passengers who "did not pass immigration for Mauritius", I assumed the ship had coordinated some kind of immigration check and found problems with entry documents for certain passengers and thus they 'failed' immigration. Since no one contacted us personally about problems with our documents, I ignored the announcements. The announcements became more frequent as the evening went on until finally, while Traci and I were at dinner, the announcements included names of passengers who needed to report to the Spinnaker Lounge immediately. Our names were called!
Traci and I finished up dinner (Well, I did.), returned to our cabin to get our passports, and then went upstairs to the Spinnaker Lounge. It was about 9:45 PM. The cutoff was 10 PM. It turns out that "pass immigration" simply meant to get your passport stamped. Immigration officers were onboard our ship to stamp passports for entry into Mauritius. This was done as a convenience so that we would not have to wait in long immigration lines at the terminal when we arrived in Mauritius the next morning. My misunderstanding about the phrase "pass immigration" worked out in our favor that evening. There was no line to get our passport stamped because we had arrived so late. I heard from other passengers that they had to wait in line for over an hour when they came to the Spinnaker Lounge earlier that day.
With the immigration misunderstanding behind us. Traci and I packed our luggage and had it waiting outside our cabin by 11 PM. We would collect our luggage at the terminal in Mauritius the next morning. Continue...
Magnet Purchased At This Destination: (click to enlarge)
Entire fridge magnet collection...
UNESCO Site Visited At This Destination: Pitons, cirques and remparts of Reunion Island