Le Morne- paradise on earth! Really!

     We spent only two nights on Le Morne- probably one of the most beautiful places on the planet- and definitely, the most beautiful hotel we have ever stayed in!  We stayed in the Beachcomber Paradis, located on a tiny penninsula in the south of Mauritius- you could walk around the property, one side facing the sea and keep walking around to the Bay behind!  The entire place is surrounded by beautiful water! The beaches were the best- great sand!  No (or few) rocks, and a hotel that is beyond incredible!  We took snorkeling trips out to the reef, but mostly, we did what we love to do- we walked those beaches, then layed at the incredible pool!

Le Morne, means "the mountain", is located on the south of the island, and is the second largest rock monolith after Uluru (Ayer's Rock) in central Australia.  From our hotel, you could see Le Morne from so many vantage points, but you also had the pull of the beautiful sea!  It was hard to choose which- but always we would just stare at and absorb,  the beauty around us.  Sadly, knowing that soon, we would be gone.

The incredible infinite pool looking out to sea

Buffet breakfast, that includes omelettes, and chinese fried noodles!  Of course croissants and rich dark coffee!

sunset!

Beach, looking at our room.  Nothing like having your own palapa!!!

Sunset looking north!  The mountains along the west coast

Le Morne from the beach in front of our room

Some guy who was sitting under our palapa:-)  He was too relaxed for us to tell him to move:-)

Sunset at the pool!

Le Morne from the pool!

Morning at the pool!

Rich in the ocean, me looking towards Le Morne

selfie!!!!!

Flik-en-Flaq: a fun Mauritian town on the west coast!

     When we were researching where to stay on Mauritius, Flik-en-Flak (or Flik-en-Flaq) usually popped up as it seems to be party central in the summer!  Luckily, we were there in the fall, so no crowds, but good music and good food.  We stayed at the Klondike hotel, which is the hotel on the most north point of the bay.  Perfect for sunsets!  Although our hotel did not have a real beach, it was just a hundred yards down.  But we did have an infinite pool, that looked over the Indian Ocean, right into the sunset!!!!  We stayed in the bungalo's, which was so perfect!  They are little apartments with a small kitchen, living room, comfortable bedroom, and a veranda for sitting and drinking coffee or other adult beverages!  And the coolest thing: the bungalos are nestled in a grove of 200 year old trees!  The entire "garden" area is beautifully maintained with tons of flowering plants.  It was beautiful!!!!

One of our day trips from Flik-en-Flaq was with a group of Europeans to swim with the dolphins- literally!  Pods of dolphins live in the bay area, so you go out and swim with them.  We were a little late, so didn't get to "touch" them, but we saw them as they surfaced, and watched them swim below us while we watched with our snorkel gear!  It was MAGIC!  We also snorkeled in some of the most beautiful reef areas, picknicked on Ile Aux Benitiers (island of Benetiers).  We also got to swim- and touch!- the tiny bit of Lie aux Crystal- a tiny coral island just a few meters in diameter- it is usually on every post card from the region!  The weird thing about Lie Aux Benetiers- the catains parked the boat about 100 yards off the island- we jumped off the boat into knee high green water, and walked all the way to shore!  It is that shallow!

Our second day trip from Flik-en-Flaq was into the interior of the island to visit the largest Hindu temple outside India-which includes gigantic statues of Shiva, the colored rock of Chamarel, the water falls, the highest point on the island, and the Black Gorge!

Our very cool infinite pool!

Rich and I at the highest point on Mauritius- of course, an ancient, dead volcano!

Me at the giant statue of Shiva

Rich receiving a Hindu Prayer after receiving the mark for health and prosperity

Me with Ganesha- note my Hindu mark for peace and prosperity

Hindu Monkey God Hanuman 

Monkey!  He lives by the statue of the Hindu Monkey God Hanuman 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanuman)

View from the hotel pool!

Sunset!

Sunset!

Long sandy beach- Flik-en-Flak is a really long beach!

the 200 year old trees- you can see our bungalow on the right.  Next to the hotel property,
there was a  huge grove of these great old trees!

the black gorge- it is a very forested canyon that runs through the south of the island

And when there is a gorge, there must be a waterfall!

The colored rock of Chamarel

Colored rock of Chamarel

In the past, there were many giant totoises on the island- they are extinct now, sadly.
But they are re-seeding the giant tortoise population from a neighboring island.

What I really love about traveling is the weird food people eat- like these roast chicken flavored potato chips!
Which actually were pretty good:-)

Vista's everywhere!

Crystal Rock- a little out-cropping in the bay!  Le Morne is in the back ground

Our ships captain and guide for our day trip

Our last sunset in Flik-en-Flak- so sad to go!

Grand Baie- the north of Mauritius!

     We spent our first 5 days at the Mervylle Beach Resort in Grand Baie.  Perfect place to introduce ourselves to a country we barely knew existed!  The hotel's room price included many different types of water sports, inlcuding: snorkeling, wind surfing, stand-up paddle board, kayak's.  We definitely took advantage of the boat trips out to the reef for snorkeling- sometimes twice a day!  The hotel was really beautiful, and included a buffet breakfast and all the croissants you could eat, and the best coffee!  It also introduced us to the concepts of "all inclusive" (everything is paid for- food and drinks), "full board" (Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, no drinks), half-board" (Breakfast and Dinner, no drinks or lunch), all terms we were not familiar with.  We only had Bed and Breakfast, which was fine for us, as we like venturing out to find food (and we made yummy little sandwiches to take with us for later in the day:-)).  I include this information as many (most) people had the higher options than us.  One totally weird thing about every hotel we stayed: the price of drinks was CRAZY!  $8 for a beer, $14 for a cocktail.  Luckily we found grocery stores that sold the beer and wine for significantly less!  We packed for a tropical location- great Hawaiian shirts!  Sadly, we were the only ones wearing them:-).  We stood out like sore thumbs everywhere we went:-).  

The north of the island is known for long, sandy beaches, and small islands off the coast!

Our one day trip in the north was a full day boat trip to 3 islands: Ile Gabriele, Rock Island (Le Coin de Mire), and flat island (Ile Plate).  Ile Gabriele and Ile Plate are all but connected, very close to each other, and have the coolest waves and sandy/rocky beaches!

The sunsets off Mauritius were spectacular- every day we made sure we watched them!

Rock Island from Ile Gabriele

Patrick having a drink while sitting on a rock on Ile Gabriele- waiting of the BBQ'd lunch!

Sandy Beach on Ile Plate

Beach and water on Ile Plate

The coolest little split of beach on Ile Plate!

a morning relaxing- with a view like this, who can blame us?

The views are all spectacular

Us at Cap Malheureaux- the point of sorrow- where the British defeated the French in 18-something

spectacular views every where

spectacular sunsets

fun Europeans from Germany and France!

Good bye Grand Baie- you will be missed

Mauritius- the video!

Here is our video of our trip to Mauritius, on YouTube!
https://youtu.be/Bta33MuXVkE

Mauritius, an introduction: Addendum 1, or- oops, I forgot this

So after re-reading our introduction to Mauritius, I realized there were two things I forgot. First, the Dodo bird was natural to Mauritius- with great sadness, it is now extinct. But, it is a symbol of the island, and you can buy their likeness everywhere- and we did, on towels and carvings:-).  Here is information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodo.  



Second, what does Mauritius look like?  Well, here is a map.  I mentioned the 4 areas we visited: Grand Baie in the north, Flik en Flak in the west, Le Morne in the south (look for Paradis on the lower left) and Blue Bay on the east (look for Shandrani)

Mauritius! A beautiful tropical island off the coast of Madagascar- an Introduction to our trip

     We never planned on traveling to Mauritius.  Truth be told, we barely heard of it, and only had a general idea of where it was- like in the ocean:-).  But when that little email from Air France popped up telling us we had 24 hours to decide (and we opened it the last hour) we did a quick Google search, and the next thing you know, we are on a 23 hour plane ride:-).

I know- you want to know where Mauritius is:-).  When we first booked,we weren't sure either!  Thank God for Google!  Mauritius is 600 miles east of Madagascar, in the south Indian Ocean, below the equator, so their seasons are opposite ours.  

Here is the map screen from the flight- shows the route we took from Mauritius back to France.  That is a 12 hour flight

(http://wikitravel.org/en/Mauritius) will tell you all about Mauritius.  It was discovered by the Dutch, they left and the French came in, but then the British wanted it.  The official language is English, then French and Creole.  But about 60% of the tourists are French, so more French is spoken.  We often had communication problems as most peoples english was either really good, or almost passable.

But, with the French influence, you know what that also means....CROISSANTS!  Just like in Paris- every breakfast is filled with croissants- all their buttery, flaky delciciousness, with creamy New Zealand butter, and tropical fruit jams- breakfast is the best!  Meals usually consisted of fish or chicken, curry's, brochetes, etc.  All delicious!!

Creole Food!  

And the people who love it!  Rich had fish!

Their largest group of people are Hindu from India, so lots of good curry, and some Chinese, with very good Chinese food, and Africans, with their influence.  Thankfully, they have mixed it all up into a beautiful, kind, and inviting people.  The island is small- about 36 miles by 28 miles, so there are beaches everywhere. 

We were there for 2 weeks, and stayed at 4 different areas of the island.  Our first 5 days were in the north, in Grand Baie (Bay), we stayed at the Merville Beach resort.  Grand Baie is a fairly large town, and the area has very nice beaches, good restaurants, shops, even a Patisserie!  Our second spot was the town of flik-en-Flaq on the west, staying at Klondike.  The town is smaller, but more tourist-oriented.  Our third stay was the south at Le Morne, with its AWESOME peninsula and the second largest monolith (giant rock) in the world, after Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia! And our fourth stay was in the south east at Shandrani at Blue Bay.

The island is well known in Europe, so we met lots of great people from Germany, France and Ireland.  We met no Americans, thank God- you know how they are:-)!  Very few American's come here- none that we know- and the hotel and restaurant staff all say we are a rarity- probably because of the distance.  But that made us an interesting oddity:-) 

The island is noted for water oriented activites- we snorkeled almost every day, took boat rides to some of the very local smaller islands, laid at the beach and pool very often, ate our weight in good food every day, and walked and biked the beaches and trails.  Every day we made sure we were situated to watch the VERY beautiful sunsets!

Typical sunset!  Although every night, they were different- depending on how the light danced on the clouds!

The incredible single thing about Mauritius is the sea- it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!  It is a green color that you only imagine in a tropical local!  It is the green you only see in travel brochures- and it is REAL!  Beyond the reef, as the water gets deeper, it takes on the more familiar blue color.  But at shore- sea green!

The downside- although the island is surrounded by coral reefs, the damage to these reefs is apparent with every step; broken coral litters the beaches.  VERY sad.  But we have seen amazing coral and an incredible variety of colorful fish!  

The Islands' government is based on English law, so Mauritius is the most prosperous and well run African nation.  The island has almost no crime, and we never felt even a bit uneasy the entire time, even when walking the dark town streets at night.  There are, of course, a few pushy trinket sellers, but most were very friendly and took "no thank you" well.

So here is our trip!  I will be writing a blog entry for each of the 4 areas we visited.