Location: Port Louis, Mauritius
Mauritius is a neat island situated off the coast of Africa in the trade wind region of the Indian Ocean, which made it a strategic port for those old colonials who so loved throwing stones at one another in their wooden boats. The Dutch were the first to lay claim to Mauritius, but they gave it up and allowed the French to move in. The French were happy to occupy Mauritius and the nearby island of Reunion during the Napoleonic Wars and used the port as a base of operation to harass British commerce doing trade with India and Indonesia. This went on until 1810, when the British East India Company and other merchants successfully convinced the crown to dispatch a large force of royal navy ships and troops to capture Mauritius. In 1810 the British took control over Mauritius. When the war ended, we were entitled to keep the island along with many other archipelagos and islands in the area in the treaty of Paris. The colonial history of the island shapes the culture here today. There are many ethnicities, religions, and languages spoken in Mauritius. French, English, and Mauritian Creole are all spoken by pretty much everyone on the island. Sadly the Dodo no longer lives on Mauritius because it was too tasty, and the sailors that landed here in the fifteen and sixteen hundreds ate most of them and introduced rats and other species that ate their eggs. The birds became flightless after a long period of isolation on the island without predators, and they grew in size to around 50lbs. This made them the perfect lunch for the hungry traveler and eventually led to their demise. The Dodo is still a beloved bird and a symbol of Mauritius that can be found on the national coat of arms. Hopefully, when robots take over the world and discover how to replicate DNA, the Dodo can be reborn like in Jurassic Park.
Our time spent here so far has been great. The crew was a little disappointed when they discovered that the local elections were taking place and that no bars would be open for three days. We had planned to have a small celebratory evening out after a long Indian Ocean passage and the good hard work put into tidying up the vessel yesterday, but this had to be put on hold. There was celebratory ice cream instead! The students had a day to themselves today to go explore the island and take care of personal missions. One student really seized the day and went on a safari. He pet lions, segwayed with zebras and ostriches, he was licked by giraffes, and he stroked the necks of some friendly giant tortoises. There was also a roller coaster and a few other adventures in his day, but it sounds pretty epic. We met back at the vessel to eat dinner and have a marine biology class, and prepared for a day of diving tomorrow.
Cheers,
Ian M