Mauritius

Goodbye Cake Party

2005-11-23T21:29:00.000+04:00

Lasr day at the office and the 5 lovely friends Kiran, Preeti, Davina, Selvana and Anj set up a dinner party for me! Very nice. They made chicken, potato salad, white sauce, roasted eggs and brought a delicious chocolate cake. I was told they tried to get turkey to make it more thanks giving like, but unfortunately in Mauritius turkey is very hard to find. Here are some of the pictures we took.

Kiran Looking Away

2005-11-23T21:26:00.001+04:00

Anjoo Trying to Contain!

2005-11-23T21:26:00.000+04:00

Selvana's Ghost Eyes

2005-11-23T21:22:00.001+04:00

Davina's Full Mouth

2005-11-23T21:22:00.000+04:00

Cutting The Cake

2005-11-23T21:21:00.001+04:00

Blowing The Candle

2005-11-23T21:21:00.000+04:00

Preeti's Sideways Look and Reflections on the Glass

2005-11-23T21:20:00.000+04:00

Eating The Orb

2005-11-23T21:19:00.000+04:00

All Together

2005-11-23T21:18:00.000+04:00

Circo do Brasil

2005-11-14T17:15:00.000+04:00

Together with most of the TXD group of agents, we went yesterday to the circus. It was supposed to be a brazilian circus, but no one was actually brazilian, it was just the music they played that made it "from Brazil." It was definitely not the best show I have seen, but it was a nice outing nevertheless.

One thing that did strike me was that popcorn in Mauritius is always caramelized; there is no salty version here! And it wasn't only there at the circus, it is in fact everywhere like that, at the movies, parks, supermarkets, everywhere!. It's amazing how every culture can be so different, even when it comes to such little things like popcorn!

Remembering Semester at Sea

2005-11-11T17:29:00.000+04:00

Being on the MV Doulos brought back a lot of memories from my trip with Semester at Sea, particularly this part of the ship that looks very similar to the Universe Explorer. It made me remember the evacuation drills and how we had to were long sleeves, pants and close-toed shoes.

Gangway

2005-11-11T17:25:00.001+04:00

The books they sold weren't very updated, they were mainly classics and 2004 surveys on various topics. However, they did have an amazing collection on world religions, cultures an traveling of course!

Dual Gangway

2005-11-11T17:25:00.000+04:00

The employees of the Doulos are university students from around the world who take a semester off to work on the ship traveling. The guy who sold me the entry ticket was from Brazil and there was even a girl from Paraguay working there as well. Quite nice!

The MV Doulos

2005-11-11T17:24:00.000+04:00

The MV Doulos is a floating bookstore! It's a ship filled with books for sale and they travel around the world selling their books at different ports. It has been in Mauritius the last week and it's leaving tomorrow. It's amazing how many people actually go and buy books from it even if they don't really read as a past time; I suppose they just buy to be able to say they bought a book from a floating bookstore.

On Fire!

2005-10-26T16:15:00.000+04:00

Today while coming to work, in the middle of the road there was an electric company truck on fire! We had to take a small dirt road through the sugar cane field to get through because the highway was closed. The firemen were still trying to put the flames out.

Seychelles

2005-10-11T18:51:00.000+04:00

By far the most naturally beautiful place I have ever been to! 115 islands build up the whole country, but I only managed to visit 2 of those. They're made of granite rock and it is very common to see the rocks in the mountain and the ocean together with the trees and the water. As well as being the most beautiful, it is also the most expensive! There are two main industries, tourism and fishing, everything else must be imported thus the high prices. Also, the arable land is very little because of the granite rocks beneath.

The circumstances of my trip to the Seychelles where very random yet interesting. I decided to go there 3 days before I actually left; I bought a ticket from a travel agent and booked my hotel online for the two nights I was staying there. My two credit cards were declined after trying to book the hotel so I ended up with no reservation and without a hotel reservation you can't enter the country. Then the last day before leaving, Friday, I found a hotel through expedia.com and booked it; the reservation was confirmed and I was ready and good to go. I tried to look for some tours to do on Sunday, but everything is closed there on sunday, so the only thing I managed to get was a tour operator that was willing to schedule a private driver for me on Sunday to give me a tour of the main island Mahe. I settled for that.

When I got there at about 10pm, I asked a taxi driver how much he would charge me to take me to my hotel, and he gave me a price which I though was ridiculous so I told him that was out of the question. Then he threatened me be saying: "how else are you going to get there?" I told him I would find a way. So, I asked another taxi driver if he could take me to the hotel, and this one gave me a much more reasonable price, so I got in the car. We got to the hotel at about 10:30pm but there was nobody there! Only a few tourists that were walking to their room. I asked them who I should talk to so I could get the room I reserved and she told me the owner of the hotel lived in the house next to the hotel so she should probably be there. I got back on the taxi and drove to the house. The dogs were barking, we called out for the lady, but no one came out! After a while a very old lady in pajamas came to the door and said the owner wasn't there and that she couldn't give me my room. By now it was already 11pm, so I asked my taxi driver to take me to another hotel and I would look for a room there. On the way back we were talking about the things I could do the next day, since it was my only day really to go around. When we were near the other hotel he took me completely by surprise when he proposed I stay with him and his family at his residence and that when I left I could pay him something. I accepted his offer and we went to his house.

I can't express how grateful I am to Mr. Jimmy Elizabeth, his wife Monika and his daughter Emminielle. They took a complete stranger in their house and treated him like family; these are the kind of humans this world needs. The most wonderful thing about staying with the Elizabeth family is that I got to see how real Seychellois people live and shared for a brief instant their lives, their culture and their customs. Monika works at the Victoria Seaport and Emminielle goes to primary school, she's 6 years old and Joel, Jimmy's nephew, is a professional football player. Jimmy breeds Guinea Pigs and rabbits for pleasure, he also has 3 dogs of which the one I liked the most was Spicky.

The next day, Jimmy took me in the morning to the port so I could buy tickets to go to Praslin island, the second largest island of the country, by speedboat. The trip would take 1 hour each way, so I bought my tickets for 10am going there and the return at 6pm. I planned to go to La Digue island once I got to Praslin; there is a little boat that can take you there and it runs all day every half hour. When the speedboat left the port I started getting very seasick like I always do, I should have know better! I settled for seating very uncomfortably in a chair trying to make out of it a bed. When the boat finally got to the jetty, as I was getting off the gangway I kicked the anchor with my right foot, which gave me a big bruise. Not only was about to throw up, but now I had a bruised foot! I sat down on a bench for about 10 minutes and the seasickness went away. When I started walking down the jetty, a lady taxi driver passed by and I asked her if it was possible to go to the airport and check to see if I could take a flight back to Mahe island instead of riding the speedboat again. We went to the airport and asked, but all the flights were full and so I left my name on a 20 person wait list… the odds of getting a seat didn’t look too good. After that she took me to Valee de Mai, which is a Nature Reserve in Praslin and it has the Coco de Mer palm trees which grows 23-kilo coconuts! The largest coconuts in the world… very beautiful. While I was walking the trail of the national park, I kicked a rock with my left foot this time and got a cut on my big toe. So now I was to feet down and seasick. Optimal condition! I went for a pizza at the beach where I took very nice photos, in fact the best ones of the whole trip. The beach was called Anse Volbert and it is the most striking beach I have ever seen! The water had 5 different colors, there were granite rocks making little islands, palm and pine trees lining the sand and of course the very soothing sound of the waves.

By the time I got back to the airport to check on my standby status, it was already 3pm. Still the list was long and there were only 3 flights left. Again I was lucky enough that my taxi driver knew the girl at the check-in counter and asked her to help me find a seat on any flight. The Air Seychelles girl was leaving on the flight at 5pm, but she decided to give me her seat on the flight and stay there until the next day, just so I could go back! Seychellois are the nicest people in the world! She put me on the flight and jumped over the whole standby list, and by 5:15pm I was already back at Mahe.

That night Jimmy, Monika, Emminielle, a friend of Monika and I went to The Pirates’ Arms for dinner, where they had a cowboy night special. It was very nice to listen to country music in an island where most of the time people play Sega, Seggae and Reggae. After a nice dinner, we went back home and I watch a Mexican telenovela in english with Monika called ‘Cuando Seas Mia”. Interesting how soap operas can captive people from such different cultures; Monika followed the story so closely she could even forecast what was going to happen in future episodes!

The next day my flight left at 11am, and just before going to the airport Jimmy took me to the port to see if I could get a refund on the return ticket I didn’t use from Praslin. The lady told me that they usually didn’t give refunds, but because I was sick she would make and exception. So voila, I got my money back. Afterwards, we went to the airport to check in and I had a little trouble because the people at Air Seychelles thought I didn’t have a visa to go to Mauritius, but it was resolved easily by calling Answer Plus and verifying that I was in fact working there and my work permit was in process.

It was a wonderful weekend and it wouldn’t have been as nice if I would have stayed at that abandoned hotel. I would like to thank Jimmy and his family once again for being so exceedingly nice! They will always be on my good graces and I will always remember Seychelles as a land of great people and beautiful sites.

Publicity

2005-10-11T18:50:00.000+04:00

I thought I'd do a little PR for both Jimmy and Judy. I know not many people read my site, but just in case any of you decide to go to Seychelles, you will know who to call.

More Beach Pictures

2005-10-11T18:48:00.001+04:00

After all, beaches are the best thing in Seychelles!

Hues of Blue

2005-10-11T18:48:00.000+04:00

Kids Playing at Anse Volbert

2005-10-11T18:47:00.002+04:00

From The Speedboat

2005-10-11T18:47:00.001+04:00

Scuba Divers

2005-10-11T18:47:00.000+04:00

At Beau Vallon.

Beau Vallon

2005-10-11T18:46:00.000+04:00

Having Fun

2005-10-11T16:51:00.000+04:00

These guys were singing Bob Marley and having the time of their lives. This is the kind of thing you don't get to see when you stay in hotels.

Air Seychelles Power Ride

2005-10-11T16:50:00.001+04:00

Yet Again Anse Volbert

2005-10-11T16:50:00.000+04:00

More Anse Volbert

2005-10-11T16:49:00.000+04:00

Nice Smiles!

2005-10-11T16:48:00.001+04:00

Monika

2005-10-11T16:48:00.000+04:00

Taxi Wash

2005-10-11T16:47:00.000+04:00

Laughing Jimmy

2005-10-11T16:46:00.001+04:00

Together

2005-10-11T16:46:00.000+04:00

Mountain Rocks

2005-10-11T16:45:00.000+04:00

This was the view from the Elizabeth's balcony.

Maldives' Ants

2005-10-11T16:44:00.001+04:00

Spiderbait.

Best Family in Seychelles!

2005-10-11T16:44:00.000+04:00

Emminielle

2005-10-11T16:43:00.001+04:00

Quite the dancer! Sweet little girl.

Interesting Perspective

2005-10-11T16:43:00.000+04:00

Motor

2005-10-11T16:42:00.001+04:00

Air Seychelles

2005-10-11T16:42:00.000+04:00

From Praslin to Mahe.

Praslin Airport

2005-10-11T16:41:00.000+04:00

The Price You Pay...

2005-10-11T16:40:00.001+04:00

More Beach

2005-10-11T16:40:00.000+04:00

Palm & Pine

2005-10-11T16:39:00.001+04:00

Palm and pine trees at the beach. Amazing combination!

Granite Rock Island

2005-10-11T16:39:00.000+04:00

This is at Anse Volbert.

Anse Volbert

2005-10-11T16:38:00.001+04:00

More Coco de Mer

2005-10-11T16:38:00.000+04:00

Coco de Mer

2005-10-11T16:37:00.000+04:00

23-kilo coconuts!! That means this tree could be carrying about 200 kilos of weight.

Praslin Jetty

2005-10-11T16:36:00.001+04:00

Sailboat

2005-10-11T16:36:00.000+04:00

Took the picture while going to Praslin on the speedboat.

Tuna Fishing Vessels from Spain

2005-10-11T16:35:00.001+04:00

Some of the tuna fishing in Seychelles is outsourced to other countries like Spain and France.

Beau Vallon

2005-10-11T16:35:00.000+04:00

The most popular beach in Mahe. Most hotels are around this area.

Port View

2005-10-11T16:34:00.000+04:00

The Little Ben

2005-10-11T16:30:00.000+04:00

In London they have The Big Ben, in Victoria they have The Little Ben. That's how people call it!

Granite Mountain

2005-10-11T16:24:00.000+04:00

Like all of the Seychelles islands, in Mahe the mountains are a beautiful mix of flowers, trees and gigantic granite rocks.

Best Scam

2005-10-11T16:19:00.000+04:00

It was all a scam! The dog never existed and there was no reward. It was a publicity stunt by the billboard company!! The last update of the billboard says: "Zoon becomes a star in 7 days. Now that he doesn't exist!" I think there is yet one more update to come and I will post it for sure.

Relative Size

2005-10-07T16:18:00.000+04:00

I took this picture from far just to show you in perspective how big the "Zoon" billboards are. I have never seen such a thing before.

Oligarchy in Mauritius 2

2005-10-07T16:17:00.000+04:00

They changed all of the billboards around the island once again! The picture is still the same but now we know they're paying Rs 50,000 = US$ 1785. I'll keep posting updates if anything happens.

Oligarchy in Mauritius

2005-10-06T16:16:00.000+04:00

They're all over the island. This must be one important dog in this country! Full-sized billboards to show a lost dog and offer a reward? I wonder how much the owner spent for that and if they're ever going to find it. In Mauritius there are more stray dogs than people, and given the way people drive here, there is a big probability that this dog is already dead. Road kill is an every day thing.

Sarah Jane, Sundeep & Tash

2005-10-06T16:15:00.000+04:00

Now that there is a new shift at Answer Plus, at 2 am when we go back home we have more people in the van with us. It's fun because before we only had 4, now we have an extra 4 so we always have very nice conversations on our way home. And yet better, now that we have more people I am no longer the last one to be dropped.

Varma's Glasses

2005-10-06T16:14:00.000+04:00

It turns out I have an infection in my left eye so during those long nights at the office in front of the computer screen, my eyes irritate a lot. Yesterday I used Varma's glasses for about 2 minutes and I managed to take the picture. I think when I go back home I'm going to have to get permanent glasses of my own.

Office Pic

2005-10-06T16:13:00.001+04:00

Since I haven't posted in so long, I decided to take some pictures in the office yesterday. It's hard to get good pictures at night inside an office; the flash usually ruins the lighting. This one turned up quite a decent shot.

Fallen Half-Container

2005-10-06T16:13:00.000+04:00

I know I haven't posted for a while, but really there have not been many interesting things to post in the past month. This one I took last week right next to the office. It's amazing how there is always, always a crowd when some traffic event happens. It doesn't matter if it is 3 am, people will come out of nowhere.

Last Blurry

2005-09-06T19:28:00.000+04:00

Again I like the way these blurry pictures show movement in a crooked way. It seems natural.

Sunset Light

2005-09-06T19:27:00.000+04:00

I like the way the photographer's shadow reflects on me and my horse. The picture was taken at about 5:30pm near sunset time.

Landscape

2005-09-06T19:26:00.000+04:00

It was really amazing how big this ranch was, and to think it was devoted entirely to raising race horses.

Another Blurry Photo

2005-09-06T19:25:00.000+04:00

It is hard to take good picture while your horse is moving. The guy in front is the guide and if you look further back you will see a herd of deer that crossed our path while riding. The horses seemed to be very scared of the deer and they became very sensitive pointing their ears straight up. There were also a couple of dogs that were walking with us during the ride, and some of the big deer chased them around.

Ranch

2005-09-06T19:24:00.001+04:00

This house was lost in the middle of the huge ranch where we did our ride. I thought it was a very nice scene with a couple of wooden tables, a bicycle and a rooster right there in the middle of what seemed to be an abandoned house.

Blurry

2005-09-06T19:24:00.000+04:00

Blurry nice picture. I like the way the light hits the face of the horse and how the movement makes it seem like a real horse riding moment.

Helmet

2005-09-06T19:23:00.000+04:00

It was mandatory to wear a helmet; I was surprised. The last I did horse riding was about 6 months ago during spring break in Colorado and not even there, right in the middle of the land of lawsuits did they force me to use a helmet. Instead in Mauritius, where few lawsuits occur, I had to wear one.

More Esplendor

2005-09-06T19:22:00.000+04:00

I felt honored to be riding such a horse. I had ridden fine horses before, but none of this caliber. Cinq fois champion de L'Ile Maurice! Must have been a really fast horse. David who owns race horses has told me before that I am too fat to be a jockey. I weigh 61 kilos and the average for a jockey is 51 kilos, so I need to lose 10 kilos before even considering doing competitive racing.

Esplendor

2005-09-06T19:20:00.000+04:00

About 10 years ago this horse, Esplendor, was at the top of it's race performance. It was 5 times national champion of Mauritius and it still maintains a smooth trot and gallop.

From the top

2005-09-06T19:18:00.000+04:00

These horses are very tall like all race horses. People had to use the steps in the back of the picture to get on them. Also the smell of horses was lovely! It reminded me of when I used to do horse riding as a kid.

Fellow Riders

2005-09-06T19:17:00.000+04:00

None of the people who rode that day had ever been on a horse before, so they had someone walking the horse by their side the whole ride. Very boring! Poor people, they didn't even get a chance to try the horse on their own.

Horse Riding

2005-09-06T19:15:00.000+04:00

Since this past Monday was labor day in America, I got the day off here in Mauritius. I used the free time to go horse riding in a ranch near my house. The national sport of Mauritius is horse racing and this is one of the places where they train horses for their races. The recreational ones like the one I rode used to be race horses in the past, so they are really fine animals.

Hippocampo

2005-09-06T19:12:00.000+04:00

When I took this picture I only saw the one seahorse in the middle. After I went back home and was reviewing the pictures, I realized there was a second one in the top left corner. Very very interesting creature.

Aquarium

2005-09-06T19:11:00.000+04:00

They have a couple of rare fishes I hadn't seen ever before, but the tanks are really very poorly kept. This one here was perhaps the only one with no algae on the glass. In the others the water was murky and you couldn't see clearly inside the water.

Flying Waterfall

2005-09-06T19:08:00.000+04:00

If you look closely, you will see that the last waterfall at the bottom doesn't really reach the lake below it. The water flies.

Tamarind Canyon

2005-09-06T19:05:00.000+04:00

Tamarind Canyon view. The river with its many waterfalls continues all the way down to the ocean.

After the Jump

2005-09-06T19:02:00.000+04:00

Swimming with shoes and a wetsuit full of cold water is tough. In fact I think it was the most tiring part of the whole thing; even harder than rappelling or hiking.

Jump

2005-09-06T19:01:00.000+04:00

I did this one twice in fact; It was about 8 meters high from the rock to the lake. The first time it was a little scary but then after you tell yourself that it is only water you are hitting it's not that bad.

End of Rappel

2005-09-06T18:58:00.000+04:00

Very beautiful scene really. Rocks, lake, waterfall, rope, trees and rappeler.

Krish

2005-09-06T18:56:00.000+04:00

This was our main guide, he was the first to install ropes and the last to go down. In this picture you can get a perspective of how far down the little lake is after the waterfall.

Canyon View

2005-09-06T18:54:00.000+04:00

The canyon is called Tamarind Falls canyon, the river is called Tamarind Falls river and the waterfalls are called Tamarind Falls. No French name this time.

Interesting View

2005-09-06T18:52:00.000+04:00

The two Austrians were trying to get a picture of the bottom of the waterfall from the edge on top. You can see in the back how the river continues down the canyon.

45 Meters Down

2005-09-06T18:51:00.000+04:00

Waterfall

2005-09-06T18:48:00.000+04:00

This was one of our guides setting up the ropes for our rappel down the 45 meter waterfall. There wasn't a lot of water flowing down the river, but they say that in summer time that water level rises considerably and the rappel is much harder as well as more fun.

The Team

2005-09-06T18:46:00.000+04:00

There is Amelia there left and the other two were Austrian.

Vertical World

2005-09-06T18:44:00.000+04:00

On Sunday morning Amelia and I went to Tamarind Falls in the south west part of the island to do canyoneering. Basically you walk down a river and rappel down it's waterfalls for half a day. The weather was excellent although the wetsuit felt a little cold in the morning. There are more pictures that I took with a waterproof camera and as soon as those are developed I will publish them.

Complete Rainbow

2005-08-29T16:51:00.000+04:00

We actually drove beneath this one. Let's hope it brings good luck!

Double Rainbow

2005-08-29T16:50:00.001+04:00

I finally got a picture of a double rainbow. There are so many rainbows here that perhaps I will be able to see a triple rainbow some day.

Tiger

2005-08-29T16:50:00.000+04:00

One of only 3 tigers in the whole country. The 3 of them live at Casela Bird Park.

Albino Kangaroo

2005-08-29T16:49:00.000+04:00

Another Close Up

2005-08-29T16:48:00.000+04:00

It's amazing how animals get so used to human presence. This ostrich was trying to make a meal out of my camera.

Pheasant

2005-08-29T16:47:00.001+04:00

Casela is another zoo in Mauritius; a bird park to be precise. They have all sorts of birds, and I managed to take a close up picture of this Pheasant without it running away. The green hue you see in the middle of the picture was one of the many little cage bars.

Baie du Cap

2005-08-29T16:47:00.000+04:00

This is yet another huge rock extending into the water. All huge rocks seem to be in the south of the island!

Gris Gris

2005-08-29T16:46:00.001+04:00

Again, this was the third time I went there, but the first time in daylight. It is only a couple hundred metres away from the crying rock and it's a public beach. You can actually go down to those rocks; that's were the two men where swimming at.

Swim Harder!

2005-08-29T16:46:00.000+04:00

These two guys were trying very hard to swim back to beach against the current, but at times it seemed as though they were never going to make it. The ocean is very strong in the south coast of Mauritius.

From a Distance

2005-08-29T16:45:00.000+04:00

That rock extending into the water is the crying rock, where I took the previous pictures.
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More Crying Rock

2005-08-29T16:44:00.000+04:00