Mauritius | Port Louis
My day in Mauritius was probably one of the happiest days of my life.
I know that up to this point, I've been extremely blessed. I don't deserve most of the things I own or most of the experiences I've had, and to be quite honest with you, this was something I had been thinking about a lot prior to my departure for Semester at Sea. I know it may not seem like it most of the time, but I am extremely thankful for the life that I live and the things that have been provided to me at my fingertips. I expressed this to my friends over winter break of junior year not only because I was nervous about spending a semester on the sea, but because I truly felt guilty and unworthy of the experiences I knew I was about to have. With that in mind, I want to stop and take a moment to thank you readers, my dad, mom, older sister Yvette, and younger sister Kadi, for everything that each and every one of you have done for me to make me the person I am today. Without everyone, I would not be who I am, I would not have the courage to fight for what I want, and I would not be experiencing the things I am experiencing now.
Mauritius, though I only spent about a total of 12 hours on the ground there, was absolutely amazing. My friends Julia, Sara, Chris, and Diego spent the day with me. We got off the ship and took an hour bus ride to a small beach filled with a ton of boats. There were about 60 of us in the larger total group, and we split up into small groups to board little speedboats. I was adamant about sitting at the front, and luckily I was able to! We went plowing through the waves, were blasting music, and just taking in the salt and sand. I can't describe to you how I felt on that boat besides saying that I just felt free — like the world was mine and nothing could stop me from having a good time. The water was so crystal clear blue...and such a beautiful hue of blue. My jaw literally dropped into smile as we were sailing (and we were going so fast that spit was literally flying out of my mouth from my breathing), and I couldn't help but feel warmth in my heart as I looked around my boat and saw the same smiles on my friends faces.
Snorkeling in the beautiful blue water
We were under the impression that we were going to be taking buses from location to location all day, but we ended up taking these speed boats everywhere! We sailed to a waterfall, to two different tiny islands (and by tiny, I mean TINY), and were able to snorkel in two different spots. We then stopped at another part of the island to have lunch before sailing back to our drop-off spot where our driver did some donuts in the middle of the ocean. Don't worry, it was safe.
It was such a simple day, but it was something I really needed.
Oh! Before I forget, something our ship set up for us on the way to Mauritius was Neptune day, or in other words, the day we crossed the equator! It's tradition that when you cross the equator, you participate in a ceremony where you become a "shellback". The ship crew woke us up at 6:00 am by banging on our doors and running down the halls with pots and pans. The entire shipboard community then went up to the top pool deck where we were all in bathing suits, got slime poured on us, and then jumped into the pool to rinse off. After getting out of the pool we all kissed fish and were covered in fish guts. Then a bunch of people shaved their heads! A lot of boys did it…and a lot of girls too! We were done with the ceremony by 9:00 am and the rest of the day was a "study day", so we didn't have to go to class. It was super fun.
Celebrating Neptune day on the top deck
