Done with Mauritius, headed to Reunion

We took the bus into the largest town on the island, Port Louis, for a bit of relief from the beach crowd. With the exception of a new waterfront development where we ate lunch, the rest of the town and island is dumpy. A Chinatown does exist from the Chinese laborers that settled here long ago but there wasn't much to it.

Mauritius has an interesting duty free scheme which Ryan took full advantage of. In the touristy areas are duty free shops which one can buy from at duty free prices but it requires the tourist to pick up at the airport a minimum of three days later as they depart. Otherwise, duty can be paid immediately and the items can be taken out of the shop then and there. Ryan found a couple bottles of very, very good premium Scotch for less than a third of what they'd cost in the US so he thinks it's worth hauling them around three continents for another month at that price.

Because of the abundance of sugar cane, the local spirit is rum but it's nothing all that special.


We're just waiting for a 45 minute afternoon flight to Reunion Island which is officially part of France. They use the euro as currency and speak entirely in French so it'll be seen if Ryan can communicate ten percent as good as Shauna could with Mandarin in China. Reunion doesn't have many beaches to speak of but there are three volcanoes that fill the interior so it'll be a different type of landscape as well.