Mauritius

We're currently in the midst of a three night stay on the island of Mauritius which is about as in the middle of nowhere as it gets. Mauritius is located to the east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and roughly the furthest inhabited geographic extreme relative to our home in the US. The island's claim to fame is that it is the only place that the extinct dodo bird lived before it was killed off within 30 years of human settlement. The dodo is interesting in terms of evolution because it had no natural predators before the humans, dogs, etc.... and evolved with no fear of the new visitors or defense mechanisms.

Mauritius was settled early by the Dutch, colonized largely by the French and then ruled until Independence in the 1960's by the British. French and English are spoken widely and the inhabitants generally descended from the slaves, Indian workers and some Chinese. Food is mostly Indian influenced with curry and chutneys but nothing too different than we've seen elsewhere.

The airport is at the exact opposite end from where we're staying so it was a nice hour drive across the island. 90% of the country is planted with sugar cane and the remaining land consists of beautiful green mountains or fabulous beaches. It's nice but after seeing Hawaii, it again is nothing special. In order to diversify from the sugar and tourism industry, the government is providing many incentives for offshore businesses and South Africans in particular are drawn for the business opportunities and low crime rate.

We're staying at a large resort and happy to have gotten a midrange package for under $300/night including breakfast. It's amazing how many resorts around the island go for $500, $1000, and far beyond per night. Europeans are the majority of tourists so it's no wonder that it's European prices. Ryan continues to be amazed by the resort business model which involves captive customers, extreme price gouging at every level and uneconomic transport options. The taxis quoted us $50 USD for a round trip to the nearest cluster of bland bars and restaurants and Ryan computed the optimal break even cost at seven drinks for it to be worthwhile economically.

Enough about that, today rather than exercise in the gym we went jogging and walking to the largest nearby town. It took four hours one way but was worth not paying the taxis $50. After a quick lunch in the boring tourist area, we took a bus back for under $1 each. It was a good experience to give Shauna a taste of what it's like to travel as a backpacker like Ryan used to and occasionally does.

Back at the resort, we enjoyed drinks that we brought along from duty free and also received as a gift from Shauna's friends in South Africa.

We wanted to take a bunch of photos but didn't get the chance since we spent most of the day jogging/walking and didn't bring the camera along.