Mauritius

March 7th, 2012

After a long wait and a period of uncertainty, we were able to get off the ship in Mauritius!!! We were planned to get off the ship at 8:00am since we had to do face-to-face immigration. Everyone was so anxious to get off of the ship since we only would have four hours. We were waiting in line at the gangway at 7am ready to go since immigration went fast. Luckily we were able to get off early. 

We just wanted to go to a beach and relax since there was not much we could do in the short amount of time we were allowed. I do not remember the name of the beach we went to, but it was about 30 minutes from the ship. There was a Club Med resort down the beach from us. Along the beach, there was a lot of coral that was broken and brought to the shore most likely from the cyclone that had been close. 

Yesterday's quote in our dean's memo was:

"You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius." - Mark Twain

We got some alcohol to enjoy the short amount of time we had. The rum we had was made in Mauritius, and had the quote on it, so it was a perfect morning in Mauritius.

Getting back to the ship, there was a long long line to get back on since everyone was waiting until the last minute to leave. (If you are late anywhere from 1-15minutes, you get "dock time" for your next port. Every 15 minutes late is 2 hours that you have to wait on the ship before you can get off in the next port). There has been a tendency for people to get really drunk at this port in the past, and so they were really strict about alcohol. (This is the reason we are not allowed to spend the night in this port because people have started fires and ruined hotels). There were a lot of people who got "drunk tanked." This means that if you get chosen to take an alcohol test and blow over a certain limit, you will be put in a room until you are sober. The consequence for this is that you get 6 "points." The "point" system is something that SAS enforces to make sure everything goes smoothly in the voyage since in past years there has been a lot of trouble with alcohol and various other activities. If you get 10 points, you will be kicked off of the voyage. 

Anyways-- enough about the alcohol rules on the ship!! It was a great day at the beach. It was nice to put my feet in the sand since the next port that may be similar to this will be Hawaii!! Enjoy some pictures from today!