Bienvenue a Mauritius!

*Guest post from Will*

Woke up and had what would become my standard breakfast every day I was on the island: beans on toast or hashbrowns with pickles and local hot sauce, couple pieces of cheese, local pineapple and rambutan with yogurt, and black tea flavored with local vanilla. After, I met Vinah, the proprietor of a local business that, as part of its operations, exports locally harvested pongamia. Vinah has been operating her plant and seed export business for several decades, has a son approximately my age getting ready to go off to college, and is remarkable in that she initiated and obtained a divorce from her husband, which is notable in Mauritius as the country is socially conservative. Vinah and I had previously arranged to connect, and she graciously spent the rest of the day driving me around the south and east portions of the island, showing me the location of many, many thousands of pongamia trees, including trees that were growing less than a foot from the oceans edge along the shoreline.

My standard yet delectable breakfast every day of my stay. There are hasbrowns under the beans, and the green sauce alongside was made from seriously spicy local peppers

My badass rental car

This is what Hawaiian countryside looked like 50 years ago, naught but cane and verdant mountains

Again, Hawaii in a bygone era

Most of the trees in this picture are pongamia; a colloquial name for pongamia in mandarin is "semi-mangrove"

We don't have monkeys in our Hawaiian pongamia orchards

Pongamia can grow on the shoreline, with roots in seawater; genuinely impressive

Not too shabby of a spot for lunch 

Just in case someone tries to interrupt your meal

History!

Robust beach crab poulation (each hole in the sand houses a crab)

Tamil-style Hindu temple

Mauritian Mosque

On the left: sugar cane; on the right: pongamia windbreak

Royal Cuban Palms 

Living the good life, for a tortoise

Maybe their slogan is meant to attract more riders