How much tourism can we cram into one day?

*Guest post by Will*

Another Mauritian morning, another island-infused British-style breakfast before connecting with Vinah. Today we toured the far northern reaches of the island, again inspecting and viewing many thousands of pongamia trees. The number of pongamia trees on this island is genuinely remarkable. As we did yesterday, we mixed in short stops at some notable local spots:

• ·      Extinct volcano caldera
• ·      Historical locations in small villages
• ·      The famous Notre Dame Auxiliatrice church on the north shore of the island
• ·      A Tamil Hindu temple complex where the resident holy man chanted a prayer specially designed to bring success to TerViva and me
• ·      The Bois Cheri tea plantation
• ·      Most notably: an exceptionally large Hindu religious complex, including a 108 foot tall statue of Shiva, fishing cats, itchy monkeys and snoozing pups

At the religious site there were many statues depicting Hindu deities, temples for prayer, and meditation areas (which were being utilized by devotees behind roped-off sections).

Pond has formed inside this caldera

Example of well-maintained colonial home

Well maintained missionary church

Not-so-well maintained colonial home

The mountain in the distance on the left is UNESCO site. Slaves fled colonial missionaries, and took shelter there. When police came to announce slavery was abolished, slaves thought they were being apprehended, and threw themselves off the mountain to commit suicide. Like all human history, Mauritius has darkness in its past

Carnegie library?!

Another pongamia tree along the shoreline

How about the color of that water?

Notre Dame Auxiliatrice church

Inside the church

The perspective of this picture does not make it obvious that the statue behind me is 108' tall

Bite size model of the next 108' tall statue they're building on the temple grounds

Under construction

"Sure I can leave my beer, but my beef jerky?!?! That's un-American! Oh, wait..."

Temple guards were a little distracted

Local legend: a cup of water was brought from the Ganges in India, which grew to fill this lake and make it sacred

Local pilgrims would toss food into "the Ganges", which would draw the tilapia. Local feral cats quickly caught on, and became quite plump

Guard wandered away from his post; got itchy after he sat down on a new post

Taking a pause for introspection

This cat was very happy, walking slowly due to belly full of tilapia

Not the best guard dogs, but...

Origin of Mauritian tea

The pathways carved here are for workers to walk the entire plantation; the snip new growth with scissors and put tea leaves in basket that hangs on their side or back

Visit to a Tamil-style Hindu Temple

These titanic doors were carved out of single slabs of tropical wood

The temple complex was supposed to be closed but my local guide asked for us to have brief tour of the grounds. They allowed us inside the gate onto the grounds, and also inside the primary temple, even though I was/am not Hindu. The resident Holy Man even chanted a prayer for Will, and TerViva, an experience not afforded to any other tourist passing through, even if they were to find this complex that is more than 5 miles off any given main road