Mauritius / Thu Feb 28

Mauritius is an island in the western Indian Ocean heavily influenced by Asian customs. We're docked in Port Louis which is the capital city.

We went on a full day private tour with Karin and Joe - a couple we met on the ship. Our first stop was to a place that had a good view of the city and some of the beautiful landscapes.

From here we went to see the Hindu temple in Grand Bassin. The island is 52% Hindu and today was the start of Maha Shivaratri - a major Hindu festival. It's the largest Hindu pilgrimage outside of India. Over 250,000 devotees make the journey to the temple Ganga Talao. Some walk for 3 to 4 days to get there often pushing or carrying kanwars or chariots. Tents that provide shelter are set up along the way.

Then we arrived in the temple area. People were making offerings and there was lots of burning incense.

Next stop was to Black River Gorges National Park to see the Chamarel waterfall. 

During the road trip we spotted a family of monkeys gathering food by the side of the road.

We then went to another area of the park for more views of the beautiful landscape. There were monkeys there and it was fun to watch them play and eat. 

Next stop was to see the Seven Color Earths. It's a small area of sand dunes made up of seven colors - red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow. It's a unique volcanic geological phenomenon in which the colors evolved through conversion of basaltic lava to clay minerals. 

Next to the 7 color earths there are 6 tortoises. The original settlers of the island over consumed the native tortoises so some were brought in from the Seychelles. They can live to be over 150 years old. 

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant.

Then one more stop to view the scenery before we ended our day.