Mauritius – An island in the sun

This small island in the Indian Ocean is most often associated with its paradise beaches and luxury resorts. Truely a tropical paradise, but it also offers great hiking possibilities, places of historical interest and beautiful landscape. On March 25 my plan was to go on a six week vacation to Mauritius. I am still in Norway, because of closed borders. It is sad not to be able to visit my family who lives on the island. Hopefully it will be possible soon.

Mauritius has had a turbulent past. The island was a Dutch colony in the 17th century. Then French and English until independence in 1968. The development of Mauritius as a colony was for a long time built on slavery. With the abolition of slavery in 1835 indentured labourers came to work on the sugar plantations. In the capital Port Louis, the Apravasi Ghat has historical significanse as an immigrant depot for indentured labourers. Between 1830 – 1910 more than 462.000 people arrived Mauritius. The majority came from India, but also from East-Africa, Madagascar and Asia. The succes led to a worldwide migration of more than 2 million labourers, of which Mauritius received almost half a million. This has resulted in a mixture of different cultures that together have contributed to the melting pot of modern Mauritius. I had really looking forward to show off the island to my sister.

During Easter vacation my sister who lives in Denmark was supposed to visit me in Mauritius. We had made plans for places to visit. She had a desire to see street art in Port Louis. Drive around the island to secluded beaches and the beauty of the landscape. This is some of the places we were planning to visit, accompanied by old photos.

Chinatown

One of my favourite places in Port Louis is the historic Chinatown and a «must see» for my sister. It covers only a few blocks, but became the center of commerce for the Chinese immigrants who came to Mauritius during the 1940s when the island was under British rule. It became the heart of the Chinese community, giving the Chinese an important position in Port Louis. Over the years this changed because of neglect.

Last time I saw a lot more street art, renovated houses and cleaner streets. I learned that a group of young people have formed The New Chinatown Foundation in order to preserve their heritage. They took the intiative to invite street artists and organized maintenence of neglected buildings and volunteers to patrol the streets at night to keep people safe.

Grand Baie

Cap Malheureux

Ile aux Cerfs

Souillac

Le Morne

Flic en Flac

From coast to coast

A drive around the island would give me an opportunity to show off the diversity of the landscape and the coasts. The coast on the east has beautiful white, sandy beaches. The south coast consists of black lava rocks.

We had planned a short drive inland to a landscape named Seven Colored Earths. This landscape is a natural phenomenon and one of the top tourist attractions since the 1960s. It's a small area of comprised sand dunes with seven distinct colors – red, brown, violet, green, blue, purple and yellow. The main feature of the place is this striped coloring in beautiful patterns. The sand is formed from the decomposition of volcanic rock which is belived to have been cooling down at different temperatures.

The area is surrounded by a wooden fence. Visitors are not allowed to walk on the dunes. It's only allowed to walk along the fence or look at the area from an observation deck. I remember the first time I was here (1982) it was allowed to walk on the dunes. Next time I came it was prohibited.

Pamplemousses Bontanical Garden

This botanical garden is undoubtedly one of the most visited attractions, located only a short drive from the capital and the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere. It was created more than 300 years ago by the famous French botanist, Pierre Poivre.

The garden is quite big. You will need plenty of time if you want to see all of it. There are more than 650 varieties of plants, including a large amount of medical plants and spice garden. The pond with the giant water lilies and the pond with the lotus flowers are particular impressive.