Wheels on the Bus....Mauritius

7 hours off the boat in Mauritius. One hour bus ride to a boat then 15 minutes to an island. Isle Aux Cerfs, a gorgeous island all taken up by a resort type facility. Clean sandy beaches, parasailing, scenic boat rides, scuba diving and snorkeling, with beach boys getting us fries and cokes….or chilled wine buckets, if we wished. Of course it was wonderful. Sybaritic! But it was the 1 hour bus ride that was the most interesting. It was a bus ride in which we looked at other buses. Sugar cane....and buses.
I figure you work in the sugar cane industry or you wait at a bus stop for the bus, are either behind a bus,waiting for a bus, passing a bus, in a bus, or getting off a bus. This is Mauritius. Everyone waves to you if you are in a bus. I loved this island. It feels clean, is green, is volcanic, and smells like the ocean. 50% of the people who live here are Hindu. Blue jeans and sarongs. 80% of the sugar cane is cut by hand and there are 15 varieties of sugar grown here. Sugar cane, vanilla and tea are the main exports here. We loved our time on the island. The beach didn't have my kind of warm water but it was refreshing once you got in. When we got back from the tour, a rainbow greeted me as I got back on the shiip. The battery in my camera was dead . Heading back to my cabin seemed forever-- 4 1/2 then 5, 8 3/4....9 until the elevator reached my floor on 10 so I could get a new battery and take a picture of the rainbow. After my shower, another rainbow appeared over Port Louis...must be a sign...come back...
Lush- green- volcanic peaks and lava flows through the cane fields. What a beautiful sight! We could not see it all....only a piece of it. What I saw, I loved, and maybe it was because someone I love spent some time here. To me it felt like coming home. A 50's era city, laid back and lazy, opened to 1 block towns in between sugar cane plantations. Roads were zig zag and no road was straight. Speed was regulated by speed bumbs……on main highways, no less. Two lane highways where if a car parked on the street, everyone was stuck behind it waiting for oncoming traffic to pass so we could pull into the wrong lane to pass. Buses loaded with people were the main mode of transportation. We were always behind a bus, waiting for a bus or passing a bus. People were waiting for a bus, on a bus, getting off a bus or walking along the side of a road hoping not to get hit by a bus. Tropical, lush, green and sugar cane....and buses. That’s the Mauritius that we saw.