The island is most famous for an extinct bird: the dodo. Uninhabited until the 17th century, the island was ruled first by the Dutch and then the French after the Dutch had abandoned it. The British took control during the Napoleonic Wars and Mauritius became independent from the UK in 1968. Now the country is a very proud republic full of sugar cane and tea plantations with the symbol of the mythical bird everywhere you look. The people are kind and generous and look more Indian than African. Similarly the culture is closely pegged to the Indian markets and Hindu temples are everywhere.
Nowadays the island is also well know for the speed and ingenuity by which it has tapped into the world tourism market. It was for its proximity to South Africa and the lure of a relaxing week on the beach and in a nice hotel is what would we were looking for. It was what we got.
The Heritage Golf Spa is on the south side of the island and one of the new breed of hotels. They care for your total needs while there and at 300 euros a night is a little pricey but worth it all. Events like water skiing, kayaking, cloud surfing, archery, giant chess, bikes, hills walks, tennis, massage, aquarobic sessions, and much much more are often. For us we went for a treatment a day of massages and then we both took a water skiing lesson a day. The entire experience was completely relaxing and exactly what we wanted and needed after 4 weeks on the road and the especially in the knowledge that "back to work" was looming.
One of the best experiences we had was a stroke of luck. The day we were due to leave to go home ir flight got delayed. It was 8am when we were in the airport and we learned that we wouldn't be leaving until 8pm that night. Something that made our heads hang for 30 minutes as we were trying to learn about when and how they were going to get us home our heads dropped a little. They then said they'd be sending us to a nearby 5 star hotel, we could have free golf, as much free food as we wanted, free internet and go snorkeling if we wanted. Now that's what I call looking after your displaced customers. I got 18 holes in and Camila relaxed on the beach getting some sun rays. We then went on the most amazing hour of snorkeling I have ever been on. What was happening under the water blew us away. School of fish everywhere racing around the famous Azul Blu lagoon, with hundreds of them surrounding us with some cheeky ones even kissing us! There was animals under it that I never knew existed. Hand in hand we snorkeled together for 30 minutes in about 3 meters of water with about 15 other people in a huge lagoon and then we went exploring a bit. It was brilliant - I really really loved that snorkel - the very best I have ever done. The 12 hour flight home after that was a breeze.
