Mauritius is a fantastic island, with a colourful history. It was first settled by the Dutch, then the French, then the English. In 1968, Mauritius became an independent nation. It's a peaceful nation with people from many different religions and backgrounds; all working together, celebrating the everyday and enjoying their beautiful country. The ethnic majority on the island is Indian and most of the others are from Chinese, European and African heritage. There is no official language but the majority of Mauritians speak 3 languages; French, English and Mauritian Creole. Today, the 2 major industries are sugar production and tourism. The island is covered in sugar cane, which I particularly loved to see since I grew up in Louisiana and sugar cane was growing down the street from my cousins house. The Mauritians we encountered were proud of the job they were doing and they were extremely warm and helpful.
We stayed in a fantastic resort on the NE side of the island where the beaches and water could not have been more beautiful. Each day was spent exploring the beach, the pool and all of the water sports on offer. We only left the hotel once; to explore the Adventure de Sucre, the sugar museum.
It was a fantastic holiday and such a blessing during this busy season in our lives.
This is what we found in the boys' room upon arrival: sand toys, water wings, children's slippers and their own shampoo and bubble bath.
This is the view from the small rock formation jutting into the sea from our beach and then from our chairs looking into the sea. The Water Sports Cabana is on the left and we spent tons of time there. The boys also loved this rock formation because when the tide was in, they had many shallow tide pools to play in. In the pictures below, they are fishing the tide pools with one of the resort staff members.
The water sports were included in the price of our stay and we took full advantage. We sailed, skied, wake-boarded, tubed, and used the paddle boats and sea kayaks. We also enjoyed a snorkling trip and a glass bottom boat ride.
Much of our time in the sand was spent flying our new Power Kites, playing volleyball, football, and building sand castles. There were tons of other families and plenty of pals to play with.
Charlie wanted to build 100 sand castles so he enlisted a crew and they built them up and stomped them down. That's Charlie in the last photo break dancing them away!
And last but not least, Ethan learned to scuba dive. He LOVED it!
If you made it this far, thank you for reading my very long post as I continue to diary our adventure!
