Mauritius and Sea Olympics

Location Update as of noon local time (10 hours ahead of EST) March 5, 2006:
Latitude: 04 degrees 2.6 minutes S
Longitude: 071 degrees 50.6 minutes E
Avg. Speed: 10.75 Knots
Distance to India: 1307 NM
Sea Depth: 3365 m, 11307 ft
Sea Temp: 29 C, 84.2 F
Air Temp: Same
Winds coming from the NNE at 6 knots. Calm, flat seas with great visibility.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Mauritius. First let me once again apoligize for the amount of time it took for me to post after port. The day after is always exausting and I get absolutely nothing accomplished. This time around, it was like that for two days after port and the third (yesterday) was the Sea Olympics which we will get to…don’t you worry.

For a short three-day stay, there was LOTS that happened. Most of which cannot be published on this blog for so many reasons. But regardless. The first day we were planning on hunting down a place to scuba dive, which even in Mauritius is possible without a license, however, we found out that you need to book the day before because it is an all day affair…we were bummed, but we moved on. We docked in the capital city of Mauritius in Port Louis. It is on the northwestern side of the island and is a bustling metropolis with a touristy waterfront with quite the drastic change a few blocks into the city. It is a city where old crumbling architecture is not covered up by the overwhelming new buildings which leaves the old colonial feel that created it. What made the stay more exciting was that our ship was either a 35 minute walk into the main city, or you could take the five minute, $1USD water taxi ride into town, which is what I did ever time. You could also take a cab, but that is so damn typical and boring, why do it?

Once over and onto the main part of the city, there is the waterfront side that is separated by a 6-lane road that is always lively with traffic. You’ll be surprised to learn that there are subways in Mauritius. Not the typical subway you would think of in a metropolis, it wasn’t even a train. It was a simple underground passage that took you from the waterfront side across and under the street to the rest of the crowded city. There were banks and post offices, shops and boutiques, food stores (selling things you would not expect to see at a food market) restaurants, street vendors and two huge amazing markets. All around the markets were other vendors, selling everything from batteries to freshly caught fish (though I still do not think you’d want to eat them). As for the markets, wow. There are two of them, on one side of the street is the market with all the sort of touristy goods: t-shirts, bags, tapestries, fabrics, spices (!), dried fish and octopus, handicrafts, etc.; the products were great and the bargaining was of course the best part about it. As for the other side of the street, it was the produce market: no meats - thankfully, it was all of Mauritius’s freshest fruits and vegetables. Some of which I’d never seen before, but all in all it was quite the experience. I bought 10 bananas for 10MUR (rupees), that’s like 33 cents. And let me just say, they are the best damn bananas I’ve ever had…ever. Also at the end of the market was this little sort of stand with a hallway deal behind it. There was a sign on it that said, “INDIAN FOOD: VEGETERIAN.” Well, I was thrilled. I went up to the counter, not caring that I would probably have the worst case of TD (traveler’s diarrhea) ever, and asked the gentleman to surprise me. He pulled me behind the counter with all of my bags and goodies from the market and insisted that I sit down. Now, I was sitting at a table that was about twelve inches wide with a chair that was about a quarter of the size of my ass. He slapped down this amazing bit of food in front of me, and I devoured it in 1.2 seconds. I raised my hand and said, “Something else please!!!” He brought over something different, just as good, just as delicious, I decided I better not push it just incase I got the TD before I got back to the ship. I asked how much and he said “Twelve Rupees please.” I was ecstatic; I don’t know of anywhere you can get an amazing bit to fill up on for a little over 33 cents!!!

Anyway, that all happened on the third day which I spend all by myself roaming Port Louis; it was the best thing I could of done. As for the first day, our scuba expedition failed, so we decided to head north to a place called Grand Baie (Bay). It is a beautiful little beach town on a stunning harbor with waters as greenish-blue, crystal clear as they come. It was still before noon and we decided to grab a bite and perhaps a cocktail or a few. We had the most amazing Pina Colodas of our lives. In Mauritius, they are big rum drinkers, and what they do is take the local rum and marinate it for a minimum of six months with everything from chopped up ginger and pineapple, to the hottest of hot peppers (they call the pepper rum ‘fire water’) and bananas and everything else you can imagine. They had about 25 different marinated varieties. My crazy friend Margaux who loves hot stuff was bold enough to try the “Fire Water,” she asked our server if it was hotter than Tabasco and his answer was, “Tabasco times 10, times 100.” She took it like a champ and loved it. But it was the hottest thing she had ever tasted. I stuck with ginger and coconut. After our stop there we headed to a local store for some goods and snorkeling gear. From there we went down to the beach where we began to roam in search of a spot to sink our eyes below the surface of the glowing sea. In the process, a lovely woman comes up to us and asks if we want to go snorkeling…we were speechless. It was like she read our minds. It was just three of us, crazy Margaux, Frank, and myself. We asked how long and she said it could be one or two hours. We decided to go with the two-hour deal because in that they would take up to two different spots. The price difference was minimal, and the two-hour trip, which ended up turning into three hours, cost all of $12USD per person. It was a nice little glass bottom boat, about 20 feet perhaps. It was just the three of us and our captain - who probably thought we were crazy because we were just so excited about snorkeling. We got out to a spot and off we jumped. The water was about 84 degrees and beautiful! There were fish all around us because the captain threw some bread in the water so there were zebra fish everywhere.

We stayed there for about an hour or a little more and then moved on to spot number two which was much better than the first. We did see a few clown fish, though they were too quick to catch on my underwater camera. At the very end we spotted a parrot fish, which was just beautiful. There were sea urchins galore and you h ad to be careful when you stood up somewhere and make sure you weren’t going to step down onto one. As it was, three kids from SAS went to the hospital for stepping on an urchin. Needless to say, it was a stunning adventure that was well worth the twelve dollars. As it was we ended up being out there for a little over three hours total.

Day two was spent on a SAS trip called Volcanic Island in which we toured almost all of the southern half of the island. We made about 7 stops at natural wonders and religious monuments. One of the stops was at the holy lake, where about 100 years ago a Hindu priest dreamt of this place and brought with him from India water from the Ganges River (the most sacred of waters in the Hindu faith) and poured the water into the Lake. Since then, a temple has been constructed right on the shore and a towering statue of Lord Shiva was also more recently built. Every year, in fact it was the day before we came to Mauritius, about anywhere from 500,000-800,000 Hindu’s from Mauritius migrate to this lake to leave offerings for the gods and take part in traditional acts in and around the lake. There were still remnants of gifts left by worshipers we were able to see; incense burning out of bananas, smashed coconuts (purposely broken to make it easier for the gods to enjoy), and even material items such as cups and plates. We were able to go into the temple and receive our third eye; a red ink mark between the two eyes with a dot and a teardrop like shape coming down from the top of the forehead. This third eye is an enlightenment offering; it is meant to bring peace, prosperity and health to the receiver.

We also stopped at one of the old volcano craters, the Black River Gorge. There is a stunning waterfall that pours about 300 feet down into the river. There were a few monkeys roaming around where we were, so it just added to the fun. It was unfortunate that the day was overcast and misty, however, pictures were still nice and the experience was all the same. We also saw two other waterfalls in a different region and a place called, “Colored Earth.” It is here that soils from volcanic eruption have been colored shades of red, blue, orange, brown, and black, with varying shades from color to color. It was a series of roaming hills that unfortunately, because of our wet weather, were not as vibrant as they are on a hot dry day. However, the effect was still there and it was striking.

Well, we boarded the ship on March 1st and are back at sea now. For a few days the seas were quite rough because there was a storm to our north. However, once that passes, it is like we are traversing an endless lake. The water is like glass; I say this with every intention of giving you the image of glass. Motionless - nothing but the reflection of the sun, the wake of the boat, and the occasional breeze breaking the whitecap-less water. Every now and then a school of flying fish break the water and give a show. There were even two pods of dolphins yesterday. Yesterday there was almost an eerie look to the sea; because of its lack of movement it gave the implication that there the lockness monster was going to come charging up out of the sea and engulf our ship in one gulp. Or perhaps a storm was going to erupt out of nowhere and toss us about like pollen in spring breeze. Needless to say, it didn’t. But the sunset, my oh my, the sunset was just stunning. I also learned that as we get closer and closer to India where there is a HUGE pollution problem the sunset with get more and more beautiful because the thick air will pick up more and more color from the relaxing sun. Yesterday was also one of the top five days of my life: the Sea Olympics.

What a day. Thankfully this blog is typed by hand and there is no need for speaking because my voice is that of a squeaky, pre-pubescent boy where only ever other word is barely understood. I mentioned in the past that I was apart of the Sea Olympics Committee, well this was what it was all about. The Caribbean Sea (in which I reside) was in charge of Events Planning and Rule Making. Little did we know this would require the most work of them all. IT didn’t matter, we got it done and people loved what we came up with. Our sea color was Orange and we had a kick ass team. Opening ceremonies began at 9am with a torch run through the halls of the ship and followed by a spirit competition where the seas showed off their banners and chants. The name of our team, that’s right you guessed it, the Pirates of the Caribbean… typical – yes, but we made it our own and we ruled. I was voted in as team Captain and we ended up having a meeting just two days before the Olympics to determine who would participate in what. I signed up for Twister and Synchronized Swimming. Three others joined in one the swim team and we had quite the quad.

We began our rehearsals the day before the Olympics, but the first time we met we did so for five hours and choreographed our entire event. Now, we weren’t able to use the pool because the seas were too rough so it all had to be done on land to start. Our music was fantastic, defiantly the best of all the other seas. I say that not just because it was my sea, but also because everyone told us that after and people were the most into our event. We started with the opening of Barbie Girl because it is Ken and Barbie having a conversation and Ken asks Barbie if she wants to go for a ride and he says, “Jump In!” I’m sure you can see where that took us…INTO THE WATER! From there we immediately broke into I’m A Believer (theme song from Shrek) and tore that up, it was then blended with Come Sail Away where people screamed as wee circled in the water as a pack of gathering Angels. Styx lead us right into Crocodile Rock (yeah, you knew I would get an Elton song in there if I had any say in the matter), we jammed out to that and the two ladies on our team got into the side pools and did a slammin’ rendition while myself and the other gent worked the water. Elton has a line in the song where he says, “and Susie wore her britches tight and…” that’s what lead us into “Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree…I traveled the world and the seven seas...” It was perfect, the crowd roared and we swam on. Sweet Dreams took us into nothing other than the classic Disney song “Under the Sea.” Our moves were fantastic and changed with each song. Other seas did medleys of music but didn’t really have a change in their routine as the songs changed. One team had been practicing for weeks and we destroyed them. However, the last sea to perform did a painful job doing the “Circle of Life” form the Lion King. Their routine was so basic and simple; most of the time all they did was spin in a circle. It was awful, the judges, however did not see it that way. That team got first and we came in second. Ever person from ever sea was so upset that we didn’t come in first. They all said that we won in their hearts and we were fantastic…it was hysterical. I have it all on video so you all just wait to see it. Twister was not as big of a sccess.

It was my friend Yu-Yu and I who were representing our sea. Stupid me knocked her over within the first few rounds of the game. However, the stayed in that game for quite some time and was put into positions I thought no one could get into. I had never met the girl who stayed in from the other team with me, but we got to know each other quite well quite quickly when her head ended up between my groin and was forced into the butt. The move that got me was a simple one, but it was the position I was in that screwed me. Regardless, it was a blast. Other events included the tug-o-war, a flip cup competition which almost gave me a coronary, chubby bunny, a big hair contest, and the ultimate of all events – a Karaoke/Lip Sync competition which ended the day.

You might be surprised to learn, that I was not planning on taking part in the Karaoke contest, however, that changed when I learned what the people were about to do. We have a lady on our floor with the most amazing voice in the world and she said she wanted to do “I Will Survive.” I was totally fine with that because I expected her to have some sort of routine to go with it…I found out 15 minutes before we were going on that she didn’t. The other part of our routine was with my good friend Marcus who was doing an hysterical impression of Dr. Evil singing “Just the Two of Us” to his beloved Mini-Me. Well, we told the girls to go on first because I had seen Marcus do his bit before and it was great. During the I Will Survive bit I decided to go all out; I went ahead and did the most outrageous, obscure, and boisterous interpretative dance I’d ever done in my life. Immediately following that I had to tie some sneakers to my knees so I could be Mini-Me. It worked out perfect. What scared us was that we were the first sea to go up. 8 performances later, the results were in. I was thrilled that I knew two of the judges, one of them happens to be the director of my show. Anyway, they started reading the winners off from last place to first. It was the most nerve-racking moment of my life. As the announcer worked from the bottom up, each time we’d all take another breathe because out team wasn’t called. We never expected to do that well because some of the routines were fantastic. But oh my, 5th placed was called and it wasn’t us, 4th, 3rd and then finally 2nd! We were absolutely ecstatic with second place. Never in a million years did we expect to do that well when other seas had been preparing their show for days and some weeks. I had no clue what the hell I was going to do the entire time I was on the stage. But what made ours so fantastic is that our performers actually sang and knew all of their words and we had a great, hysterical performance to go with it. Most of the seas put on a great performance, but there was no Singing or Lip Singing, which was the whole point of the contest. Now for the final results. We had been bouncing around from 4th to 2nd to 3rd to 1st and back to 2nd all day long, always keeping a close distance from the top. Well, needless to say, we came in second and we were absolutely elated.

Who knew that getting together two days before and totally winging most of the stuff we did could bring us to second place? It was defiantly your kickass enthusiasm, great chants and constant peer support that brought us to second place.

Well, I woke up this morning and forgot I wouldn’t have a voice and I went to speak and absolutely nothing came out. I started laughing and still nothing. My director was freaking out but I’ll be fine come March 23rd.

As for now, I’ve got rehearsal and such to do. Till next time mates - AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!