Mauritius

So, today I found heaven. Although an extremely small island, Ile de deux Cocos (The Island of Two Coconuts) is the most pristine island I have ever seen. This island is only about a half mile off the coast of Mauritius, which itself is an amazingly gorgeous island. We docked on Mauritius at about 8am, and after diplomatic briefing my trip left. My whole group of friends signed up for the same trip, so it was nice to spend a relaxing day with all of them. We drove an hour to the opposite side of the island, which is only about 60km long and 40km wide. The drive was beautiful. Mauritius is a volcanic island, so the mountains are tall, steep, and jagged. The fertile valleys are lined with sugar cane, and the color green that blanketed the island was stunning. I don’t think that I have ever seen such a vivid, clear green in my life. After an hour we reached the shore, where we took glass bottom boats to the Ile de deux Cocos, which was as I said a half mile away. The boat was so close to the coral reef below, probably only about 2 feet above. We saw fish, but nothing big. When we got to the island we were greeted with a cooled towel which smelled so good. We really got the star treatment. There were huge cabanas which we set our stuff under, and then we went into the beautiful, warm water. The water was perfectly crystal clear. It looked like someone dropped a few drops of blue and a few drops of green food coloring in the water, but not too much. The water was very lightly colored, it was just perfect. After enjoying some pineapple juice a few of us walked to opposite side of the island where we found lots of black rocks, jetting out into the water. After gazing in amazement of the beauty around us we headed back to the main area to eat lunch. This was the best meal that I have had so far on this trip. There were salads of every kind, chicken, shrimp, tuna, grouper, ribs, lobster. The seafood was delicious, and so fresh that it didn’t even taste like fish! The salads were equally as good, even though I have no clue what they actually were. We also got two complimentarily alcoholic beverages, which was plenty with the heat of the sun. After lunch we went right back into the water where we spent the rest of the day just floating there. We headed back to the ship around 4. Tonight we are going to have the opening ceremonies for our Sea Olympics, which are tomorrow. That means no class! Can’t wait. Today was such a relaxing day. Who ever thought that I’d go to Mauritius?!?!