It’s been such a long time… Well, I just realised that when I looked at my last post because in my mind is still “It was such a fun time…”.
To make a short recap: I’ve been in 2 vacations, 2 weeks in Mauritius and 13 days in Palolem, Goa.
In Mauritius I’ve been with my husband for a romantic vacation. It’s a very beautiful place with white sand beaches and clear water, mountains, amazing clouds, nice people, good food and I could go on and on about it… I even had the occasion to meet the most scary spider by the size of my palm, black in colour and mostly very ugly. This spider thought that our room is very comfortable and didn’t want to let go easily. We tried everything: perfume, acetone, mosquito spray etc. It seemed full of energy even when my husband lost his patience and start beating it in the head with the broom. We didn’t manage to kill it even so, we just managed to chase it away. Well, when I say “we”, it’s more about my husband because all I did was to hold my head and curse while jumping around in the room. But I was strong enough to watch the whole thing going on :)) .
The plan was to rent a cheap room and for the rest of the budget to rent a car so we could have freedom to move around. It’s not a huge island, but you need good transportation to reach from one end to the other. So, having all these done, we decided to take a map and divide it into the most convenient way that could cover everything. We didn’t know to much about the place and we wanted to see all. The first 5 days we spent on the beach. We just got into the car and we stopped everywhere the map was showing a beach. It was a little hard to get used with the car at the beginning because they drive on the right hand. I don’t drive, but I could see that my husband was pretty shy when he put his foot in that car first – they also have very narrow streets. After checking around and taking a deep into the sea on every beach, we start to focus on the inner side of the island, the mountains. They have a beautiful landscape and you can have pretty much every activity you’re looking for: hiking, rafting, hunting, cycling, tours to the death volcanoes, geyser etc. I was very impressed to see how hard they’re trying to preserve the nature. It’s not a reach country, but the people are working very hard to keep it at high standards. They get most of their money from tourism and sugar-cane industry, plus other secondary things they do to keep life going on.
Coming down to the seaside again we did activities like undersea walk (very nice to feed the fishes), catamaran trips to the islands in the vicinity. The catamaran trip is a full day activity with barbecue, snorkeling, lots of beers…. they offer everything you need and it’s at the price of a lunch only. You have the occasion to see lots of things like flying fishes, dolphins, even whales if you’re lucky enough. Whales come there most of the time for the cold season, but occasionally they can be seen for the high season too (it’s a very emotional moment).
I don’t know if you realised that our vacation is almost finished, only few days left. Hard to see that your days of relaxation are flying away like that. So, we just focused on our favourite places (most of them on different beaches) and we just went back there to spend quiet time together.
Just to let you know, Mauritius is a dream place to relax. If you’re looking for parties and clubbing there are only few safe places where you can do that, but it’s really fun. If you look for tradition, they organise festivities, so you just have to take a look around and you’ll find them. The main happenings are on the beach and in the mountain.
It’s not a cheap country, the only money you can spare are the money for accommodation. There are lots of 4 and 5 stars resorts and, the most “painful” thing, they offer all inclusive. It looks so nice in the brochure when you’re planning your vacation and it seems to be such a good business, but once you’re there, you’ll find yourself in the situation of having to run away from the beach just to catch your lunch or dinner at the hotel because you already paid for it. On the other hand, if you pick up a room in a villa it can be dozen times cheaper than the resorts and, let’s admit it, it’s fun to cook your own snack. Most of the main meals will anyway be taken somewhere on the beach.
It was a very nice, romantic (even if romance doesn’t fit me very well, I still like it) and educative vacation. I say educative because, to be honest, I had no idea that the pineapple fruit is growing in a bush and not a in a tree… 
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Palolem, Goa story to come in the near future. I have to put my thoughts together – my brain was shaken pretty bad there – and now I have to go out anyway.
