Hurricane Matthew and the Joyous Genius

Excuses, Excuses

It’s been over a month since my last post. It sucks, I know.

One of the first things you figure out when traveling around the world (other than “don’t take comfy mattresses and soft toilet paper for granted”) is that internet speeds in the U.S. are fast. Sure, there are places in the States where you can get sucky internet speeds (that’s a technical term, trust me, I’m a geek), but for the most part we’re very fortunate in the U.S. to have very fast access to the web.

Mauritius is one of those places where the internet ain’t so fast. It’s ok, of course, because it’s a beautiful place with beautiful people and great food, but it means that uploading tons of pictures to your blog is going to be painfully, painfully slow.

On top of that both of my brothers, Matt (Hurricane Matt – pretty self-explanatory if you know him…suffice it to say that he likes to f**k shit up) and Scott (the Joyous Genius…ask him about it sometime :^), were visiting with us for a few weeks. Which meant that most of the time it was much more tempting to hang out with them and play “which delicious rum are we drinking tonight?” instead of buckling down and writing.

So not much got done. Which was ok, because we had a ton of great family time.

Scott getting some shots from the side of La Pouce

Braeden helping Uncle Matt repair a kite

Driving around Mauritius was sometimes scary, sometimes confusing, but always beautiful

Blue Bay

We spent Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, hanging out in Blue Bay with Scott, Matt, Deb, and some new friends. The beach was gorgeous, the water was perfect, and Uncle Matt and Uncle Scott spent loads of time in the water playing with Braeden, which meant J and I could relax on the beach and shoot the breeze. Once we got hungry we all packed up and headed to a little snack shop across the street, grabbed a table, and tucked into a delicious Mauritian meal and some cold beers.

After lunch we headed home to Palmar with Braeden, and Scott and Matt stayed behind to check out a music festival. Just before bedtime we let B fire up some of the sparklers that his school sent home for Diwali (try that in the U.S. :^) to celebrate.

Uncle Matt and B enjoying the clear waters of Blue Bay

Braeden having a shoot-out with Uncle Scott and Deb. The boy actually takes pretty good pictures…

…but now when I dump the camera I find a lot of this stuff. The boy loves his ice cream.

A great meal with family and friends at Blue Bay

Nothing like a nice talk with your uncle over ice cream

La Pouce, Redux

In late October we ran out of time trying to climb La Pouce and we had been discussing doing it again ever since. We finally made it happen not long before Scott had to take his insanely long return flight to the States.

The first 20 minutes up the trail were a lot harder than we remembered. It was a bit rocky but steep, and we were laboring within a few hundred meters. We reached the halfway point in about 30 minutes, and we could clearly see that we didn’t have far to go, but the trail grew much, much steeper.

The last 7-10 minutes were nearly vertical, and we carefully picked our handholds as we slowly climbed towards the summit. 1 hour after we started we were all standing on the peak of La Pouce, the entire island visible below us.

We hung out there for about an hour taking pictures, goofing around, and munching on snacks, then we headed back down towards the cars (Matt and Scott had brought their rental car, which was a much sketchier looking POS than ours) so we could pick up the boy at school by 2pm.

My girl on the start of our trek up La Pouce

Matt swinging his homemade Bullet Time Go Pro contraption around on the peak of La Pouce. I still think it was easier to just use a camera phone and turn around in place, but what do I know, I didn’t go to Art School.

Nearby peaks, including what we called “Soccer Ball Mountain”, but what is really known as Pietier Both

Setting up some camera gear on the peak. Scott and Matt were director and DP, I was the guy that fetches everyone coffee.

Matt climbing the last few meters of La Pouce. Yes, it’s really that steep. Scott did it in flip flops. Not because he’s a badass, mind you, but because he’s a Joyous Genius, and joyous geniuses don’t have time for sensible footwear.

I left the fancy camera work to the experts. I just do pistols and stuff.

My sensible wife made me sit down so she could take a nice picture of me not doing a pistol. With my shirt on. Weird, but I went along with it.

J on the descent. The peak is about 20 meters up from here, and it’s that steep all the way up.

The first of our surprises for the day came when we got back to where the cars were parked. Scott and Matt’s rental wouldn’t start. Matt jumped in and we pop-started it, and at the end of the road Scott switched with Matt (Scott was going to meet his friend, Deb, and Matt was planning on going back to Palmar with us) and right away he saw that the gas gauge read “Empty”. So he took off with us trailing behind to find a gas station. Five minutes and several turns later we were traveling down a small side street in a dusty little town when Scott’s car suddenly died for good. We got out and pushed it to the side of the road.

Scott hopped on the phone with Deb to figure out what to do. After some discussion he decided to leave it on the side of the road for the rental guy to find. However, the driver’s window was down and it couldn’t be rolled up without power, and the sky was darkening rapidly. Locals kept driving by slowly, watching the two tall white guys argue in the middle of the street while the small hairy one looked on with amusement.

Scott finally decided to cover the window with a piece of plastic and clean out the car, which after a couple of weeks of kitesurfing was filled with sand, beer bottles, empty food containers, and other crap. The two of them did the best they could to clean it up, Scott hopped on the phone one last time to try to describe where we were leaving the car (we had no idea where we were, and there were no useful street signs), and we took off to pick up Braeden from school.

The back seat of Scott and Matt’s rental car. Hertz, Budget, et al: you don’t ever want to rent to these guys. :^)

Scott cleaning out the car while Matt supervises. A few minutes after this photo was taken we watched Matt attempt to put the spare in the trunk. It was better than watching Charlie Chaplin or The Three Stooges.

The Last Day of School, and Casela

Our two months in Mauritius absolutely flew by, and before we knew it it was Braeden’s last day of school. We went to pick him up at the Humpty Dumpty School in Brisee Verdiere and were very sad to say goodbye to his teachers, who had all been wonderful for the two months we were in Mauritius.

Braeden loved the Humpty Dumpty school and learned so much there, including some Creole, which he lords over us on occasion.

Saying goodbye to the Humpty Dumpty school

Class photo. EVERYONE STOP SMILING! OK, PERFECT!

One of the “must do” things in Mauritius is Casela, a local animal park. We had made several plans to go but kept pushing it back for one reason or another. We were close at one point but Scott was on the fence about patronizing what was essentially a zoo, and after a little research he found that the first time they tried to bring giraffes over from South Africa they accidentally killed one by driving under a low bridge.

No shit. Google it. It actually happened.

Anyway, after that Scott decided he couldn’t stomach going to the park, so we put it off until the following week. So a few days before we left Mauritius we made the 1 hour drive across the island to Casela, just Juliann, Braeden, and I, and we had a blast.

It was a really well done park and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Braeden fed a giraffe, some goats, and some bunnies (his favorite); and we got a close-up look at some very large tigers, lions, rhinos, and one extremely salty ostrich.

B wasn’t sure how he felt about the lion at the entrance to Casela, but he went with the flow

Feeding Caramel, the giraffe, who was also 4 years old

Salty ostrich. Pretty sure he would have been happy for one of us to hop out so he could kick our ass with his big ugly feet.

“Braeden, what did you think of the rhinos?”

He was laughing the whole time. “He’s tickling me!”

Tigers nap in trees. Never knew that. Thought I’d share it with you.

Making friends with a giant tortoise named La Quica. Just kidding, I don’t know what his name was. We’ve been watching Narcos and I dig that name.

Braeden got to feed some baby goats with a bottle, which turned out to be a full-contact sport. He got tackled by five or six baby goats all at once and he was screaming with laughter.

His favorite part of the park: feeding the bunnies!

If you’re ever in Mauritius with kids, definitely take them to Casela

Working on “drawing a hotel” with Uncle Matt. The specifications were “a hotel like Notre Dame with a stained glass window like a dragon. With a mustache.” Uncle Matt made it work.

Palmar public beach. I drove by this beach at least twice every day, and I slowed down to take it in every time.

Goofing around by the pool at the Lux, where we frequently hung out because our pool wasn’t up to snuff.

A Weekend Off

We didn’t know it when we added Mauritius to our itinerary more than a year ago, but the little African island happens to be one of the best kitesurfing destinations in the world.

The best kite spot on Mauritius is at La Morne, a mountain that juts out into the Indian Ocean at the southernmost point of the island. We had driven by La Morne a few weeks earlier on our trip to Chamarel, but we had yet to explore it.

With about a week or so left before Scott and Matt had to return to the States we all scheduled a weekend trip to La Morne, which was about a two hour drive from our place in Palmar. Juliann booked the three of us at the Heritage Golf Resort for the weekend, where we had a beautiful room and a stunning pool to help us unwind. As if we needed to be unwound any further.

We were pretty excited to have a nice tub to enjoy for the weekend

Braeden’s little sleeping nook, which also doubled as my office

We spent the weekend either hanging out with Matt and Scott while they kitesurfed at the beach or relaxing by the pool. The beach at La Morne itself was an amazing sight. There must have been a hundred or more brightly colored kites zipping back and forth over the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean in the shadow of the beautiful mountain.

Working with B on his single-leg takedowns while waiting for his Uncles to set up their kites

Learning the finer points of kite folding from Uncle Matt

The Cavendish, the hotel bar. I loved this place in a very unhealthy way.

The layout of the main pool at the Heritage

Checking out all the kites at La Morne with B

Warming up before another dip in the pool

The moon from our balcony over the Indian Ocean

Scott and Matt got in some quality kiting, J and I were able to relax at the Heritage, and Braeden got his fill of the pool. The weekend blew by quickly and we were soon driving back to Palmar.

A week later the sad day arrived – I drove Scott to the airport for his flight home. It was much harder to say goodbye than I thought it would be, and I choked back tears when we hugged at the terminal. Our travels have showed us many wonderful things, and one of the most important is just how much we love our families. Scott and I said goodbye and I watched with a lump in my throat as he walked into the terminal, then I drove back home.

Just a few days later Uncle Matt had to leave as well, and the sadness hung over the house the whole time he was packing. We had had a wonderful time together for several weeks, the five of us, and we didn’t want it to end.

But we were so, so fortunate to be able to spend so many weeks together, and as difficult as it was to drop Matt off at the airport, I was incredibly grateful that we had been able to enjoy so much time with family in such a beautiful place.

Fortunately we had little time to mope, as our flight out of Mauritius was only two days after Matt’s. We took one last day to relax by the pool at the Lux, then we spent the morning of our final day packing our bags and cleaning up.

We said goodbye to Mauritius on Friday, November 18th. It’s a stunning place that we’ll always remember, and we met some amazing people that we’ll miss.

Any reservations we had about leaving, however, were tempered our excitement about our next destination: Dubai!