Le Caudan waterfront

The Caudan waterfront was built by dragging dirt next to the harbor. This is a nice tourist attraction and they keep it very clean.

They often have entertainment in the circle with restaurants surrounding it on one side and the harbor on the other side.

There are some office buildings

There is a restaurant called Shooters (NOT Hooters) and a Pizza Hut in that corner. There are several Pizza Huts and lots of Kentucky Fried Chickens on the island.

View from the waterfront

Another view of the harbor

The litter box. For those of you who are not familiar with british english, it means garbage can. Here's another one translation: toilet = restroom.

The apartment on Dr. Sun Yat Sen St

A view of the living room

View of one side of the kitchen

Another view of the living room

The dining room/bedroom/office

The bedroom

This is a view from the apartment balcony. There is an elementary school across the street from us. Garbage trucks come by every morning and every evening to pick up the garbage. You can see Citadel (hill) in the background. Caroline's elementary school and secondary school are not far from there.

View of the street from the balcony of the apartment. Vendors come every morning with freshly harvested vegetables in their trucks and sell them on the side of the street. Apparently they were supposed to stop doing this the monday we left Mauritius but there were a few who still showed up.

Back home!!!

We made it back home after 3 flights of 6.5 hours, 7.5 hours, and 9 hours. We had a little over 2 hours at the Dubai airport and Heathrow in between flights; so a total of 27+ hours from the time we left Mauritius to the time we got to the Minneapolis airport. We were getting worried about missing our flight in London since we waited at the counter (system problem) for our boarding passes to get printed. Heather got sick once from Dubai to London; thought it was motion sickness. Then she got sick 5 more times from London to Minneapolis. We kept running out of bags. The lady across the aisle from us had a hard time eating her meals because she could see Heather getting sick and she could smell it too.
We were one of the first ones to get through passport control and I told Heather we would be the first ones to get our luggage since they were likely the last ones on (luggage guy had come looking for me on the plane asking for my luggage tags to make sure he had the right ones to get on the flight in London). We waited almost an hour before I decided the luggage was just not going to be there and I had to put a claim for our luggage. If you've ever been to the Heathrow airport you would probably know why the luggage did not make it at the last minute.
Sydney, Kayli, and Paul were waiting for us when we came out. To Heather's surprise, her friend Sarah was there too to welcome her home. We had to stop at Costco on the way home because Heather was craving a blueberry muffin for a loooong time.
We promiss to add pictures to the blog as we have time. We took about 4,000 pictures!!!! So, keep checking the blog for more stories and pictures.

Rochester Falls

Heather wanted to get in the water so bad but she had no one else interested to join her. This was one of Paul's favorite's place he visited many years ago; we were there on a real hot day and the cool fresh water felt so good. You have to drive through sugar cane plantations to get to it but it is all worth it.

Last night

Can't believe it! It's our last night in Mauritius already. Heather is now getting comfortable speaking French and creole and we have to leave. If she stayed here another few months, she would likely be able to speak creole fairly well. Maybe at her next visit in another 14 years!!! We will post pictures when we get back home. We thave a few thousand pictures to sort through.

Blue Bay

We had another 10+ dish chinese meal last Saturday. Every time we thought they were done, they brought another dish. Of course, we had to keep trying the food. Heather freaked out over seeing the head of steamed fish with its teeth.
Blue Bay is in the South South East corner of the island and is close to the airport. We stayed in Blue Bay for a couple of nights. Swimming is big in Mauritius; there was a swim club practicing right at the beach. Apparently there is a swimming pool that is waiting for a heater before it opens. We visited the Mahebourg waterfront but we were too late to visit the naval museum. I needed air in my tires but, of course, all the gas stations close at noon on Sunday. We went to the marine park in Blue Bay (there is another one in Bacclava) and went snorkeling. The corals were huge. There are 28 species of corals and 72 species of fish in the lagoon. We bought more necklaces on the beach.
Heather is "camping" in Flic en Flac for a couple of nights with a friend and her family. She is still fitting in her swim practices in between all of this. Her friend's dad is taking Heather to swim practice and then she is going to stay to teach her friend starts and underwater kick.

Pictures

Heather and her new friends

FRIENDS
Heather and Melissa at Pereybere

Heather and Melanie aon the catamaran on the way to ilot Gabriel

Heather and Melanie at the chapel on ilot Gabriel. They do wedding ceremonies on the island. Nobody lives on that island, just visits.

Heather and Melissa waiting to go undersea walk and tubing.

Update

Sorry we haven't posted in a while, but we've been so busy lately and often w/o internet access. So far on this trip I have read the following books: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, 19 Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult, and New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. They were all really good books!!! And I must say, please read My Sister's Keeper before you see the movie!!!! That little fact could be essential to your health in matters of life of death. Anyway, I think I've watched just about every movie on my Ipod... except for the really scary ones! Today we went on a Catamaran ride and it was really stormy out. So when we were riding on the front (me and Jeremey and Melanie) we were going up and down and up and down and we were getting splashed all over! It was crazy fun! We saw a whale and also flying fish!!! They were so cool... at first I didn't know if they were flying fish or swimming birds! Hahaha! Anyway, time for bed!!!

Driving in Mauritius

I have mastered driving in Mauritius. I just have to remember that the driver's seat is on the right side of the vehicle. Driving on the left side is no problem and I am now an expert in taking round-abouts. I definitely have developed bigger leg and arm muscles on the left side of my body from constanlty using the clutch and using the stick.
Here are some rules and tips about driving in Mauritius:
1. Get use to driving in circles before u get here because there are lots of round-abouts. Very often the streets are not well marked, so you may have to go around the roundabouts more than once until you get to the right branch off the round-about.
2. Driving on the left side is a breeze since you can drive on the right side of the road too. There are always cars coming right at you.
3. Motorcyles and bicycles go on your left, on your right, in front, behind, in between vehicles; so, watch out for them because you never know where one will appear. There are no rules for motorcyles and bicycles.
4. Lights for motorcyles and bicycles are not necessary and it seems to be a rule that you should wear dark clothes while riding bikes, which means you need to have night-vision googles to drive at night
5. Most roads are so tight with no sidewalk, meaning people just walk on the road with dark clothes. And do not run them over because you will be found guilty
6. If you need to get out of an intersection, put your right hand out the window and wave until someone stops. You need to make sure your vehicle is at least 5 feet into the intersection first.
7. Honk when you need to get thru, honk if you're giving way to another vehicle, honk if your mad at someone's driving, honk if you just want to get someone's attention.
8. If there are 2 inches on each side of your vehicle to get thru traffic, you should be able to just fly thru. Just remember that pedestrians are not scared of vehicles.
9. Practice driving in LA rush hour and you should have no problem here. Who said there were poor people in Mauritius? Cars here, cars there, cars everwhere!
10. If ever stopped by police for speeding, not having your seatbelt, or for any other reasons, just remember that money talks.
If you can drive in Mauritius, you can drive in the US without any problems whatsoever. I think all teenagers should come to Mauritius for a month to practice driving before they get their license.
- Caroline

Daily Update

Bonjour tout le monde!!!

I don't have time to update any new pictures right now, because today we are off to another zoo-type thing. But what I'm more excited about is riding four-wheelers again! hahaha! Anyway, this week (5-10 July) we will be up at Pereybere.

We are staying in a bungalo there with some relatives.

This is what the beach there looks like. The only bad part is that I will have a long way to drive to swim practice... because now I am going everyday! We originally thought I was just gonna go for like 3 days a week... but that little voice inside my head kept telling me, "go to practice! go to practice! or else you will die of embarassment at the state swim meet!!!" So now I am going everyday! Oh well I guess I shouldn't complain. How's practice back in the US?

-Heather

Zoo

JACKIE: Have you checked my blog yet? How are you? I miss you!!! What's new? Oh and I need ur phone #!!!!
SARAH: Um... pretty sure you NEVER answer ur phone.

SWIMMERS:EEEp cannot wait for HS season!!!!
KELLY: Did you answer when I called one time?

This is starfruit... it looks amazing, but I think it's more of an aquired taste...

This is me riding on a giant tortoise... there was one there that was 95 years old!!! I sat on him too; poor old grampa turtle... i probably squished him! hahahaha! jk! He was really big!!

BE YOUNIQUE!!!

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT!!!!

hahaha I know it's cheezy, but I thought it was funny that there were a bunch of black fish and then one orange fish... so I took a pick and I'm making it my very own 'Dare to be Different' poster! hahaha!

This is one of the monkeys in the zoo. We fed them peanuts. It was so cool bc they would actually reach through the cage an grab the peanut out of your hand!!!

Dubai Pictures

Just a warning that you cannot run more than a few seconds on the beach without your feet burning. The water is actually hotter than bath water. Caroline likes warm water to get in to swim but the water was just to warm to even be able to cool down. We had to go find shade to cool off.

Waiting for the land cruisers to cool off before we can take off again.

Heather on her 4-wheeler in the desert.

What it's like in Mauritius

This is a rainbow on the beach where my aunt lives. It was so pretty, but it was kind of gloomy outside that morning.

These are two of my cousins that are also staying in Mauritius right now. The older one is Jonathan and the younger one is Kevin.

Almost everyone in Mauritius rides motorcycles just because it is easier to get through traffic.

These are cow feet, sold at the market... the sad thing is: the meet is fresh, and I mean really fresh... the cows are brought there alive in the morning and by the end of the day, they are being eaten if they haven't already been eaten!! :(

This is a FRESH chicken... :( Kinda gross, I mean I would never eat that... I mean it's got the head and everything!!!

This is my mom and I at Rochester Falls.

This is the pool that I swim at in Beau Bassin.

Parasailing

Hey everybody!!!

Here are some more pics:

This is me parasailing in Mauritius. We also went undersea-walking that day!!!

Well I will have to make my mom upload some photos bc it takes 4ever!!!

7-star Hotel

Here are some more pics:These are some poor, stray kittens in the fish market. There are a lot of stray animals here! It is so sad to see all of them!!!Here are some of the colorful fish at the fish market (this is in Mauritius). You know Finding Nemo? You know that fish I think his name was shark and he was in the fish tank w/ Nemo? Well let's just say he's not in the fish tank anymore.... :( But I don't have a pic!!!

This is one of the famous 7-star hotels in Dubai... and yes I did say SEVEN!!!! I didn't even know it was possible to get 7 stars.... I though you could only score (1-5) ... but I guess not... And outside the hotel they have a pool.... WITH TURTLES!!!! That's what it takes to be a 7-star hotel: have turtles in the pool!!!

And there is also the Atlantis Hotel which is on the Palm Islands (it is 7 star too) but some people say it is a 9-star!!!!!! I went inside... but only to the lobby!! They have a giant aquarium inside!!!

Well I'm out to see some graves and the Botanical Garden!!!! But make sure you read further down too bc there's a really funny joke!!!!!!!!!!!

Pictures & Personal Notes

...this was my cab driver in Dubai.... A MIDGET WITH ANGER-MANAGEMENT!!!! no kidding! this was one of his costumes bc he was part of the 'entertainment' on this Dhow cruise that we went on... it was WEIRD!!!! When we were driving he sped A LOT!!! he kept honking at people... it was crazy!!!!



That wasn't the only bad experience for driving in Dubai.. we went on a Desert Safari and the drivers are supposed to be wild when we go dune bashing.... but when we got back to the gas station... he hit 2 people!!! He didn't hurt them or anything, but still... HE HIT THEM!!

Purty sunrise huh????? Well off to parasailing, but I will try to post more 2nite!!!

EVERYONE(and i do mean everyoNE!!!): What's your favorites? Like: color, animal, game, etc.
SAMI: You've read My Sister's Keeper right? and 19 minutes????
KELLY & STACY: Still figuring out how to post a comment? Ask Sami or Sarah!
SARAH: EEP! !! I'm so excited: do u like electric yellow and orange????? (btw: should I explain senior year!? hahahah jk!!!) [and remind I have a story for u about this guy at an airport wearing a certain shirt] hahaha!!!
LINDSAY H.: Hey Linds!!!! I miss studying chem with you!!!!! hahaha!!!
JACKIE: Hey girl! Love ya! Hows MN treating ya?
SWIMMERS: Can't wait for high school season!!!
SANDWHICH CONVENTION FOLK: I miss our sandwhiches!!! We need to schedule a convention for when I get back! Hahaha!!!
(btw: the color ur message is in is the color that most reminded me of u!!!)

Post back soon!!!

Excursions

Today, I am going parasailing and walking underwater... (looking like an astronaut) ... i dunno what its called.... sorry I haven't been putting lots of pics, but the internet is really slow here and I can't type with fake nails.... but after today I will sit in front of the laptop until those stupid pics get loaded!!!!! hahaha! Anyway, I hope all is well in Minnesota! Keep me posted... if anything is weird over there y'all gotta let me know!!! :) hahahaha! well off to the beach! ptyl (post to ya later!!) hahaha!
-heather

Joke

A man walks past a mental institution and hears people chanting,
"Ten, ten, ten!!"
So he peaks through the hole of the fence and he gets poked in the eye,
then he hears, "Eleven, eleven, eleven!!"

Wonderful Day

We know we have not posted in while. We went to 7-colored earth, called Chamarel, Rochester Falls, and La Vanille crocodile park on Sunday. And yes, I drove the van and I had my right foot all the way down but the van would go at crawl speed. Lots of winding roads but I made it there and back no problem.
Monday morning, we got up at 4:30a to go swimming at Quatres Bornes. Since we did not know the way we allowed ourselves 1 hour but we got there in less than 1/2 hour. Heather has had 3 training at 3 different pools. On the way back, I got lost and somehow got back to Port Louis.
Tuesday my van would not start at 6:30a and I had to take a taxi to Belle Mare plage to meet my brother and his family at 8a and I could not call them since their phone has no connection (Canadian phones!!!). We went to L'ile aux Cerfs (Deer island), it is an island off the east coast next to Touessrock hotel. I hear the rate at the hotel is $1,500 per night (but it is all inclusive - food, drinks, water activities, tennis, golf,...) We hired a boat to take us to the little waterfalls at Grand Riviere Sud Est (Grand River South East) and they took us to l'ile aux cerfs, then they took us to another island for grilled chicked and fish, then back to l'ile aux Cerfs and then back to the beach where we started from. We then went to a restaurant for local type food. We stayed at Palmar, which is close to Belle Mare.
Wednesday we woke up to a beautiful sunrise on the ocean and we could watch local fishermen trying to get fish from their little boats. It was low tide; so, we got a couple of puffer fish, a starfish, some kind of shell, a clear flat fish (don't know what it is called - we named it "flubber"). There are lots os sea urchins, eels, and some kind of other snake like creatures. We then went back to Port Louis and Heather and I went to Adventure of Sugar Cane where you can visit all the machines they use to make sugar. Of course, there was a souvenir shop with all kinds of sugar. We had lunch there and it was a little spendy in Mauritian standards.
Heather will post the pictures later. - Caroline

Pictures

Okay my camera was fixed so here are the pics!!!

This is my mom... and some pots in Dubai

These are Jherkins... they look like pickles, but don't be mistaken because they are NOT!!! I had one at the hotel we stayed in, in Dubai for breakfast... NOT GOOD!!!

Sorry I'm going out, but I will post more when I get back!! :)

Swimming

Heather swam with a group of kids who are in the Trust Fund for Excellence. We had to get approval from the Minister of Youth and Sports in addition to the president of the Mauritian Federation of swimming for Heather to practice with them. The government picks them up from their home and take them to practice for 2 hours before school, then take them to school. They then get picked up from school to be taken to another 2 hours of practice before they take them home. They are selected around the age of 11-12 and they have to commit to it or they get kicked out of the program. They even get a sum of money from the government every month. Heather liked their practice better than the one she went to last night with a swim team.
Traffic was a pain though! I am driving my cousin's van and the stick is really hard to shift gears and you constantly have to shift gears because the traffic. You also have all the motorcycles and bicycles going in between cars, not to mention the pedestrians who take over the streets. I really miss my van from home.
Between the dog fights in the streets, the prayers from the mosques, the water running at the bakery across the street, it is hard to get a good night's sleep. Heather seems to be able to sleep through it all though.
Heather is really enjoying the shopping.

Daily Update

Bonjour!!!
So I still don't have my camera :( so no new pictures yet! But when I get it back I will put on the pictures asap!!! Anyway, today I had my first swim practice here in Mauritius. It was good, but it was weird having the practice so late... I was swimming in the dark!!!
Before I went to swim practice we stopped by the ROXY factory. My mom new the guy who owns ROXY here in Mauritius so he showed us around the factory... I also ended up buying some swimsuits and some surf shorts, but it wasn't that expensive because the guy gave us a good discount since he knew my mom. Not that I don't have enough swimsuits already, but a girl can never have too many!!!
Au Revoir!!! -Heather

FART Story

oh i have a funny story... just so u know, i talk in my sleep:
so i guess my mom had a bad cough while we stayed at a hotel in Dubai. She woke up in the middle of the night and was coughing (I was still sleeping) and I sat up and said, "Was that a fart!!??!!" hahaha so my mom told me that I said that bc I didn't remember! hahahah!!!
-Heather

Internet Access

Sorry it's been a while since I have posted, but the internet access at my granparents house wasn't working. Also, my camera was kind of broken... but I have it fixed now. I am starting swimming tomorrow with a swim club called CNS. I will practice 5-7... but I don't know how often. I will try to swim as much as possible, but I don't know how often I will actually end up going.
Today I went around Port Louis and up to a beach inthe northern part of the island. It was a little bit rainy at the beginning of the day, but it cleared up after a while. We had pizza and pop on the beach and picked up some sea shells, but we didn't go swimming because we are waiting for my relatives to arrive. My cousins will be coming and we will probably go surfing and do some things with them.
I will probably be able to post some pictures soon because the guy who fixed my camera will be bringing it back soon... I hope!!! So then I will take pictures of the beaches for everyone to see!!!
Today I went to visit the pool that I will be swimiming at... and my mom drove!! She hasn't driven a manual in a long time so it was kind of a bumpy ride!!! But hopefully she will get useed to driving the car soon so that we can get to my swim practice faster. This is because my mom was driving on a 90 km/h road... but she was only going 40 km/h!!! I think she will get faster though! Anyway, I will try to update soon, but I never know if I will be busy or not!
-Heather

Airports: London & Dubai

Well, looks like we still have some internet time... While we weren't blogging my mom tried to use facebook, but everything was in arabic so she was typing backwards and it was all messed up!!! Anyway, I will try to get some pictures uploaded, so here they are

This is Caroline while we were riding the shuttle bus in London to the new terminal for the United Emirates airlines.


This is a video from the London airport at a sushi bar. The sushi just moves around and around so customers can just grab whatever they want off of the belt. But I felt kinda weird taking this video because I was just standing in front of the restaurant with my camera so people probably thought I was creepin' on them!!! (creeper=Kelly Caprio)

These were cigarettes for sale in the London airport. I just thought it was funny how the warning signs were so big, "SMOKING KILLS!!!"

This is some British candy that I bought at the London airport. It is very tasty!!! I will bring some back to MN!!!

While at the London airport for 8 hours, my mom and I were bored so we decided to do some 'people watching'.... but some would call it 'people stalking'. Here are some creeper pictures I took. (creeper=Kelly Caprio)

This was a random guy in salmon skinny jeans, a blue and white striped shirt, a blue vest, and a brown top hat thingy... such an interesting outfit..

At the airport, some people were wearing masks (bc of the swine flu... H1N1)

For our flight from London to Dubai, we took United Emirates. This airline is fancier than most... the flight attendants all had the same outfits, the same suitcases, the same purses, the same shoes... EVERYTHING WAS THE SAME ABOUT THEM!!!!!!

This was the sunset as we were leaving London!! How pretty!!!

On the airplane from London to Dubai we played video games while waiting for take-off. This is my mom playing a game called 'Centipede'... one of my dad's favorite games when he was in college.

The flight was so fancy, they even gave us hot towels to wipe our faces with on the plane!!!

Ok, the dinner looks gross in this picture, but it actually was really good. I had chicken and my mom had lamb. There were 2 salads, bread with a wheat side and a white side, water, cheese, crackers, and dessert!!!
While on the plane to Dubai, I was watching the movie 'Confessions of a Shopaholic'. Then this guy in front of me started grabing the seat and had his had on the screen... it was kinda creepy looking!!!

This is Burj Al Arab. This is the tallest building in the world.

This is Caroline standing next to some pots while shopping and site seeing in Dubai.

This was my mom and I at the Festival center which is a shopping place on the waterfront... they had waterfalls inside (in the background).