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Travel - Mauritius Our Treasure Island

Travel - Mauritius Our Treasure Island

Author: Kasia & Tomas Yoko
Date: 2016-04-22
Mauritius island has many Godsthe population is respectfully divided by a strong Roman Catholic religion brought by the European colonists, it has a very strong Hindu population which hails from small villages in India brought over by the ships at the beginning of the last century, and the island also boasts a healthy Muslim population.

So as luck would have it, we arrive at the beautiful Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, after a short comfortable flight from Durban on Air Mauritius. We had booked our first four nights' stay with AirB&B, at D'Architect Villa in Flic en Flac. The owner also organised a taxi driver to deliver us to our villa for a meagre 40 Euros.

Our host assured us that the taxi driver would be waiting for us at the international Arrivals with a board with our names on it. But as it happens when travelling, we arrived and searched for our name board to no avail. I decided to investigate the scene outside the airport.

I walked straight into a furnace. Mauritius was hellishly hot on the evening we arrived and there was no sign of our taxi driver. I must have been looking slightly disappointed and maybe a little annoyed, when a young 30 somethings guy approached me and offered me a lift, he was accompanied by a cute eight year old.

Taxi Ali turned out to be half the price of the original quote and a true source of information on our hour-long drive from the Airport to Flic en Flac.

Ali explained to us that his biggest dream is to one day take his family to Mecca on the annual Haji. His son Mohammed, just eight years old sometimes accompanied him to the airport to try and win over a happy tourist or two whose taxi driver had failed show. We were assured that it is a usual occurrence - something to do with 'island life philosophy', which we are so relaxed with.

Anyway, Ali told us about the Shivaratree Festival, which was taking place in a couple of days, and even though he was a Muslim, he encouraged us to see this spectacular event. Ali told us that there is always a religious celebration happening somewhere in Mauritius.

We arrived just after Easter and the Catholic community was still celebrating this auspicious event in their many churches scattered across the island. It was so wonderful and refreshing to see a beautiful Creole Catholic community celebrating stoic Catholic faith with so much colourful, vibrant emotion.

However we were not prepared for the outpouring of love and devotion for the Shivaratree Festival and the five hundred thousand people that came from all over the world to pay their obeisance to the Great and the very powerful God, whose huge statue is placed on top of a sacred mountain.

MahaShivaratriis a Hindu festival celebrated annually in reverence of the God Shiva. While most Hindu festivals are celebrated during the day,Shivaratriis celebrated during the night by keeping a "jaagaran" - a night-long vigil of worship.

As we drove away from the massive two hundred foot statue of Shiva we felt our hunger pangs taking over. There were food stalls lining the roads to and from the worship sight and we stopped for some absolutely delicious kachori and freshly fried pakoras. I can still taste the delightful mix of spices and herbs, and it was so inexpensive we felt like we had robbed them of their food even after leaving a big fat tip.

This is an annual festival so worth experiencing whether you are Hindu or of any faith whatsoever.