Turtles, Big and Old

Mauritius is a blend of people whose ancestors came from many parts of the world and brought their   As we were driving we saw Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and Shinto places of worship.  Each ethnic group brought its own holidays, and everyone celebrates all of them.  This is a country where people seem to get along and respect each other.  Besides, with all those holidays to celebrate, who could complain?

The island is far from everything, so it has some unique animals.  The most famous is the dodo, which has been extinct for a few hundred years. 

Its ancestors were pigeons who flew, probably aided by monsoon winds, to this remote island.  There were no predators on the island which allowed them to grow big and fat and lose their ability to fly.  Enter the Europeans.  They saw these 50 pound birds waddling around without any fear and the first thought must have been –Dinner!  Within a few years there were no more dodos.

Several other birds, animals and plants are endemic to Mauritius, meaning that they are not found anywhere else.  Unfortunately, modern civilization has threatened the habitat of several of these.  Fortunately, conservation efforts have brought several species back from the edge of extinction.  

Iles Aux Aigrettes is a nature preserve where some of the endangered species have been introduced.  There once were 2 different species of tortoise on this island, but, sadly, they are now extinct.  Instead, another endangered species with a shell up to 2.5 feet in diameter, has been introduced.  They rescue eggs as they are hatching and raise them until they are several months old, paint a number on the shell so they can keep track of them, then return most of them to other locations.  There are many of the adults on the island.  One of them is 106 years old.

We rode for over an hour to reach the area and took a small boat to the island.  Since there were 39 people on the bus and the boat only held 13 passengers, it took 3 trips to get everyone to the island.  Unfortunately there were several tourists in the group.  Our cruise director defines a tourist as one who goes to a foreign country and expects everything to be just like the USA.  A traveler looks at things and sees the differences and understands that we travel to see and understand the area and people.  

The tourists in the group complained that it took so long to get there.  They complained that everyone could not go to the island at once.  They complained that the boat was so small and difficult to get into.  I am sure that they wore flip flops and then complained that the trail was not paved, even though all these were mentioned in the Port Talk which they probably did not attend.

Darrell went to the botanical garden which highlights not only local plants, but others from around the world.  One of the most spectacular is the giant water lily.