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Back at Sea: Cape Town to Port Louis, Mauritius

We sailed out of Cape Town to rough seas caused by the meeting of the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Antarctic Oceans .Also in the night we went through a big thunderstorm with lightning. I was in bed and not really awake and I kept thinking that we had been hit be lightning - maybe we had. I don't know. Anyway, lots of noise ,

flashes of light, waves splashing against the window, and bumps from either the lightning or hitting waves. It probably lasted for about an hour.

Back in classes I decided that it was time to try some other classes. Now we know who the really interesting professors are and also what I need to know more about. I think that in order to understand the countries we visit, we really must know some of the history that has made them what they are today. It is also important to know some of the culture, family structure, religion from a sociological and anthropological perspective in order to understand what is going on. I am therefore dropping my english class (not that I don't need it, but in order to take some other classes Dutch).

Spent some time with our Desmond Tutu special lecturer. Judith Mayotte, delightful lady who is american but now lives in S, Africa. She is the first Desmond Tutu Distinguished Scholar for his world peace project and is an inter-port lecturer . She has an amazing history of work with refugees, including being on U.N. commissions and a movie Emmy for a documentary on refugees. . She also lost her leg in Dafur when a food relief box fell which was being dripped from the air fell on her.

Also played bridge with the two gentlemen from Bainbridge Island, Dave and Ron and Genevieve. We all agreed that this was something to do on "no class" days occasionally and not seriously. We played for two hours.We had a cultural, logistical and diplomatic briefing to Mauritius. While this island has an interesting history of colonization by the Dutch, Portugese, French and British, it seems that for us it will be two days of "spring break"

Port Louis, Mauritius, Thursday, Oct 14th

I awoke at 5 am and watched the sunrise and the mountains of Mauritius from my window. A good way to start the day. We cleared the ship and could go ashore by 10 am. and I went with Jack and Ann to try and find some loose beads for Jack and some elastic for me. I also needed a few drug store items. We took the water taxi fro the ship dock to the main part of town (a 20 minute walk if we had gone on foot), took out our maps and headed toward the market. What can I say! Uneven pavement with lots of steps, holes and other hazards. Jostling crowds, mostly appeared to be Indian, hawkers shouting "Best taxi, cheap" ,"you want this shirt". "what you want, I get it for you"and on and on and very hot and humid. After I was unable to find what I needed at three drug stores and Jack was unable to find his beads, I decided to return to the ship for the afternoon and rest for tomorrows Marine Biology FDP.- Thursday

Friday. Marine Biology trip (not really - mostly fun)

We did go to the Marine Museum. This is a government agency which is in charge of everything related to fish and fishing on the islands. I had a great deal of difficulty understanding the person who was lecturing. I did get that they have a lot of problems because the islands main business now is tourism. Tourists want large hotels which eat up the beaches and they want to eat fish The sea is being over fished. So the whole thing is not sustainable. The only good thing is that they do recognize that there is a problem.

After this, the main business of the day: a glass bottom boat trip to Ile de Deux Cocos, a picture perfect little island on the other side (the tourist side) of Mauritius, At $3000. peer night you can rent the island. I bought some island made rum for Xmas presents (I tried it. It's good) Some of the group went snorkeling. I did not as I was too full of lunch and the boat did not look very age friendly.

At Sea: Mauritius to Chennai, India

Parties. parties, parties: a"half-way" party, a birthday dinner in the Special dining room(4 star food), a raucous meeting to plan the Sea Olympics which will occur on Thursday. { I signed up to be a judge and am hoping I don't have to judge something about which I know nothing like soccer. India is approaching. We cross the equator again today sometime.

Next Day: (lost track of which day it is again)

Sea Olympics Day: Major competitive games. The students are divided up into "seas" )and the faculty, staff and life long learners were a "sea" too. We were the Nomer Sea. I judged the trivia contest. However, the other judge and I made ourselves irrelevant by being unable to tell which team put their flag up first, so they had to change the rules which left us out!!! Lots of fun all day. Nomer Sea won several contests and we came in third at the end. We advertised ourselves as having the wisdom (lll's) faculty(who give grades) and the Arch! and we gave no mercy!

Friday, Oct 22

Arrived in Chennai early in the morning. I planned a trip with Dave and Julie Weitz to Munmar ( where Maggie went last year and enjoyed very much) so we were picked up on the second day and first flew to Cochin on the west side of India. After an uneventful flight we landed in Cochin and found it much cleaner and prettier than Chennai with palm trees, modern houses and buildings behind the stalls on the streets. Our driver, N, was very adept at negotiating the traffic even though we were all terrified by the way all drivers here seem to drive. They pass on blind corners , stop just before killing people walking at the side of the road, ignore lines on the road and stop signs. Julie rode in front and her feet were tired from putting on imaginary brakes. It was a long drive through green country with rubber plants and huge bushes like our house plants. We moved gradually upward until we came to a cloud forest and the road started to have many switchbacks and hairpin bends. When the clouds parted every once in awhile we saw that we we Eravi

eravikulemre surrounded by high mountains with tea plants in all the open spaces. Our hotel was at 5000 feet, the air was clean and cool and the garden beautiful. We each had a cabin which overlooked the entire valley. We arrived at 3.30 and were told that tea was being served in the teahouse, a round open building with a thatched roof. We had cardamon tea and very delicious banana fritters. Dinner was too spicy for me, but desert was the best caramel custard I have ever had.

The next day our driver picked us up and took us to Eravikulam National Park. We had to wait for a bus to take us up on another perilous ride to the start of a path which took people to the highest peak and a look-out point. I did not go to the top. I stayed on a wall and observed the passers by and had my picture taken with various people who thought it would be cool to have a picture with a foreigner. Our driver asked us if we would like to go on an elephant safari so we went to a place where we could get a 30 minute elephant ride. I found the ride different from a horse or camel because it is so big and its steps are so large. But it was fun.

Our third day we drove back down the mountain to Allepei (sp?) Lake where we boarded our houseboat. To get to the boat we had to negotiate a broken bridge and a narrow platform onto the boat Our houseboat crew really tried to be good hosts by giving us a cocoa nut drink (horrible) but fell down on cleanliness. The air conditioning was minimal and it was now very hot and humid. However it was an interesting experience to see a community of houses built along the banks of canals with rice paddies on the other side. These people lived here, worked the paddies and did their bathing, laundry, dishes and everything else in the lake. Our cook cooked lake fish for us which I did not eat because I was not sure what all that pollution did to the fish. The others ate it though and had no ill effects. We spent a hot night in our cabins but were rewarded in the morning by dawn on the misty lake and little fishing boats floating by. At 9 am we were picked up and drove into Cochin for some shopping. I splurged and bought a scarf and some loose beads. We returned to Chennai to find a major thunderstorm and lightning over the airport. It took us awhile to get to the ship which we were now glad to see. Off with our grungy loathes , a shower and glass of wine and some cheese in the Weitz' cabin and then to bed. We sailed away from Chennai at 8 pm Friday.