Tinaaaaaaaaa!

The sign I brought to the airport
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Never in my wildest dreams could I have hoped for Maaam to come to Mauritius. However, unusually low tuition in conjunction with unchanged scholarship money does tend to make dreams come true. So here's the story of Tina Time in Mauritius!!!

She arrived on Tuesday October 16th at around noon. Originally it was supposed to be 5am, but Northwest are buttheads. They owe my life half a day. Anyway, I showed her the house and we hung out on the roof, surveying Flic en Flac and having tea and snacks. Jacob got home from class, and from there we went to explore the beach and take a walk around. When we got back, Dev showed off all the new progress on the house. Since we've been here, he's made an outdoor shower, an entirely new deck off the second story front of the house (with a spiral staircase up from the courtyard), and now he's starting another spiral stair from our friends' patio downstairs to ours up here. So we walked around and oggled, and then Aisha came over and we all sat down for coffee and snacks. After much laughing and chatting, Jacob, Tinaaa and I headed off to Chez Pepe's for dinner (mmm...) and then came back home and fell asleep.

Scholarship money does tend to make dreams come true....

Maaam on the Mountain!
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The next day, Jacob went off to class and Maaam and I went to Quatre Bornes to climb the mountain. As usual, it was perfectly sunny in the morning, and by the time we got there it was cloudy. It ended up being really cool though, because from the mountain we watched the rain rolling across the whole island like fog, and then we hunkered down behind a rock for a snack when it got to us. After our fill of hiking, we came back down, hopped on a bus, and went to Rose Hill. There we did some shopping, checked out the market, and Tinaaa tried dhall puri, my favorite snack. Two thumbs up! Tired and happy, we returned home for showers and lounge time. When Jacob got home, we grabbed Nate and went to eat at our favorite Chinese place, Ah-Youn. We had tasty dinner and probably made fools or ourselves laughing and being loud. It was another great day.

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On Thursday, the three of us got up early, spent an insane amount of time on the bus, and visited the Jardin de Pomplemousses, which Maaam fondly refers to as 'The Green Place.' Unfortunately it poured like its never poured in Mauritius before the whole time we were there. But it was indeed very green and beautiful, and the rain must have made all the animals happy becuase the turtles were being active (that is to say, they were actually moving a little), and all the bucks in the deer pen were fighting and walking around with their noses up. When we had filled ourselves to the brim with clean fresh air, we got back on the bus, this time bound for Quatre Bornes and the market. Jacob, who gets quite impatient with my browsing, went home. Maaam and I poked around for quite awhile, had lots of fun, and bought many cute gifts for many cute people. Don't worry - you'll all find out what you're getting at Christmas. :) When we got home, we were exhausted, and it was all we could do to drag ourselves out to dinner. We ended up at another Chinese place by Spar called Mei Yan. It was great, and even better yet;  our favorite guitar-and-harmonica playing guy was there. We love him because he plays all the classics (John Denver, Simon & Garfunkle etc..) and he loves us because we know all the stuff he plays and clap for him all the time. He even borrowed Jacob's hat for a couple of songs. After dessert, we meandered home and fell asleep.

Peek-a-boo
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Friday dawned perfectly sunny. We got up, got ready, and at 8:30, the whole pack of us got in a Jeep and headed down to the harbor to get on a boat!!! The destination was Ile aux Coco (Coconut Island). Popular destination for boat tours, especially becuase of the famous coral off it's coast that sticks up far above the water. Dev says they do shampoo commercials and stuff from the top of it. It was a nice leisurely cruise over to the island, and when we got there we discovered that the water was only a couple feet deep for hundreds of feet out into the ocean. This made the water perfectly warm, and you could wade all the way out to the coral. We had the most perfect day sunbathing and exploring, and the boat guys cooked us an amazing lunch with grilled banana flambee for dessert! We stayed there all day, lazing in the sun, and when it was finally time to go back, we stopped to go snorkeling on the way. We got home and cleaned up, but the day's adventure was not over. At 8:00, we went to a local restaurant for the 'Soiree Indienne' they were having. We got to eat amazing Indian food, which was seven different kinds of curry served on a banana leaf. Oh - and you eat it all with your hands. Then we got to see Indian and Sega (Mauritian) dancers. It was great!

Port Louis
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Saturday was Maaam's last day. We slept in, and after breakfast we rented some scooters and took off on an adventure. It was Maaam, me, Jacob and Nate. We wound our way all along the south coast, stopping for lunch at our favorite food stand . From there we continued all the way to Gris Gris Beach. It was the most perfectly sunny day, and the first time it hasn't been cloudy when I've been there. We lounged on the beach, collected shells, explored, and had ice cream at a nearby cafe. The beautiful sun lasted all day long, and we explored many more beaches on the way back. It was the perfect day. When we got home, we grabbed everyone else and went down to Dev's for supper. Asha had cooked some authentic Mauritian food, and we sat there until probably 10 eating and chatting and laughing. Before bed, I put some henna on Tinaaa's foot for her to take home.

Jacob's friend
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Sajid picked us up at the crack of 6:45am to go to the airport, and I was sad, but I don't think I've had a more perfect, happy, beautiful succession of days ever in my life. Thank you Maaaaaaaam!