We woke up around 06:00, when a large plane went by.  We thought maybe it was the Emirates plane, but then saw the Emirates plane clearly go by around 06:40.  The weather looked a bit clearer than yesterday, but it was still really cloudy (just lighter gray instead of darker gray), so we didn’t regret canceling the helicopter trip.  We just wanted the Mauritius helicopter to work out.  Just as we were going to go down to breakfast at 07:00, we got a call that our driver was at the hotel.  We weren’t expecting him until 07:45.  Thankfully we were otherwise ready, but we were bummed we weren’t going to get to enjoy our included breakfast.  Also thankfully, it’s good we didn’t take the helicopter this morning, as we almost certainly wouldn’t have been back before 07:00.  We paid our hotel bill and went on our way.

It was just a 5 minute ride to the airport.  We had someone assigned to help us with check in, and we weren’t expecting that.  At check-in, the agent asked for vaccinations, insurance, locator forms - we had forgotten we’d filled all that out a month ago.  The agent also said that we hadn’t paid for any checked bags, and she wanted to charge us almost $300 to check one bag.  Given that we had no other options, we paid for it, and figured we’d figure it out with Julian later.  The woman helping us told us to keep the receipt and follow up with our travel agent, so she had the same thoughts as us.  After we checked in, she showed us the places we could buy breakfast - grrrrr.  We could’ve just come at the regular time and eaten our included breakfast, and still had plenty of time to do absolutely nothing at the airport.  For the very last time, our local travel agency had screwed us.

None of the restaurants outside security appealed to us, so we just went through immigration and security, since at least there was AC there.  We were literally the first two people in there (again, we were 45 minutes earlier than we were supposed to be).   At least going through security with no one behind us was nice, as we didn’t feel rushed at all.  We shared a Diet Coke and rum, and then a Ginger Ale and rum, for breakfast.  We messaged Julian about our baggage snafu, and he thought it was weird too.  He told us he’d inquire and get back to us soon.  He also asked about specific seats for our Emirates flights back from Mauritius, and gave us the cost breakdown - we didn’t know they charged for that.  The price wasn’t that much, however, and for flights that long we wanted to make sure we didn’t have to bug anyone (aside from each other) to get out into the aisle.

Our hour-long free wifi lasted about 30 minutes, but at least we finished our Duolingo before the time was up.  Justin kept making sarcastic comments about missing breakfast just to push Crystal’s buttons.  We saw that rather than board any passengers, the Emirates plane just parked.  No flights to Dubai showed up on the departure screen, either.  We wondered what its schedule was like, i.e., how many days a week it flew back and forth between Mahe and Dubai.  We took note of the big Oryx on the Qatar Airways plane - that had been a recent trivia question Justin had seen.

Since we were seated by the window, we had front row seats for watching the luggage being loaded onto our plane - we wondered if our $250 bag would get white glove treatment.  Justin did the math, with a 2.5 hour flight - “so about $1.50 a minute for our bag.”  This resulted in more rolled eyes from Crystal.  Justin mentioned that the overall Seychelles communication and efficiency would make Hawai’i blush - that’s not a compliment.  We boarded a little before 09:30, and we boarded from the back.  Once on board, we waited forever (close to an hour past our departure time) because of a wheelchair that supposedly needed some paperwork.  

This wasn’t great for us, as we didn’t have much time to waste with how everything was crammed for our time on Mauritius.  We would’ve liked to spend another day or two on Mauritius, and one or two less on Seychelles, but the flight schedules didn’t allow for this, so we crammed as much as we could into the 3+ days we had scheduled for Mauritius.  Once finally in the air, the clouds got increasingly sparse the further south we traveled.  

[Interestingly, all the destinations on this trip were more or less in a straight line north and south.  Dubai is at 55.27 East latitude, Hadiboh is at 54.02, Vallee de Mai is at 55.74, and Saint Felix is at 57.47.  Meanwhile, Dubai is at 25.19 North longitude, Hadiboh is at 12.64 North, Vallee de Mai is at 4.33 South, and Saint Felix is at 20.51 South.  A comparable example elsewhere in the world would be Taipei, Taiwan; Coron, Philippines; Makassar (Sulawesi), Indonesia, and The Kimberley, Western Australia.  There isn’t really a comparable example in the Western Hemisphere, as anything at those latitudes in North America is just water in the Pacific west of South America, and anything at those latitudes in South America is just water in the Atlantic east of North America.]  

Our choices for lunch were either a vegetarian or tuna sandwich.  We both chose vegetarian, and Justin just ditched the vegetables.  On the other hand, the Shiraz-Cab-Pinotage blend from South Southwest vineyards was very good.  We got two glasses, as the flight attendant stepped away right as she was about to take our drink order, and then she forgot to come back to us when she returned.  When Crystal got her attention, she felt bad and gave us two glasses instead of one.  As we approached Mauritius, the clouds returned.  We could make out some of the west coast, and we turned near the southwest corner of the island (Le Morne), but we weren’t at the appropriate angle to see the underwater waterfall.  

At the airport, there was someone that met us at the end of the jetway to get us through immigration and the health ministry in a different line, so that was really nice.  [We think this is what we were supposed to have in the Seychelles, but there was no one there for us.]  Our bag came off the luggage carousel about 30 seconds after we showed up.  We then went by a desk where a couple people from the local tour agency (Emotions) met us and welcomed us to Mauritius, then gave us a welcome packet with tickets, itinerary, contact information for the local tour operator - basically the exact opposite of Hummingbird on Seychelles.

Outside it was raining a bit.  Our driver/guide was Bernard, who told us he was a Muslim, but with family of Hindu, Buddhist, and more - basically a mixing and matching of everything.  Moreover, his wife is a caucasian from the Czech Republic.  As we drove west across the island, we saw fields with sugar cane, vanilla, papaya, tea, etc., very similar to Hawaii.  Bernard explained a lot about Shiva, Ganesh, etc., and we stopped briefly at a couple massive statues in Grand Bassin (Ganga Talao), a significant spiritual site for Hindus.  It was raining outside still, though, so we stopped only very briefly.  The rain fortunately stopped as we got closer to Chamarel.  

We were both getting a little queasy from all the twists and turns, so we were both glad when the car stopped.  We immediately took some Dramamine in the hopes it would take effect before we got back on the road towards the hotel.  At Chamarel, we first checked out the waterfall, which had two lookout points, one higher than the other.  There were lots of people taking selfies, so we had to wait our turn - they must have thought we were crazy for just taking pictures of the waterfall itself.  As we walked around the park there were lots of people with red on their foreheads, which Bernard said is common on some of the tours that go to the Hindu shrines.  He said most people don’t appreciate that by doing that, however, they are implicitly representing they won’t eat meat (or something like that), which most people probably wouldn’t want to represent.

Thankfully the ride from the waterfall to the 7-colored earth was not very long.  At 7-colored earth, we read about how it came to be (volcanic eruptions a long time ago with a lot of iron and aluminum), which made the ground not suitable for things to grow.  Over the years, with rain, peaks and valleys formed and the lava became sort of clay-ish.  We walked around to the west side, which Bernard said had better views, and he was correct in that assessment.  The sun even came out as we were looking at the earth.  We thanked the wheelchair person from the plane, as if we’d been on time we would have been viewing this in the rain instead of in the sun.  It was a nice temperature outside, and we didn’t feel either hot or cold for the first time this trip.

From Chamarel, we headed south towards the coast, then turned east for just a little bit to get to our hotel (Shanti Maurice) in Saint Felix.  We were originally supposed to stay in Lux Le Morne, but when we had to move the trip forward a week they didn’t have availability, and after a lot of looking around we decided on Shanti Maurice, just a little bit east on the South Coast.  They told us the first thing we needed to do was to get an antigen test, which is required for all hotel guests in Mauritius.  They took us into a library or some other room with no other guests.  They told Justin he passed, and then waited for Crystal.  She failed, and then they told Justin he had in fact failed too.  To make sure, they tested us again, but we both failed again.  They were caught off guard, as basically no one fails the test and they were joking about it literally seconds before our tests went positive.

Not in a joking mood any more, they told us we’d be quarantined in our room for 5 days, or until we got a negative test result - we think we heard that right, but we both sort of zoned out.  They kept telling us it was going to be okay, but they completely misread the situation - we weren’t worried about our health, we were worried about seeing the things we’d flown (literally) halfway around the world for.  [The antipode of San Diego is in the Indian Ocean just a little southeast of Mauritius, so effectively we could not get any further away from our house than here.]  They took us straight to our room and then showed us our room, and we half paid attention (Crystal more than Justin).  

After they left, we got in contact with Julian and then with our insurance carrier to make sure we were doing whatever we needed to account for this hiccup.  The insurance carrier, at least on the phone, made everything seem like it would be simple and straightforward - if we had to stay past Saturday, they’d cover additional costs (e.g. additional hotel nights) and also rebooking fees for airfare.  Once online, Justin looked at official Mauritius travel information website, and it seemed to indicate that the quarantine would be 7 days, but could be shortened if someone recovered in less than that.  We read this to mean that no matter what, we wouldn’t be stuck past 7 days.  In view of that, since Crystal’s family or Dogs On The Run could probably watch the dogs, we thought it made sense to just re-book everything for a week later, so we knew with 100% certainty that at the very least we could do the 2.5 days worth of stuff we wanted to do, including the underwater waterfall.

The rub, of course, is that we could theoretically just test negative the following morning, and then we’d be on the hook for 7 additional days in Mauritius.  So it was basically impossible to try to plan anything, and we still didn’t feel like we had a solid handle on all the pertinent rules and regulations.  They brought by some snacks and a welcome cocktail, and also brought by additional towels, toilet paper, kleenex, etc.  Later in the evening they called and told us we’d meet with someone from the health ministry the next morning, and get additional detail on the process and timing of things.  We decided to not stress, and just wait for this meeting before deciding to re-book anything for any date, let alone a specific date.  We just read, watched TV, and futzed around on the internet, which was fortunately First World speed.  We fell asleep around 21:00.