Both of us sleep well, and were each up around 06:30.  It was a clear morning, like Tuesday.  Once again, there was almost no one at breakfast.  We could see down the south coast towards Le Morne, and there were no discernable clouds, so we hoped it would stay that way for at least a few more hours.  The sparkling wine at breakfast was much better than the sparkling wine that they had in La Digue.  There was a soup station at the buffet, which we hoped would be on par with the one that we enjoyed so much in Palau, but sadly it did not compare favorably.  Before we left the room for the day, Justin was having a conversation with his friends Greg and Dave about which album had the best “worst” song, and the three of them were discussing Led Zepellin IV, with the presumptive worst song being Four Sticks, which is still an incredible song. 

We took a different road today, a bit to the east of Chamarel.  The island, or at least the part of the island we’d been exposed to so far, reminded us a ton of south and east Kauai, with green everywhere and also many remnants of craters from way back when that result in numerous peaks and valleys and interesting landscapes.  Since the weather was good, we stopped briefly at the giant Hindu statues in Grand Bassin.  Their scale was impressive, but the surroundings (a massive empty parking lot) left a lot to be desired.

We got to Avalon at 09:00, a little before our planned 09:15.  We waited in a small office with a desk and a bunch of blueprints of various residences - we wondered if they were going to try to sell us a timeshare.  Thankfully, no, we just chilled in the office until a golf cart took us over to the helicopter boarding area at 09:30.  We waited about 10-15 minutes, watching one helicopter go by only to realize it wasn’t ours, until our helicopter landed nearby.

The helicopter flight was about perfect, making up for whatever we missed in Seychelles, the thick haze in Dubai, the clouds in Bora Bora, etc.  There was a small sliding window that we could open such that we didn’t have to worry about reflections, and we were both on the same side of the helicopter, so the pilot (a woman with a South African accent, we can’t remember her name) made sure to orient the helicopter for us to get the best views of everything.  

When we left Avalon, we headed south to the south coast, then went west along the south coast, passing by our hotel along the way.  Shortly thereafter we arrived at Le Morne and the underwater waterfall (which the pilot explained was an optical illusion based on the sand being swept out to sea), and after two passes around the area to make sure we got we wanted (we did) we headed to Chamarel to see the 7-colored earth.  From there we saw more waterfalls (actual ones this time) to the east, then the giant statues in Grand Bassin, and just like that we were back in Avalon.  All told we were in the air about 30 minutes total.  We saw what we wanted, and whilst we had to wait a week, it was worth the wait.

After reuniting with Bernard at Avalon, he drove us north towards Port Louis.  Along the way he pointed out some interesting mountains and rock formations, including Pieter Both, which looked like a person’s profile because of a large balancing rock on top.  We seemed to zig-zag from road to road to head north, never staying on the same road more than 10-15 minutes.  We skirted the eastern edge of Port Louis and ended up at the Pamplemousses Botanic Garden, reputed to be the oldest botanic garden in the southern hemisphere.

It reminded Justin of the botanic garden in Bogor on Java, because the specimens were so old (and thus so tall), with not much at eye level, and a lot of open space.  There were a lot of missing signs, so it was tough to tell what everything was.  Bernard walked us towards a giant Baobab tree, and then to a blooming Talipot palm (Corypha).  We saw several palms that we have, albeit much taller than ours.  Because winter was approaching, there wasn’t really anything in bloom.  Bernard showed us two types of tortoises, the Aldabra tortoises and a smaller one that was much more yellow.  We also walked past a large pool full of giant water lillies (Victoria amazonica).  After the “circuit” was completed, Justin did a little extra walking whilst Crystal hung out in the shade.  Justin walked for about 15-20 minutes more to see some of the things that Bernard hadn’t showed us, then he met back up with Crystal.

From the botanic garden we drove for just a couple minutes to a local restaurant, La Poule D'Or.  Crystal got a ginger chicken dish and Justin got a curry chicken.  Both came with samossas and rice.  We had some water, and Justin had some rum as well.  The restaurant was full of people, most of them speaking French.  As with pretty much everywhere we’d eaten, the food was good but unspectacular, a solid B to B+.

After lunch Bernard drove us to a souvenir shop in Floreal, near Curepipe.  We thought we were there just for rum tasting, but right when we got in they started trying to sell us some Persian carpets.  Justin stopped them short, thanking them, but telling them we had nothing but tile in our house because of our dogs, and he stopped showing us carpets and proceeded to start showing us cashmere sweaters.  We stopped this short as well, saying we lived in Hawaii and had no need for any sweaters.  “Do you like rum?”  “Yes, very much.”  So now we proceeded to do some rum tasting.  One of them, Penny Blue, was very tasty and we got a bottle (technically, it was two half bottles).  Crystal was a big fan of the Dodo bottle, which we’d seen in the Rum Shed the night before, but the price was a little steep.

Our next stop was at the dormant/extinct volcano in Curepipe, which was now a lake.  It just looked like a regular lake, not a volcanic crater.  This reminded us of the story of Lake Toba on Sumatra in Indonesia.  Scientists knew there was a supervolcanic eruption 75,000 years ago, and based on ice core deposits and also ground deposits in and near Indonesia, scientists were very certain the eruption was on Sumatra, only they couldn’t find anything that resembled a volcanic crater, and certainly not a volcanic crater large enough to be a supervolcano.  Based on data they honed in around Lake Toba, looking for anything and everything that might be the crater, until they eventually had the epiphany that the lake (100 kilometers by 30 kilometers) was the crater - it was so big that they hadn’t considered that perhaps it was the crater, but sure enough it was.

After the volcanic lake, we stopped at a small botanic garden in Curepipe, built around the “Lonely Palm”, a Hyophorbe amaricaulis, the last known specimen on the planet.  For decades scientists have been attempting to cultivate seeds from the palm, get clones from tissue cultures, anything they could think of, but so far nothing has worked.  So for the time being, the palm is the end of an era, and hopefully it will make it long enough for there to be a scientific breakthrough that can extend the species.  As with Lonesome George in the Galapagos, and the Northern White Rhinos at the San Diego Safari Park, its always a bummer to see the last of some species, as the specimen has absolutely no clue it is the last, and is just trying to live its life in peace and tranquility.

Driving south from Curepipe, Bernard told us the story of his friend Janice.  She adopted plenty of stray dogs and cats (by the way, stray dogs were everywhere in Mauritius, and we always were on the lookout to make sure we weren’t going to hit one), and adopted a local boy that was the product of incest.  She was kind to everyone, and trusting of everyone, and that eventually did her in, as some local youths murdered her a few years back.  Before she passed she had Bernard watch her house and the pets, and stocked the fridge and freezer before leaving for Scotland for a bit.  It was an awful story, and very moving.  It’s too bad when bad things happen to good people.  Shortly before we got back to the south coast, Bernard did a drive-by of a Tamil temple that was very colorful.

We got back just before 16:30, and decided to do the “Rum Initiation” that was at the Red Ginger Bar at the hotel.  Justin had noticed this was a daily event when he walked around the grounds, but he noticed it after 16:30.  The options were 3 shots, 6, 9, or 12.  This seemed excessive (if not dangerous), and Crystal requested the 3 and Justin the 6.  The first one was New Grove white (your basic white that tastes like medicine and should be used for nothing but mixed drinks), then New Grove Oak (aged 3 years), and then New Grove Shanti Maurice Private Cask - it was very tasty, and 100 proof.  

Somewhere along the line we showed the bartender our collection of rums in Hawaii, and he said “you must be rum conossieurs,” and decided to give Crystal the 6 rums for the price of 3.  Number 4 was New Grove Vanilla, which was even better than the Chamarel vanilla, tasting like ice cream.  Number 5 was New Grove Merisier (which was aged 7 years in oak and 1 year in Merisier, a red wine) - it was good, but we weren’t a huge fan of the red wine barrel flavor.  Number 6 was New Grove Old Tradition 10 years, and it was also very good.  By this time the shots were getting larger, not smaller, perhaps we made the mistake(?) of saying “we’re professionals” as we downed shot after shot.  As a bonus, we got a seventh rum - Chamarel 8 years - which was hyper decanted with a hot glass of water underneath the rum glass. 

Sober - or seemingly sober - we unsuccessfully tried to get fins for our snorkel trip the next day.  We’d gotten around just fine in Socotra and Seychelles sans fins, and we hoped this wouldn’t be any different.  We hung out in the room for a bit, and did our Duolingo, so we must’ve been at least somewhat with it.  We had dinner at Stars, the main restaurant, where we had our choice of the normal menu, plus an Asian menu and an Indian menu.  Crystal got lamb roganjosh whilst Justin got some sort of Swiss veal and potato dish, and these dishes actually were an A.

From our seat we saw 4 tables right on the beach, and we determined it was a Beach BBQ buffet.  After we finished our dinner we made reservations for the Beach BBQ for the next night.  We then walked back to room and looked for a movie on the TV.  The best option was Matrix 2, but it wasn’t very good and so we didn’t watch much.  Justin went through the underwater waterfall pictures and picked out 6 for Crystal to choose from for a metal print in Hawaii.  We had already picked out one from UAE, Yemen, and Seychelles, but needed to order all 4 tonight since this was the last day of the sale at Bay Photo.  It was a good thing we got our underwater waterfall photos today and didn’t have to wait even a day longer.  Whilst Justin went through the photos, Crystal got us a car for our drive back from LAX to San Diego.  Out of nowhere, we got a message that Bernard (who apparently also goes by Imran - we hoped we hadn’t just heard his name that wrong) wouldn’t be with us tomorrow.  We weren’t exactly sure why, but it wasn’t a happy surprise as we’d enjoyed our time with him.