Sunday – April 19, 2026 – Port Louis
One of the stops on today’s excursion included large tortoises. Many of them were moving and/or eating. The tortoise in today’s featured photo looked like it was taking a nap. After all, it was the afternoon and it was hot and the turtle looked old. Can you blame him/her (hard to tell gender)?
Today we are going to venture away from Port Louis to explore a bit more of Mauritius. Our first stop was a souvenir shop (surprise, surprise) with high-end products and also low cost items (frig magnets, postcards, etc.). The only thing we found of interest there was a statue in the parking area of a Dodo bird in front of the store. We took a selfie with the bird and reboarded the bus.
Next up was the Sanatan Dharma Hindu temple that had a couple large Buddha statues outside the temple-proper area. One of the statues is still under construction and has a lion standing behind the Buddha. We caught up with Edgar and Cuca (from San Diego) by the other large statue and took their photo (as well as a selfie for us). Drove to the temple parking area and spent about an hour investigating the grounds. I know nothing about the Hindu customs, but I believe each of the statues (Buddhas) I photographed has a specific place in their worship. I just don’t know what each of those I photographed proport to do. There was a 3-headed Buddha which had a plaque explaining it (see gallery), but I didn’t take photos of the other statues to be able to identify each special talent. Here is a link to a site that provides more about the Hindu religion. As we walked around the temple grounds there was a lot of incense burning and bell ringing.
Following our time at the temple we drove to a valley with a beautiful view of the hills and a waterfall. You’ll find several photos and a video of this area in today’s gallery. Not shown is an area on the path to and from the viewpoint where locals sold made-in-Mauritius products. Jan bought a towel that had Dodos in the design on it.
Our next stop was the Chamarel 7 Colored Earth geopark. This site included colored earth, tortoises and a cat (Kelsey is always on the lookout for cats). The napping tortoise in today’s featured photo was at this park. Near the colored earth was the Chamarel Waterfalls which have a couple viewing perches. We stopped for a few minutes so people could capture photos and continued to the next site on the excursion.
Final planned stop of the tour was a small park with a beach. It also had a food stand. We were all getting hungry so Carl, Yvonne, Dorothy, Kelsey, Jan and I ordered fresh food, found a table and enjoyed a cooked-for-us lunch. The last time we got together for a meal was when we ate at the Hard Rock Café in Tokyo almost a month ago (3/23/26). The time sure flies!!!
Last entry in today’s gallery is a time-lapse as we left the Post Louis harbor on our way to La Possession – another stop we have never visited.
The gallery for day 2 in Port Louis is here.