Thursday 31 March 2016

MAURITIUS PART 2. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ISLAND

Here I am in the West side of Mauritius. We decided to stay close to the capital to interact more with the locals. Mauritius is known for their beautiful resorts but we wanted to see more about the city, culture, people, beaches and so on and we were really surprised in a good way. 
We stayed in a beautiful hotel called Villa AnaKao. It is a beautiful old colonial style house, with a lovely swimming pool and very cozy atmosphere. The owners are french and have the same hotel in Senegal. 

 I am wearing: 

Dress: H&M 
Shoes: Adidas 
Hat: Cotton On 

Taking about people and culture, Mauritius has a large Indian population who were brought to the island to work in the cane plantations. They still preserve their traditions as they are transmitted generation to generation. During our time there, they were celebrating Shiva Festivities. Shiva is one of the 3 major deities of Hinduism. Shiva is the destroyer of the world, followed by Brahma the creator and Vishnu the preserver. Shiva is the responsible for change both in the form of death and destruction and in the positive sense of destroying the ego, the false identification with the form. He is also the God of yogis, self control and celibate. 
We went one night to see the peregrination and the next day to see how this celebration would finish. During the peregrination  they were lots of people walking to get to the top of the mountain where there is a big Shiva statue and stayed there praying and doing different rituals. 
 We walked a small portion of the peregrination and people were very generous giving food, very tasty spiced tea and motivation to all the pilgrims. It was a wonderful experience! 

 During the  last day, we went to the North to get to know The Grand Baie: A beautiful beach with white sand and crystal water. 
We made a picnic with friends and stayed in the sea talking until dark. This was so peaceful and so special. We were spoilt with one of the most amazing sunsets I could ever see. 

 I must say that I was  expecting less from this trip but I went home wanting to come back. 

If you are planning to visit Mauritius, do it! It is so worth it. 

Watch the video of our trip here.


Thursday 24 March 2016

MAURITIUS PART 1. RELAX AT FOUR SEASONS RESORT ANAHITA

The Republic of Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 kilometres off the southeast coast of the african continent. The island is multiethnic, multi religious, multicultural, and multilingual. I went there with my husband for one week and we split the trip in 2 parts: the first 5 days we stayed in the East Coast in an area called Anahita, at Four Seasons Resort. The other 3 days, we went to the West Coast of the island and stayed very close to Port Louis, the capital. 
This post is about our first part of our trip at Anahita :)
Four Seasons Anahita has 136 villas built in 26 hectares of exotic palm tress and tropical nature. Our villa was so beautiful. It had kitchen, living room, dinning room, terrace with a garden and a bathroom with inside and outside shower. What I like the most was the private splash pool where we swam every morning and every night before going to bed. 
 The outside shower was also one of my favorite parts of our villa. 
 Breakfast was the perfect time to try and taste the variety of pastries,  anti-pasties, breads and different types of cheese that the hotel settled in a beautiful and unique presentation. 
 After trying everyday something different from this section, I always finished my breakfast time having Eggs Benedict, so delicious!  
The swimming pool area was perfect for relaxing. All the waiters were so attentive and  always had a big smile in their faces. 
I must say the sushi of the restaurant that is next to the pool, was so good! I ordered sushi everyday for lunch, it was that yummy that I sticked with it and didn´t want to try anything else.
Four Seasons also offers many water sports activities. I enjoyed so much doing paddling on board every day. If I were living by the sea, I will do this twice a day! so I took advantage of being there and did it as much as I could. 
 We couldn't missed to go to do snorkeling, besides seeing the underwater life, I was so astonished by the landscape and the mountains that we could spot from the open water while snorkeling, something unique that made this experience so special. 
Another nice aspect that we liked a lot about the hotel was the different beaches and places to go during the day. 
  The reason we flew to Mauritius was that my husband won an award thanks to his good performance during last year. The company he works for awarded the best ones in each position. I was and I am still very proud of him! Every night we had a cocktail or an event along with other colleagues of him who traveled to Mauritius from different parts of the world. 
Here, I am ready for the welcoming party. 
 I am wearing:

Jumpsuit: YDE (Young Designers Emporium)
Heels: Cotton On 
Clutch: Forever 21 

How cool was the set up of the Award´s Night? 
During our last day at Anahita, we went with friends to a waterfall. Mauritius has amazing landscapes and very exotic nature which reminds me a lot of my country. 
 It was so wonderful to explore to East Coast of Mauritius! 
Here we were ready to head to the West Coast. The adventure continues... 

Stay tuned. In my next post, I will take you through the other side of the island with pictures and a very cool video.

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Read also my review about Four Seasons Johannesburg here: http://www.agirlinafrica.com/2015/12/weekend-at-four-seasons-west-cliff.html