Meet PEM

Just two days of all inclusive and we started getting itchy feet. So much for a relaxing five day break. So we hired a lime green micra with matching picnic hamper and we were off to the capital, Port Louis. After a fairly uneventful trip passing the sugar cane fields of Mauritius we parked up and headed for the markets. Rows upon rows of exotic fruits and veg that we have never seen before let alone tasted, spice stalls and fake football shirts made up the majority of the huge markets. With my pale skin once again causing quite a stir we legged it to the much more westernised side of the capital where tacky souvenir shops lay.

The boys quote of the honeymoon:

"So where does the saying 'dead as a dodo' come from?"

I looked at him bemused before he added...

"Is it because they look dead?"

I was both astonished and appalled. When I explained to my nearly forty husband that dodos were extinct he replied...

"Really? Like dinosaurs? Or are there still a few knocking about?"

I married this boy!!! God help me!

A bit of Dodo history (after googling to prove to the boy):

The dodo lived happily on the island of Mauritius until explorers bought over cats and dogs. With the dodo being a flightless bird they were killed off by said cats and dogs. Humans fault again, now you know.

Anyway, a trip to a new country is not complete without a souvenir. We met a great guy PEM (pictured) a local wood carver who was very chatty and upbeat, with his tiny little shop, loving life and probably also pot! We bought the piece he is holding. We will probably regret it when we are home but hey, we have hopefully kept him fed for the next week or so.

Heading north to explore more of the island we later ventured back for another tasty Asian meal, plenty of cocktails, wine and flamenco slash samba slash tango dancing.