Mauritius 1, Port Louis
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:59
| Mauritius was discovered by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, settled by the Dutch in the seventeenth and abandoned by them in 1710 before being colonised by the French in 1715. They lasted until 1810 when the British took over - though preserving French language and customs. Independence came in 1968. The island has a very heavy Indian presence as a result of the indentured labour scheme that replaced slavery and although the official language is English, French and Creole are more widely spoken. It is now one of the most densely populated countries on earth with 1.3m people. Traffic is terrible. Precious little natural habitat remains and huge areas are covered with sugar cane. The whole island is dirty and scruffy with litter all over the place. The VS crew didn’t like it much overall; OK for a resort beach holiday perhaps, but there are better places, quite frankly. Here are a few street scenes from the capital Port Louis:    The first picture is of the old British government house with Queen Victoria on guard outside - one of very few signs left of the British presence. The second shot is a typical bustling street near the market while the third shows the inside of the quite wonderful huge Victorian market hall, still in use every day. The city centre boasts a few nice old buildings, mostly sadly dilapidated:      One exception is the magnificent central Victorian Gothic mosque from about 1850:    The remainder of the capital is mostly modern, often extremely ugly. |