Port Louis, Mauritius

After a crossing of the Indian Ocean from Australia, we arrived in Port Louis, the capital of the island nation of Mauritius, off the coast of Madagascar and Africa.  This is the first of five ports in Africa that we will be visiting (our original itinerary had one stop in Africa).

Port Louis has a population of approximately 150,000 and is a very busy multicultural city due to a varied history of colonization, slavery, and immigration.  It is currently a major financial center, an important industry along with tourism.  While cruise ships call on Port Louis, it is much less common than other ports we have been to.  The last time Princess Cruises had called on Port Louis was in 2020, prior to the pandemic.

After being dropped off by the port-provided shuttle bus at the Caudan Waterfront area, we wandered around the city for a while looking at the Central Market, Chinatown (no longer very Chinese) and other parts nearby before heading back to the waterfront area for lunch.

We had lunch at the Ocean Basket, apparently part of an international chain of seafood restaurants based in South Africa.  They have a wide variety of types of food on the menu, and we decided to share several plates.

Next, we had a final drink on shore at a different place prior to heading back to the ship.  We had a nice conversation with some of our fellow cruise ship passengers there; it is interesting that we keep meeting new people from our ship that we don’t remember seeing before – they had been on the ship since we were in Los Angeles.

It was an interesting city based on our brief stay, and it was nice to have a day on shore after seven days at sea.