Tuesday - March 27, 2018

Tuesday – March 27, 2018

We arrived in La Possession on schedule. There was no shore side fanfare. We joined our ship’s tour to Salazie and Waterfalls at 9:00. This took us along the coast road past Ste. Denis where we turned inland. Salazie is in the broken caldera of a 1,000,000-year-old volcano. We had to cross over the mountain to get to they fertile plain and valley.

On the way we stopped at a vanilla plantation. We got to see new plantings, which will take 4 years to mature. Then they will be productive for 25 years. They blossom once a year with a violet-like flower. This must be pollenated by hand within 24 hours of opening. Nine months later one vanilla bean per flower will be harvested. The beans might be cooked and processed to get liquid vanilla. Or they might be dried and shipped to other processers. Or they might be sold to tourists. All of this is labor intensive. We did not buy any vanilla. We are still getting our vanilla from beans we purchased in Hawaii a few years ago.

The winding, steep and narrow road we were now following took us past numerous waterfalls. This side of the island gets rain every afternoon. It pools on the peaks before cascading down the cliffs. Some are small and gentle falls, while others are broad and forceful. The net result is that they are spectacular. We made several photo stops.

We stopped in Salazie for 45 minutes of shopping while the restaurant up the road prepared for us. This was a quaint town reminiscent of small towns we have visited in Norway. It felt like a hikers and climbers haven. The dominant language is French. The smattering of English is just enough to accomplish trade. The currency is the Euro. We managed to keep most of ours. We returned to the coach loaded with pictures and memories.

Five minutes up the road we were seated in a very nice restaurant and treated to a traditional midday meal served family style. It was very good and quite satisfying. Now we started the long ride back to the port. We made more photo stops, including one at Bridal Veil Falls. This was very beautiful.

In Ste. Denis we stopped at a market. This building occupied almost a full square block. In it was merchandise of every kind. This was all hard goods and fabrics. No produce here. The colors were vivid, and the patterns confirmed that we were on our way to Africa. We were told, as we left the coach, that we would have 45 minutes here unless we all returned early. Alice and I were not expecting to do much shopping. Then we got inside. What a surprise this turned out to be. We wandered the aisles looking at everything. Some of this was nice quality some of it was disappointing. I spied my first Kalimbas. They were terrible quality made in Madagascar. I hope to find better examples in Cape Town. We really enjoyed this market. Apparently everybody else did as well. We all returned to the coach having used the full 45 minutes.

We arrived back at the port just before 5:00.  On the way back we again passed the new coast highway being constructed parallel to the road we were on. This will overcome damage from with wave action and rockslides. A large freighter-like vessel is used to raise the concrete section into place.

After we freshened up we went to poolside on Lido deck for the sail away party in honor of the arrival of corporate brass. They will be with us until Cape Town. This was the first of many special activities that will take pace while they are here. It was a great start. It featured excellent music and free drinks to our hearts’ content as advertised in today’s program. The noise level was high but festive. We had a good time. At 6:30 the party ended, and we went to the dining room for dinner.

After dinner and the entertainment, we returned to our cabin, set our clocks back one hour and hit the sack. This had been a long fun-filled day.