This seemed to us like a breath of fresh air. It is a trilingual country and though you mostly hear French or Mauritian Creole, everyone speaks English (it is the language used in Parliament). It was easy to find fresh food and the fixings for a salad were soon procured and dished up. I have to admit though; our first meal out was a hamburger. It was sure nice to have a regular style hamburger, as we know it, to eat. At least the meat wasn’t a dime size piece of something that looked like beef in the middle of a soggy bun. The architecture here is a real mix of old colonial, modern and stuff in between. Some has been maintained and some not, just like in any city. There is even a windmill, left over from the memory of the Dutch occupation. Unfortunately they abandoned the colony in 1710, after being here less than 100 year. The French soon had the land in hand but then the British took over in 1810 till Mauritius got independence in 1968. It is a very multicultural society as everyone here has descended from immigrants. There were never any natives living here before the first traders made this a pit stop on their way around the world. This all adds to the colorful character of Mauritius. We have a choice of Mall shopping (like any modern city) adjacent to modern motorways to street hawkers hanging out in side streets that are more like alleyways. There was even a traditional fresh food market that was to die for. The aromas of fresh food were refreshing to the senses and the hustle and bustle of the market was entertaining. Across the alleyway, fresh meat was sold in a similar market form. Just pick the cow, pig, sheep, or chicken (along with a few other types of meat that don’t factor into our diet) that looks the best and they cut the steaks for you. I wasn’t sure what to do. On one hand we have a range of restaurants to choose from that are not too expensive and on the other we have all the fresh food we could ever want to fix whatever we like. Such a hard decision. The marina is cheap to stay at ($11 USD per day all inclusive) and there is a reasonable bus system so we will stay here till we are sick of the hustle and bustle.