Exploring Mauritius

It is common in Mauritius to go on school trips by bus with the whole class, what we commonly call “excursions” in French. As a kid I would always look forward to that annual trip where we would usually visit a new place and enjoy a picnic by the beach.

Now as adults , we can keep the same spirit and have family or friends as co travelers instead of classmates.

This month we visited the Vanilla Plantation in St Julien d’Hotman, found in the district of Moka ( located in the middle of Mauritius if you look on the map) .Yes, I did look at Google map before the trip and missed my Atlas book!

We made a stop at Alma on our way to St Julien to have a coffee from our thermos bottles while eating sandwiches and admiring beautiful flowers and the iconic chimney, remnants of sugar estate.

Once we reached the Vanilla Plantation, we were greeted warmly by a nice lady in the cooperative shop where they sell vanilla, spices, homemade jams and other Mauritian Souvenirs.

Got this yummy pineapple jam to bring home

She gave us a guided tour of the Vanilla Plantation where we also saw Cacao plants and other beautiful fruit trees. The plantation also cultivates spices and aromatic herbs through aquaponic and permaculture methods.

Homemade jams are also prepared there using the local fruits and sugar cane juice and we had banana fritters ( gato banane) with the jams for tasting. We also tasted their honey.

Fresh sugar cane juice tasting- so good that I wanted a bigger cup!

I had booked lunch at the Vanilla Plantation and it was a surprise vegetarian menu ( personally I am perfectly fine eating vegetarian but to be honest I was a bit nervous in case others in the group did not like the food). Fortunately they were all delighted with the food, presentation and service. Everything on our plates came from the garden, including the edible flowers.

I particularly loved the fresh fruit salad of papaya and pineapple which we had for dessert. I could see the vanilla caviar mixed with the fruits and it was so refreshing and yummy.