To Market, To Market - Port Mathurin, Ile Rodrigues

Saturday is the big Market Day in Port Mathurin. There's a certain energy in the air on market day in small towns. People from all over the island come to sell their wares or buy their fresh food for the week. It's a social time. Several people had advised us to get there early. Since the sun rises here around 0515 at the moment, it's not hard to get up early. In fact, with the sun so bright, it's hard to sleep in. We were up and in the dinghy headed to shore by 0630.  

There was a buzz on the street. People were all heading in the same direction, chatting as they walked, stopping to shake hands or hug a friend or neighbor along the way. The main marketplace is a huge covered hall with mostly veggie vendors inside who seem to be the “regulars”. Alongside the market hall, a pleasant pedestrian alley away, was a line of meat, poultry and fish vendors, all in their own little shops. We purchased some fresh chicken for dinner. We had seen what looked like strings of sausage drying on a rooftop on an earlier visit into town. Sure enough, today the sausage was on sale at the market.

A few vendors were still setting up when we arrived, but all the fresh fruit and veggie vendors had their wares displayed and were already conducting a brisk business. A slice of squash here, some tomatoes or apples there. We purchased onions at one stall, garlic at another and broccoli and tomatoes at yet another. We do our best to spread the wealth. Fruits included local papaya, bananas and small, sweet pineapples, as well as imported melons, citrus and Australian apples. We stocked up. As usual, figuring out the new currency was a challenge. 25 rupees for onions? Are you crazy? Oh, yeah, that's less than a dollar. Okay. Let's see which coins or bills make up 25 rupees?

Vendors were set up all along the street outside the market hall and the perimeter. One fellow had a mountain of coconuts and he was hacking off the tops for his customers and supplying straws for coconut water.

Behind the hall, women sold their baked goods … beautiful tarts with papaya, pineapple, coconut or banana fillings. The crusts were golden brown and very decorative … some even spelling out Rodrigues or the flavor of the tart. We couldn't resist. We chose a pineapple-papaya tart for our evening's dessert.

The two main souvenir items for the island are woven items of straw made into hats and baskets and small, colorful jars (they call them “pots”) of spicy sauces in various flavors. We checked them all out, and bought three small pots to try. I also chose three small souvenirs that might be good mementos of our Rodrigues visit.

After wandering around for several hours, we found an open air “food court” for an early lunch. All the locals seemed to be gathering here for a bite to eat. Little kiosks offered different fares. Hot dogs, rotis, octopus delights. We tried a fried rice concoction that was very tasty … two full plates for $5 including Cokes in old-fashioned bottles. We sat at a nearby picnic table with some locals and chatted in a mix of French and English.

By Noon, the market was winding down. Vendors packed up their wares. Buyers, laden with their week's freshies, headed back home. All the local shops close at Noon on Saturdays as well. The buzz dissipated. The streets emptied for “le weekend” … life in a small town on a small island.

First Glance - Port Mathurin

Rested, after a good night's sleep, we were ready to launch the dinghy and do a bit of exploring in Port Mathurin, Rodrigues' largest “city” and port. Rodrigues, pronounced the French way by the locals as Rod-reeg, was discovered and named by the Portugese explorer, Diego Rodriguez, in 1528. It was originally settled by French Hugenots fleeing France to escape religious persecution. The French subsequently colonized the island and, though it was ruled by the British from 1809 till its independence in 1968, it remains very French.  

From the moment we passed through the port gate onto the street, we were charmed. We were reminded of the French Caribbean islands, especially Martinique, as we saw the colorful shops and French signs and narrow streets. There was no doubt in our minds, we were going to enjoy Rodrigues.

We had our priorities. First, we needed to pay the port health fee … 1,352 Mauritian Rupees (Rs) … which necessitated finding a bank and an ATM. Barclays Bank was easy to find. We inserted our ATM card and voila … out popped ten colorful, well-used 1,000 Rs notes. The exchange rate is currently 30Rs to $1US, so we'd withdrawn about $333US. The port cashier made it very plain that no change was provided, so we needed exactly 1,352Rs which meant we needed to buy something to get change. No problem. We hadn't spent anything in two weeks, we were primed for spending.

Our second priority was figuring out internet, so we decided to do that first in hopes of getting some change, so we could then pay our port fees. We found the Orange building … yes, that's the name of one of two phone/internet companies here … bought a dongle so we could do internet on the boat and in doing so, got the correct change. Though we bought and registered the dongle, it would take two hours for it to become activated, so we needed to return later to purchase internet time. Very complicated. In the meantime, we found the port cashier and paid our fee. We stopped into the little Tourist Info office to get more info about what “to see and do” on the island, but there wasn't much info available. We'd have to rely on other cruiser's notes and my research. We did, however, find the name of a little restaurant for lunch and headed a few blocks away to Tirozo for a delightful lunch.

David had crab curry and I had an encrusted chicken dish (think McNuggets with a French flair) and we both tried the local Mauritian beer, Phoenix, which was very cold and very good.

The streets are very narrow with no sidewalks. Motorbikes, trucks and cars whiz by, honking at pedestrians to move out of the way. Luckily, most of the streets are one-way and we quickly got into the habit of hugging the curb and walking up streets where we could face oncoming traffic.

En route back to the Orange store, we found the boulangerie (bakery) where we purchased two fresh baguettes for 20 cents each (oh, my!). We also found the post office and purchased a few stamps in anticipation of finding some post cards to go with them. The local grocery, Rousetti, was just getting in all its new stock from the supply ship and the lines were long. We figured we'd wait to check that out later. The whole downtown area is probably only 6 x 4 blocks, so figuring out where we were and where to go wasn't complicated, nor were the walks much of a distance.

I think Rodrigues will be a photographer's heaven. There are neat old buildings along each narrow street, some hopelessly abandoned, others with colorful murals on them. It's a very third world place with lots of friendly, smiling faces and a laid-back attitude. Tomorrow is the big weekly market and we're looking forward to it. In the meantime, internet for the first time in two weeks. Yahoo!

Relaxing in Rodrigues

The anchorage was tight. We were very tired and it seemed, oh, so easy, to just tidy up Nine of Cups and relax … not rush ashore at all or even launch the dinghy, even though it was early in the day. We wanted to see how Cups would lie midst the other boats, but really, we had no interest in doing much other than just hanging out. After the officials all left, we were content to sit in the cockpit, drink a cuppa and get a feel for our new neighborhood. The big excitement of the day was that the supply ship/ferry, Mauritius Trochetia, had arrived just before we did and she was unloading. All of the yachts that had been tied up to the dock had been required to move off and leave the harbor while the big ship came in, turned around and docked. We arrived, it seems, shortly after six other yachts had returned to the harbor and anchored.  

We watched with interest as the ship's big cranes systematically cleared the decks of containers and then her three holds opened up and all sorts of goodies were unloaded, including several trucks and automobiles. The island's not that big … 46 sq miles (108 sq km), but we can hear the sound of a steady stream of cars, trucks and motorcycles passing by the port and here were a few more to add to the mix.

We watched the local fishermen sail out onto the reef to fish and then sail back again later in the day. Octopus is plentiful here, along with crab and other assorted shellfish.

There was a distinct fish smell on deck that we couldn't identify until we found a very stiff, smelly flying fish trying to make an exit through the cockpit drain...a souvenir of our recent passage. He was overboard quickly and we were left with only the usual boat smells … diesel, bilge … you know what I mean.

After some champers, a good dinner and a movie, we headed to bed … our own, comfy bed and slept soundly till first light. With the time change of 2-1/2 hours, that happened to be about 0515. The ship's crew had worked the whole night through and the emptied decks were now stacked with containers, huge propane tanks (presumably empty), livestock containers and one marked “luggage”. The tugs moved into place and at 0800 sharp, Mauritius Trochetia sounded a blast and began casting off her lines.

As soon as she was in the channel, there was a mad dash by the anchored yachts to claim a space along the dock. We figured we were last in, so we'd wait to see if there was any space available. There wasn't, but no worries. We were happy to stay put. We'll launch the dink and head into town today, but no rush.