Hey Queenstownians!
As part of the upcoming YOG festival, our school will be hosting the countries Mauritius and Costa Rica. In preparation for that, the Quest YOG blog Webmasters will be posting some useful information on these countries.
Firstly, let's have Mauritius.
Mauritius is an island located just off the Coast of the African Continent, in the Southwest Indian Ocean, roughly 900km east from Madagascar. The Republic of Mauritius consists of the islands of Mauritius, St. Brandon, Rodriguez & the Agalega Islands.
By itself, the island of Mauritius is renowned for being the only known home of the flightless Dodo bird, which was sighted by Europeans on the island around the 1600s. The Dodo was extinct less than 80 short years later.
The National Anthem of Mauritius is 'Motherland', the lyrics to which can be viewed here.
As a country, they speak English, not unlike Singapore, but their native language is Mauritian Creole. They are also well versed in French.
Their Currency is the Mauritian Rupee, $1 = roughly 22MUR.
The Hindus are the Majority in Mauritius, at about 52% of the population following the religion, while the Roman Catholics number about 2.48%, Muslims at 16.6% and other Religions taking up 3%.
The cuisine of Mauritius is a blend of Indian, Creole, Chinese and European influences. It is common for a combination of cuisines to form part of the same meal.
Leisure activities in Mauritius include deer hunting, quad & mountain biking, abseiling, zip lining, horse riding and trekking. However, all these are most often practiced by the wealthy only. Recreational activities usually revolve around water-based activities for tourists. Examples would include deep sea fishing, windsurfing, water-skiing, cruising in yachts and even submarines.
& this is just the tip of the iceberg in Mauritius' rich diversity and way-of-life.
Do feel free to look it up yourself, or post questions for the webmasters on the tagboard.
-Lex
Labels: Mauritius
10:29 AM
