I'm a traveler not a tourist

So many month since I have not moved my figure to another country, since I did not spent hours breathing another culture's air. 4 month since I am home and I'm happy about it...but sad also. Sad because I feel the world is not mine anymore, it belongs to those who's turn came to make the bold step and discover it.
In the meanwhile, going back to the places I've been, the people I met, I realized that I am one of the lucky ones, cause I went there and enjoyed  the journey as a traveler, not a tourist.
Just to define the meanings, absolutely from my point of view, the traveler gets involved in the journey, while the tourist sees it somehow from outside. The traveler takes a bus and doesn't hire a car, goes by train or bike not by plane. The traveler eats the traditional food from the food stall on the sidewalk not from the restaurant, he learns a few words and impresses the locals, dresses like them and sings their songs, while the tourist prefers pasta and jeans wherever he goes. The traveler, by default, travels a lot inside the journey to discover more and more places, does not lay on the beach and plays golf all day. He looks at the inhabitants as if they are his brothers and sisters, not locals. He walks in nature and gets impressed by every living piece, even though he saw it before. The travelers feels the journey and makes friends with it, the tourist does it for a change. The traveler is there to learn, learn about himself, life, people; to get inspired, to relax and discover himself among the million others. The tourist is looking for a vacation to get out of his routine, to have fun, drink a lot and smoke a joint (not that it's bad and the traveler would not do that but in different circumstances and different implications :)
Me? I'm a traveler for sure, even though I ate french fries in Rio and McDonalds in Singapore, that was a lack of money :P But from all these places, from all their magic, their culture, I became what I am. They are guilty for me having these thoughts, they are responsible for my daily activities, for my reactions to the life around me, they are responsible for me dressing so colorful or wearing such a long hair. They make me smile and cry sometimes, them, the cultures, their traditions and religions. They make me want to walk a lot and spend time with old people. They make me have strong feelings and love my friends so much but not show them.
You? I suggest to you beautiful reader, be a traveler not a tourist, and your life will pay up.

Mauritius island and the Seven coloured earth

This was for sure one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited in a vacation, but it's definitely after taj mahal on the worldwide atraction list :P Since we stayed in the south of the island, it was quite easy to reach this place, just hopped in a public bus and in one hour we were in the small village of Chamarel, from where we took a not so cheap taxi till up the hill where the Seven coloured earth park is. On the way to the coloured sands we were delighted by the extremely green and wild nature, waterfalls all the ways, climbind up and down on the hill, between rocks and palm trees, just enought walk to make you tired so that when you reach to see the sands, you will feel as free as them and enjoy it to the max. Aparently the composition from the soil is giving the coloures, which is iron and aluminium, from red colours, brown, violet, green, blue, purple to yellow, and even doe the heavy tropical rains from the island, they don't wash away, mix, dissapear...since more than 1960. Now the bad part about this small trip was the weather. Do not let yourselves fooled by the island weathers, cause if there is no sun, just appearing from time to time between the clouds, that does not mean that you won't get tanned...or burned....like I did :D Wear scarfs or cover you neck if having a loose t-shirt and even your nose and forehead if possible. My experience, a cruel neck, forehead and nose burnt...which still shows off after 1 week :| On the way back from the beautiful colours, next stop was Rochester water falls, a hidden place in the middle of the sugar cane plantations, where on the way we found some lovely south african people about which I'm gonna tell you soon.

Mauritius island...planning and impressions

No, no no no no. Definitely not what you see on google images is the right way to express the beauty of this island. That is luxury bulshit that lazy toursist do when getting there, book a 2000 euro hotel and go on yachts every day, playing golf, laying like turtles in the sun...when you can actually go and ride them...the turtles I mean :))
And to clear some first things, the island partains to Africa, even doe it is highly habited by...indians. Apparently with all the invadors during time, in order to populate the island and make money out of it, indian labour was brought from overseas, or should I say overoceans, to work the fields out and export whatever possible to export from there, tea, sugar cane etc. And even if the last invadors leaving a print on the place were british, not everyone speaks english, but for sure everyone speaks french, which was kind of a first for me...to hear indians of all sizes and ages speaking french...


So coming back to vacation types, yes when deciding to spend your vacation on this island, you of course have the option to book an expensive hotel with everything included or not (anyhow it will be expensive) and have all activities within that place, or you have the second option, our option, to book a cheap hostel or hotel in which you will spend time only to sleep and the rest of the day explore the island by bus/foot/car (foot is not really a good decision cause it's quite a big island even if you can barely see it on the world map, but who knows...) And that is exactly what me and my friend did, a cheap but good looking hotel with 22 euros per night per person and travel around the island by bus (again the cheap way to travel in Mauritius, in the condition when the taxi would charge you 10 times more than the public transportation) Of course if you have an international driving license and not afraid of well known crazy indian traffic, rent a car. Problem solved!
Weather? No worries you can find umbrellas and rain coats every corner...cause you would need it. Never in my life even seen so much rain and never ever walked so much in rain. But even weirder than that, one moment it was raining, another moment sun was coming out, in the south of the island it was raining cats and dogs, in the west part it was sunny like hell....For a few moments I found myself in the Bermude Triangle not Indian Ocean :P :))


Mauritius is by far the most beautiful place I'vee seen, a perfect combination of mountains and ocean, all covered in green, could barely see a piece of soil, giving a unique feeling that you are on a piece of land that just pumped out of the ocean one day long ago. We visited quite a few of the natural parks, crocodile park, botanical garden in pout louis (capital city), waterfalls, of course by bus and walking, either on hills and mountains, either in the sugar cane, some good kilometers but surely worth the effort.
My favorite place of them all?
Soon to come the story of the 7 colours of Earth natural park.