It became Republic in 1992. Within its 720 square miles there are more than 1,000 miles of good roads lines with bougainvillea and flame trees, violet moonscaped mountains, deep craters, wild gorges, thick forest, tumbling streams, twisting rivers, waterfalls, rainbows and shooting stars, villages hidden in lush coastal vegetation, plateau towns with charming old colonial houses, flowers and trees growing out of the red earth in a riot of color and everywhere the green and golden mantle of sugarcane. Beautiful people with soft features, infectious smiles and disarming personalities. Collectively, they make Mauritius the unique place it isn't just another exotic island in the sun, but an island nation shaped by the richness of Asia, Europe and Africa, yet free and fully independent. While preserving their original cultures, they live, work and play together achieving a unity in diversity which offers the rest of us an inspiring vision of tomorrow s cosmopolitan world.
Shop signs are in French, English, or Chinese or in three.
Television and radio programs are broadcast in a dozen languages and there are more than 30 newspapers and magazines for a population of just over a million, but with one of the highest literacy rates in the world. They celebrate almost every festival under the sun from Christmas to the fascinating Hindu Cavadee from Muharram to the Chinese newyear. The spectrum of colors, cultures, customs, creeds, costumes, languages and gastronomical delicacies stimulates the senses and the soul. These lagoons waters are a blend of exotic shades of blue, green turquoise and indigo and astonishingly translucent. The protecting, reef sustains the delicious warmth of the waters, preserves their calm, keeps the little fish an and the big ones out.