MTB and Garden Adventure!

Me and Marc woke up at 6 and went mountain biking in the sugar cane fields. It was literally like riding a bicycle on the broken dreams of a 16 year old stripper... I could keep up with Mark (who is 40 something) on the flats and inclines, but on the downhills, I went slow. As in "faster to walk" slow. Bombing jagged loose rocks the size of baseballs covering 45 degree descents on a rigid bike which was only a little worse than a Trek 820 was still pretty fun. My uncle had a badass full suspension canondale with a lefty fork and disc brakes (which still weighed less than my bike) and quite frequently left me in the dust.

I even gave up on the last ascent... I had nothing left to spend. I told him to keep going and that I would wait for him to get back. 30 minutes later, he comes up, still in his kit and helmet and riding a motorcycle, and asks where Ive been. Huh? Evidently he had been looking for me, but neglected to look where I had stopped riding. Oh, Marc!

From mauritius march week 1

Just look at those Manly Quads.

I also have a new nickname? "American Robot." This has been added to a list which includes "Tarzan" and Petite Raffray, which is also the name of a city here.

The next day I went to a place called Pampelmoose or something. It was a bigass garden! I ran around and took pictures. There were big trees, a garden devoted to plants with "medicinal values" and some goats. Hooray! In all honestly, the size of the trees was insane. And I saw tourists with ass cheeks hanging out their shorts.

From mauritius march week 1

Ew? Be glad I wasnt close enough to capture the sweat stains.

A guard there also insisted on taking my picture and talking to me in creole. It made me very nervous.

From mauritius march week 1

But he was nice, I guess.

Look at these lilly pads!

From mauritius march week 1

And I liked this kid.

From mauritius march week 1

Get it? Ha.

OMG INTERNET

I have been gone and aint had no intranets. But for the moment, Im back with stories to tell!

Before I forget: Im allergic to everything. I ran out of my control meds and my emergency meds for allergies and everthing is going to shit... I have hives on my arms and I sneeze more than I have clean breaths of air. I would buy more but its like 5 dollars a day... so Ill get some when I get back to the good ole US of A.

Also, THIS!

From the latest (week dunno)

I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU THEY EXISTED! THATS A "SMALL" MAURITIAN SPIDER.

Okay. now for the good stuff. I went to a city called `Curepipe to stay with my grandmother Noelle about three weeks ago. This is what the city looked like:

From the latest (week dunno)

I ate lots of yummy food, and had steak (!) that I cooked with Mauritian salsa (!) and it was AWESOME. I ran a lot in Curepipe, and went to the gym every day. There was not a whole lot to do. The Curepipe gym was awesome though; pictures of Arnold, lots of space, a African sauna, old tredmills that probably could kill you, lots of rusted freeweights, etc. The owner of the gym was real nice too. He was old! But he taught an abs class because he still had abs at 80 something.

At Noelle's I saw lots of funny stuff. Like this:

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And this:

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And this:

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I went to a house that my family owned at some point or something, and they made tea. More interesting, however, is this giant dog:

From the latest (week dunno)

In curepipe, there was a bike shop! It was next to A BILLION run down buildings and shantys. In the bike shop, there was a bike!!!

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Outside the bike shop, there was poverty and pizza hut.

From the latest (week dunno)

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And other fine mauritian cuisine.

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I went hiking into a vocanic crater, which was awesome and beautiful. There I decided I wanted to grow up to be a bear. It had just rained, and the "path" was either slippery as fuck or disgustingly muddy. But I hiked for about an hour and a half down.

From the latest (week dunno)

From the latest (week dunno)

The whole time I was looking for the Predator.

I left Curepipe to go to a place called Pointe aux Canoneerie or something. It was in the North. There, I spent my time kayaking and praying the cyclone that was coming would hit the island and be badass. It didnt, but I still got to kayak in "rad" waves. This is what the back yard of Noelle's place looked like:

From the latest (week dunno)

I met more family there too!
And I found this picture of my dad. Maybe he was cool once?

From the latest (week dunno)

When I left, I went to the "Raffray Family House" for a family birthday. It was massive, and my parents got married there. I have about 20 pictures of this place, so here is the drive up:

From the latest (week dunno)

My cousin with a turtle:

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(I like turtles)
And me swinging on a vine:

From the latest (week dunno)

Then, I went back to the south where I lived with a nice girl named Melissa and snorkeled at Denis' house constantly. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! I SAW A SCHOOL OF LIKE A THOUSAND FISH COME OUT OF THE REEF!!!! I also found a tunnel in the reef and SWAM THROUGH IT AND IT WAS THE MOST BADASSED THING EVER!!!! Snorkeling is the shit.

A few days later, I went back to the north and kayaked with like 10 members of my family through a mangrove swamp. It was very cool. Today I went biking... but That story is for tomorrow. Also, I have a rash all over both arms (?)

THE END (for now????)