Posts Tagged ‘Cheap Flights’
Part of the Mascarene Islands, the Republic of Mauritius is off the coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, 900 km (560 mi) east of Madagascar. The republic consists of five islands: St Brandon, Rodrigues, two Agalegas Islands and Mauritius itself.
The latter was originally uninhabited, but the Dutch named the island and established a colony that was seized by the French in 1715. They renamed the place Ile de France and built a prosperous economy based on sugar. But the British took the island in 1810 and it reverted to the original name.
Independence was granted in 1968 and this Commonwealth country is a stable democracy with one of Africa’s highest per capita incomes. This might be guessed by a visitor to Port Louis, who finds a sophisticated place with a cluster of high and medium rise buildings that might be mistaken from afar as the downtown area of a small American city, were it not for its location beside the azure Indian Ocean, surrounded by lush tropical vegetation.
Tourism has become an increasingly important sector of the economy, which had hitherto been based on sugar plantations and off-shore financial services.
The effort to attract visitors is proving successful, and might not even need the boost of a move to duty-free status. Mauritius is the most accessible island in the Indian Ocean, with wonderful beaches and crystal-clear waters.
Important though these essential ingredients of every tropical holiday destination may be, Mauritius has something extra, friendly people and a vibrant cultural mix that will leave a long-lasting impression.
There is a festival or fiesta practically every week and a tempting variety of ethnic food choices. The place must be good. Author Mark Twain remarked that Mauritius was made before heaven, and heaven modeled on Mauritius.
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Everyone knows that Rhode Island, actually the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is the smallest state in the USA. But not everyone knows that the state and island that gives it a colloquially abbreviated name are not one and the same.
Indeed, the Rhode Island part of the longest state name in America is unofficially called Aquidneck Island to distinguish from the state as a whole.
Now that’s cleared up, what of Rhode Island? It is the largest of several in Narragansett Bay, with its southern shore facing the Atlantic Ocean. The area of this well developed island is 117 sq km (45 sq ml) and it is connected to the mainland by three bridges.
The Newport Bridge goes to Jamestown on nearby Conanicut Island, and thence to the mainland on the western side of the bay. The Mount Hope Bridge in Portsmouth connects the northern side of the island with Bristol. The same area is served by the Sakonnet River Bridge over a narrow saltwater channel to Tiverton. The nearby Stone Bridge was destroyed by Hurricane Carol in 1954. The island is divided into three municipalities: Newport, Middleton and Portsmouth.
The island’s population shrank by a fifth in the 10 years after the US Navy reorganized its major base at Newport in 1973, but is growing again, with over half its area now built over as housing demand increases. But wetland and woodland still occupy a third of the island and there is an active preservation society trying to keep it that way.
After the naval base, the island’s principal revenue generator is tourism. Narragansett Bay is a honeypot for visitors and they come to Rhode Island principally for the beaches and coastline, enjoying related aquatic activities like boating, kayaking, sailboarding, diving and fishing.
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