Today I had all day to myself since everyone was working. I started out fairly early and drove up to Grand Baie, to shoot some video. I shot the beach and some people and stands, atmosphere shots, and then decided to drive to La Vanille, a nature park on the south side of the island. It took me while to find it, but the visit was worth it. It has a patch of virgin rain forest with beautiful birds, monkeys and such, and trails

throughout. I had lunch at the little restaurant which is built on a platform surrounded by the jungle. The sounds and views of the many very colorful birds was lovely. They have crocodiles tanks and monkey cages as well as large tortoises, fruit bats, and so on; all quite interesting. The high point was the giant tortoises, over a hundred of them in a large fences area. One could actually sit on them without hurting them, so I posed on one for a photo. Then I drove back to the hotel to change. In the evening Suren and I drove into Port Louis to meet Clency for dinner. I had invited Munian and Mrs. Montezuma also but they didn't come. Our usual little restaurant on the port was closed, so we went to another more expensive on in the shopping center area. The food was very good, and it was helpful and pleasant for us to spend more time together.