Our last full day and it started raining and never stopped. We went to Port Louis to meet up with Anjali and Gautam who were spending the day trying to get their paperwork arranged to get the tax rebate on a new car available to returning ex-pats and visit the market but the weather prevented us from venturing into the old Chinese quarter. We had some coconut water from a vendor Miranda has been going to for years.After you have drunk the water he cuts open the nut and you eat the flesh.It's more gelatinous than the coconuts at home and absolutely delicious.Another foodstuff we had been looking for were the local chili flavoured fried lentil balls,gateaux pimment.Not long ago they were the only fast food available but now sadly the locals want pizza,burgers and the like. Thankfully some locals directed us to the one man who had them in the food hall.We had the last few and each one cost the princely sum of 3 pence. An opportune moment to get rid of our loose change. The market was full of fruit and veg that we had never seen before and the aroma of all the spices wafted around us as we picked our way through the stalls to avoid the torrential rain outside.An underground walkway allowed us to cross the road back to the waterfront where had a drink waiting for a lull before the dash to the car park. In really bad weather this walkway is closed as a sudden wall of water once filled it up so quickly the street vendors in it drowned. You then have to take your chance crossing the road which is infinitely more dangerous,particularly in the rain.
In the evening we went to another local restaurant called Moustache ,which has a moustache motif and had a meal with Miranda's old colleague Alexandra who has come to Mauritius from Nice for some winter sun only to find rain .Interestingly the restaurant has a wine shop next door and the wine list is their actual stock. It may be an expensive wine shop but with a minimal mark up was actually very good value.