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Rodrigues is, as it is currently said, as the crow flies from Mauritius. Towards the west, hardly 1h 30 on board the small ATR 42 which lands smoothly on the landing runway of
Plaine Corail. Yet, it is almost an unwinding time machine that one has the impression of having taken while setting foot on this small island of 104 squares kms.
Rodrigues is a timeless island. Authentic, always very close to its agricultural tradition, which made it, become, for a long time, a sort of granary of Mauritius.
Rodrigues is time, which takes time. A welcoming and proud population, which lives according to its own rhythm: that of rising at dawn, the last bus at 15h, waiting patiently to
fish the octopus which will later be put to dry to make, with its lemons and its small pickled chilies, a culinary speciality of the island, long walks every day as if it was simply a question of rounding the corner
of some rare sinuous roads or that of a hilly path.
As the crow plies from Mauritius and as the 21st district as it is called, after having been dependent, Rodrigues resolutely affirms its specificity and its difference. An authentic and particular character which, though coming from Mauritius, confers to the change of scene.
Taking its name from Don Diego Rodriguez, a captain who stopped over there in 1528, it also had its dodo, the solitaire, another bird which has become extinct, and would have
welcomed the first inhabitants towards 1691. Later, in 1810, it is as from its coasts that the British will launch their conclusive attack against the French to take over Mauritius, then Isle de France.
Today represented by two parliamentary members, administered by an Island Secretary and benefiting of a specific Ministry within the Mauritian Government, this has not less prevented
to keep a different character and rhythm from those of Mauritius.
A peculiarity which attracts a growing tourism. Besides its two main hotels, the Cotton Bay and Mourouk Ebony and a variety of boarding houses, other hotel projects are under
construction.
Between a swim and a walk, one can discover its brilliant coral quarries where the bricks used for the hand saw; visit the Caverne Patate with its amazing stalactites and
stalagmites, where the guide will take pleasure, when attaining the deepest part, to show to you the meaning of complete darkness by putting off his torch; rally the Trou d’Argent where the sea is engulfed; going
for a memorable picnic on the luxurious Ile aux Cocos where one, savors the grilled fish which one can fish; contemplate at Port Sud-Est the sea which, stretches endlessly in an extraordinary and changing painting
of blue; taste, from Pointe Venus, the quietness of the dusk descending on Port Mathurin before the appearance of Venus sparkling in the velvety night.
Simply, taking time to live. This luxury of a time elsewhere gone, here found back.
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