Reunion Island

Thursday September 30, it’s great to back on land again! shortly after docking at the Marina Titan in Le Port, customs officers arrived at the boat. I had previously completed required forms and sent to them via email. This check-in was the quickest ever. Passports stamped!

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Reunion Island has no Indigenous peoples. It was an uninhabited island until 1646 when a group of mutineers fleeing from Madagascar arrived. 20 years later, the French arrived with slaves. Around 1715 there was an economic boom, as a result of coffee exports. In 1763 the population was 22,000 total inhabitants – 4,000 whites, 18,000 slaves. 1796 brought the end to slavery in the Southern Hemisphere. Then in 1802 at the end of the French Revolution, Napoleon re-established slavery. 1807 brought floods and cyclones destroying coffee plants, then sugar cane became the popular crop. 1848 brought the end of slavery, again. 1870 there was an economic crisis with the opening of the Suez Canal, ending the desire for ships to stop at Reunion Island. March 19, 1946 colonialism ends, and Reunion officially becomes a French Overseas Department. The official currency is the Euro, 2013 population 850,000. Today the island is approximately 36% African, 30% European, 30% Indian, 4% Asiatic.

Midmorning we walked to the other side of the basin where there are a few marine stores. Always in search of boat parts!

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant in the area. Everything was in French, but chef was kind enough to help translate for us. Google translate would not identify the handwritten chalkboard menu.

For dinner, we walked to a tapas bar, Bistrot à l’abordage, for drinks and food.

Friday October 1, laundry day. We actually found a coin operated laundromat! Lately we’ve used laundry services, as that’s what was only available. On our way there we stopped at A laVille du Port for raspberry croissants.

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At the laundromat, I met a woman named Florelle. She was very helpful interpreting the signs. The machines take tokens rather than money, you buy tokens from a coin exchange machine on the wall. We had a lovely conversation via google translate. She grows the most beautiful hibiscus and orchids!

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Saturday October 2, boat washing morning, to get all the Indian Ocean salt off! Later we walked into town with wagon in tow. Destination the grocery store. Nothing we really needed, just wanted to check it out. We did pick-up a few items; eggs, juice, lunch meat, wine. Almost all stores close 1 or 2 hours at noon for lunch.

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Sunday October 3, stores and restaurants are closed on Sundays, so it was quite a lazy relaxing day. A few boat projects for Dan, I spent a good amount of time investigating different blog templates. I wanted to add a sidebar with archived posts by months. I like the new layout, looks best via a computer… hope you do too.

Monday October 4, Le Rebelle arrived here in Le Port this morning.

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A good resource on what to do when we arrive anywhere, is a stop at the Tourist Information center. We picked-up several pamphlets and maps.

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For lunch we stopped at La Petite Brasserie. I had a Caesar salad (leftovers for dinner), Dan had raw tuna. The presentation, service and food was excellent!

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Tuesday October 6, we picked-up a rental car, we’ll have it for at least week. Dan drove to marine store to purchase the bulky items too big to carry, like 160 feet of rope for new Genoa sheets.

Later we drove to the mall, where there is a very large Carrefour grocery store. Larger than the one Papeete, Tahiti!

Wednesday October 6, every Wednesday morning there is a fabulous farmer’s market across from the Paroisse Sainte Jeanne d’Arc church.

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Later we repaired the bimini tear. It is difficult to remover the canvas panel to machine sew it, since we would have to remove the third solar panel. As a result, together we hand sewed it.🧵

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