We boarded our Turkish Airlines flight very early in the morning. It was a pleasant surprise to find that our Airbus 330 appeared to have a brand new interior.

Although the flight departs at 1:55 AM, they still served a full dinner. While Nadine decided to eat, the flight attendants make up my bed, I had a drink, put on my noise cancelling headphones and went to sleep shortly after take-off. It was the best sleep I’ve ever had on a plane, because I fell asleep quickly and didn’t wake up until they were serving breakfast about 7 hours later!

We landed in Mauritius a bit ahead of schedule, and deplaned. It was interesting that airline officials were checking boarding passes at the exit of the aircraft, which is not something I’ve seen done often. This particular flight continues on to Antananarivo, Madagascar, so presumably they were making sure that passengers were exiting in the correct city they were ticketed to!

We entered the arrivals hall for passport control, which was nearly empty of passengers, so we were through in just seconds.

The next step was a health control check, which was quick. We entered the baggage hall to find our luggage ready for us (wish baggage was that fast at Pearson airport), which was rather surprising, considering we only got off the aircraft about 10 minutes earlier.

Exiting the terminal building, we found Nadine’s family (who are currently living in Mauritius) waiting for us. We picked up our rental car for the week, and it was time to head to our hotel.

Because our rental for our stay here is a small convertible, it is fortunate that we were able to transfer some of our larger cases to Tsiry’s vehicle, because it would have been interesting trying to fit everything in our small car.

We followed some narrow and winding coastal roads up to Anahita, and arrived at our resort after about 45 minutes. We’re staying at the Four Seasons Resort Mauritius at Anahita, which looks just beautiful. Here we are in the check-in lounge.

After completing the check-in paperwork, we were driven to our villa by golf cart. The villa is very nice, with views and direct access to the beach. Here are some photos of our home for the next 10 days.

Out front, we have a large covered porch, with lounge area and dining table.

Here is the beach at the end of the lawn in front of our villa.

We all then proceeded to the one of the pool areas for a late lunch together.

This time of year the sun sets rather early, about 5:45, and as it was starting to get dark, we wrapped up our lunch. Tsiry and family headed home, and Nadine and I returned to our villa to unpack and rest.

Tomorrow we’ll begin our exploring of this nice island nation.