La Reunion

 



Next up was a quick tour of two islands east of Madagascar: Réunion and Mauritius. Despite the close proximity of these three islands, they are all very different in culture and quality of life.

We visited Réunion first. Believe it or not, it's actually a part of France! We thought it would have more of an `island feel`but it definitely felt like Europe, with little cafes, people out jogging, and fancy cars everywhere. It was such a big change for us from our first three months that we experienced a bit of culture shock. Everything was extremely expensive and we didn't encounter the friendliest people.

During our quick four days here, we spent some time at the beach, but we didn't swim. Réunion is known for the high number of shark attacks it has. The island rises quickly out of the ocean and there is no coral reef to protect it, so it is not safe for swimming. Plus, it's very rocky and wavy!

I celebrated my birthday while we were here, and we wanted to make it special. As you can imagine, that's difficult to do when every day of our trip already feels like a new adventure. So, we made sure to do something I'd never done before: we climbed an active volcano!

Now, I'll point out first that this volcano is not dangerous to climb. Most of the time it lays dormant, its hot lava bubbling below the earth. When it does erupt, it's not explosive, meaning the lava comes up over the side and flows down to the ocean. It does not spew lava up into the air. The third thing that makes it safe to climb is that there are volcanologists who constantly monitor the volcano's activity, and we were told they would alert climbers if they detected anything.

The volcano is called Piton de la Fournaise (remember they speak French in Réunion), and it's the island's second highest peak. It is very popular to climb, so we definitely were not alone. The hike was difficult, 15 Km in total, taking us down 580 steps, across a flat plain of hardened lava, and up and around the side of the volcano to a spot at the mouth that's safe to stand on. The sun was hot, as was the heat radiating off the blackened ground. But the views were incredible!

At the top we were a little disappointed that there was no red lava on the inside, but I was proud of doing the climb and excited to have tried something new!

Looking into the mouth of the volcano!