Day 82 – St Denis – Reunion Island

Day 82 Mar 27th – Reunion Island

Planning for this port was a little confusing, since our itinerary listed La Possession as our destination but the town that the shuttlebus would take us to was called St. Denis, a half hour away (about 8 miles.) Based on my preliminary research I didn’t discover that much of interest. Most of the HAL tours involved various sightseeing trips but nothing that caught my eye.

Our plan for today was to take the shuttlebus to St. Denis and wander around looking for some souvenirs, possibly getting something to eat and going back to the ship.

We arrived around 7 AM in a commercial port, and there was nothing in immediate area of any tourist interest. The nearest town was several miles away, but walking wasn’t an option as we weren’t allowed to walk through this port. The only way out was to take the shuttle to the port gate where then catch a second shuttle to St Denis. Some shuttles went all the way to St Denis without stopping at the port gate.

The weather was very pleasant. The latitude is the same below the equator as Hawaii is above the equator, so it’s not surprising that the weather here and the appearance of the island, has a very Hawaiian look.

The Road to St Denis

The road to St. Denis follows the ocean on one side with a very steep rock wall on the other. There is a tremendous problem with rock falls and erosion and we observed numerous fences built to keep rocks from tumbling down onto the road.

Several hundred yards offshore an elevated road was being constructed on pylons that would run from La Possession all the way to St. Denis. At first, we didn’t understand why they would be building this road, at a cost of almost $2 billion, on an island with such a small population. We learned that the road it will replace (the one we were on) closes about 40 times per year due to high surf and rock falls. This offshore highway will keep the traffic flowing between the two cities. Here is a link with more information.

St Denis

The shuttle dropped us off at one edge of the Square La Bourdonnais near the intersection of Place General de Gualle and Avenue de la Victoire. See the map below. I didn’t realize that St. Denis had a population of over 200,000 people. It’s a very bustling city with a lot going on. For some reason we anticipated that this be a much smaller town like Victoria in the Seychelles. St. Denis has twice the population of Papette, Tahiti.

Most people spoke exclusively French in St. Denis with less English than you might expect in a town we initially thought was a tourist town. Euros is the currency used and dollars were not accepted in most businesses.

We incorrectly assumed that there’d be some sort of tourist information center close to the shuttlebus drop off. We walked off towards the waterfront and wandered around the stores and shops within a block or two and were unable to find any type of tourist stores. We couldn’t find any shops selling T-shirts keychains or anything else you’d expect a town like this right on the water. We later heard that there were tourist shops on a tour to the center of the island.

St Denis Casino

There is a casino nearby the shuttlebus stop. They require a passport to gain admission. We didn’t have our passports, but they accepted our passport cards. The casino was rather small and spread out over two floors. There were 110 slot machines on the first floor and 40 slot machines on the second floor. Two roulette wheels along with four automated roulette wheels. There were two tables in the corner for some card games.

It was surprising to hear the clank and clang of actual coins dropping into trays from the slot machines. These slot machines were old-school in that they still used coins to play instead of cards, vouchers or bills. The coins they used were 1 Euro metal tokens. I bought a few souvenir chips/tokens at the Cashier cage and we were on our way.

The Grand Marche

As we were walking back to the shuttle stop, we met a few people we knew from the ship. They told us there was a market (The Grand Marche) a few blocks away that might sell some tourist souvenirs. We decided to walk up Avenue de la Victoire to find the market. The Grand Marche was about ½ mile from the shuttle bus stop.

There weren’t any produce, meat or fish here, only dry goods and mostly souvenirs. The place seems to cater to tourists. We spent about a half an hour browsing the various stalls before we headed out to the street to walk back to the ship, not buying anything.

Rain was in the forecast, but so far, the skies were clear and it was a pretty nice day. This all started to change as we left the market. Gray clouds moved in quickly and rain soon followed. By now we wished we had brought our umbrella. We did bring lightweight rain jackets that would keep most of the rain off of us. It started to come down hard and we took refuge under an awning for about 10 minutes before continuing down the street back to the shuttle stop.

There wasn’t a very long wait for the next shuttle and we are soon on our way back to the port. Once again, we are able to look at the offshore roadway still under construction. We had a better view going back since we’re on the right side of the bus near the window and the bus was in the lane closer to the water’s edge.

When the shuttle arrived back at the port we are all required to get off outside the gate to pass through security. There are few pop-up shops in this area outside the gate that sold souvenirs. We bought some keychains and a few other trinkets. If you’re looking for souvenirs this may be the best spot to do your shopping. Once we completed our shopping we went through security and boarded a second shuttle that would take us two or three hundred yards to the ship.

Sailaway Party

Orlando Ashford and his entourage from Seattle arrived today. Consequently, we would be having a big Sail Away party this afternoon with complementary drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The party was scheduled to start at 5 PM at the Lido pool, but by 4:15 PM many of the tables were already occupied. There were always some chairs available even after the party started. The Holland America station band provided the live music. They were wonderful playing all the hits you would expect at a pool party including YMCA, Celebration and other party hits. Hors d’oeuvres were being passed around by waiters. Drinks, including your rum-based classics, plus whiskey sours were also being passed around by waiters in addition to being available on tables. We had a wonderful time at the party and so did most everyone else.

Here is a video that captures the atmosphere.

The party was supposed to end at 6:30 PM but kept going till 7 PM when the Station Band finally wrapped up. We didn’t see Orlando at the party, but he may have been there and we simply missed him, as it was crowded. We did see Gerald, the director of the Mariner Society.

Cul ‘Afrika

Tonight’s show in the Queen’s Lounge was Cul ‘Afrika – billed as “Uniquely South African”. They had a unique sound with a very bouncy beat. The group consists of two men and two women. Instead of using the Holland America Orchestra they had their own recorded music. My favorite was a song by South African musician, Sipho Mabuse, titled “Burnout.” Here is a video gives you a sample of their performance.