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Mauritians on the Move, American Style

U.S. TV films in Mauritius

Hollywood has discovered Mauritius - in the form of the very popular concept of "reality" television.

Reality shows follow the lives of ordinary Americans who agree to have a television camera record their everyday lives - both the good and the bad. Some shows take it to another level, following the exploits of ordinary people involved in extreme competitions.

This was the case of "The Amazing Race," a CBS television show that filmed on Mauritius last year. The episode aired in the United States in November.

The Amazing Race followed 12 diverse teams of two people as they raced through 13 countries and logged 40,000 miles. The teams followed a different set of clues and instructions at each location - to search for a hidden treasure or swim across a lake, for example. The grueling race used "progressive elimination," meaning that the last team to arrive at a designated checkpoint was eliminated. The season ended in December when the remaining team crossed the finish line in the United States.

The race began in Seattle, Washington, and through new sets of clues unknown to the participants until the last minute, took them to Beijing, Vietnam, India, Kuwait, Mauritius, Madagascar, Finland, the Ukraine, Morocco, Spain, France and finally to New York.

On the seventh leg of the race, the teams were instructed to fly from Kuwait to Mauritius. Participants were unfamiliar with Mauritius, and many had trouble pronouncing it, calling it "Mawridus," or "Mawritis."

At the airport in Kuwait, they were told that they had to fly first to London and then on to Mauritius. At Heathrow Airport, one team admitted that they went straight for the guidebooks at the airport bookstore to read about the island, and then hid the books in the store so that their competitors couldn't find them.

Once arriving at Plaisance Airport, the teams ran to specially marked cars where they found a model boat and instructions to find the real boat in the waters off Grand Baie. They had to use local maps and rented cars to find their way there. In Grand Baie they had to swim out to the boat to get the next clue.

That clue told them to race across the island to the Case Noyale Post Office, where further instructions would be found. Enroute, two of the teams were involved in minor car accidents, which slowed down their arrival. At Case Noyale, the clue gave them a choice: Salt or Sea. If they chose salt, they had to drive two miles to the salt pans at Tamarin and search in three enormous plies of salt for a salt shaker that contained the next clue. If they chose the Sea option, they took a boat with a local captain out to a small island, where they had to use a treasure map to find the boat's mast and sail. After locating the items, they had to attach the sail and sail back to shore, where the captain gave them the next clue.

Then it was off to the "Pit Stop" - the last stop of the Mauritius race - 12 miles away to Chateau Bel Ombre. The first team to arrive was the winner of this leg of the race and won a set of motor scooters. The teams spent the night at Le Telfair Hotel and the next morning received instructions to head for Madagascar.

The Amazing Race was watched by millions of Americans and for most, it was their first introduction to Mauritius. The show is so popular that there are several websites and blogs on the internet dedicated to it. Some of the Mauritius episode can be seen at: www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race10/shows/ep07/race/photo_album/?id=4

a m e r i c a n   s c e n e

WEEK-END --- dimanche 21 janvier 2007