Chapter 4. Back to Tana and on to Nossy Be

After deciding to cut out one additional stop to avoid spending our whole time on the road, we arrived back in Tana in the afternoon of Wednesday. The trip back to Tana was only 150 km, but it took 3 hours to arrive at the outskirts of the city.It took another 2 hours to cross from the North to the South of Tana where Henri and Corinne live. The drive is actually quite beautiful as it heads up huge mountain passes offering sweeping views into the vast green valleys below. What is so amazing is how the agriculture here is centered so much on rice production. Every square meter of relatively flat land is used as a rice paddy with rice either still green, brown or already harvested and thus bare. Along the highway, one sees rice laid out on tarps to dry. Rice is so embedded in the national psyche of the Malgache that one does not ask: "Have you eaten?" but rather "Have you had your rice?". Given that rice has very little nutritive value, one has to wonder how healthy can the local diet be. In most Asian countries where rice is the local staple, people are usually Vitamin D deficient. Several years ago, the International Rice Institute developed a rice which contained vitamin D but it resulted in the rice not being pure white. As a result, that rice was hard to popularize.

The other thing one sees along the way is the extent of deforestation of this country. Popular woods such as palisander, rosewood and teak have been pillaged resulting in huge tracts of open mountain sides. Mud slides are common to see and the habitats of many of Madagascar's flor and fauna have been devastated. I am told that the government now controls the situation better but given the lack of resources available to local authorities and the high value of these beautiful woods, one has to believe that illegal logging goes on unchecked. Lemurs live mostly in the tree canopy and the disappearance of local forests must be having terrible effects on the lemur populations in those areas. As these animals as well as many types of insects, plants, chameleons, snakes and frogs are found only in Madagascar, the negative effects on the biodiversity of Madagascar are tragic and often, without possible recovery. At the hotel we stayed in last week, the owners had made an effort to maintain the forests in their pristine form and the result was that one heard the lemurs singing day and night. This has to be a disappearing phenomenon in so many areas. This is a poor country and it cannot afford the luxury of a strong park service nor forestry ministry. The only hope is that because of the huge size of the country, areas are still not attacked by logging and mining activities thus allowing the local wildlife to survive.

It was nice to get back to our guest apartment in Tana and to find Henri and Corinne again. Having a base at their house is a real luxury as we have our own quarters where we do our own breakfast. The next morning we decided to visit the artisan village set up along one of the many dikes. It consits of some 100 little government built huts stuck together in which the local artisans sell their products. I looked for and found a very nice piece of carved palisander showing the head of woman. Corinne found an other piece carved in rosewood which I also bought. Negotiating is, of course, expected. As I enjoy the interchange of negotiations, I bought my pieces at about 1/3 the opening price. Neither piece is large but rather heavy so I hope our luggage does not get weighed too closely. Monique picked up a number of pieces including a beautiful hand-embroidered table cloth as well as various other table items. She picked them out and I did the negotiating. It all went smoothly and within less than an hour we had completed our purchases. It was a bit sad to see that there were no other buyers in the whole complex. Tourism is certainly not yet in full bloom as it is the end of the rainy season. In addition, news reports earlier in the year of outbreaks of the plaque in Tana certainly cannot have helped boost tourist traffic to Madagascar. Even the foreign missionaries were taken out of the country at the time. The danger has passed and the missionaries are back but not the tourists. I was told that a large number of cancellations were received at the time and have not yet been restored.

After the local market, we took Corinne to lunch at a lovely restaurant outside Tana called something green, I think the green forest. We decided the eat out and we were the only ones there until a group of 4 French policemen showed up and sat down at the table next to ours despite there being at least 10 other tables they could have occupied.They had hardly sat down when they lit up cigarettes and starting poluting our air. We had the waitress ask them to move or stop smoking which they did grumbling as the French are so good at doing... They apparently belonged to the security detail of the French embassy and were all decked out in their finest uniforms.

Yesterday morning, Corinne and Henri drove us to the airport at 0700 for our 1 hour flight to Nossy Be. Things went smoothly although Madame Monique was not to happy to see that our plane was a twin engin prop plane. The flight was uneventful and as I mentioned to her, the flight was so much smoother than traveling on the local highways for 700 km...

We were booked into the Manga Soa hotel. The driver was waiting for us after we got our bags and we drove to the hotel along a totally destroyed mud road to the hotel. The ride took 30 minutes as there had been huge monsoon rains in the first months of the year which had caused the damage to the hotel built road. We were having serious doubts about what awaited us at the end of the ride from the airport which was about 3 miles long.

view from Nossy Be Hotel to swimming pool

View from pool to ocean

Monique in her quarters

Le Pool

Our plane back to Antanarivo.

Looking at Indian Ocean from pool area.

 We were totally taken aback at what we found. The hotel is located on an outcropping about 100 feet above the ocean with huge views looking out to the water. The hotel consists of a beautifully built central building housing the reception and dining room of 7 or 8 tables looking out over the infinity pool and the ocean with the main island visible off about 5 miles with towering mountains. Guests are lodged in 5 individual cabins and the whole place is built of palisander wood. We were offered the biggest cabin consisting of a sitting area of about 6 by 6 meters and sleeping area on a second floor loft. It was a long walk up to the cabin and we opted for the first cabin which is just above the reception area. Smaller but still with a beautiful view and a huge double bed with mosquito netting which comes down at night. We spent the morning and early afternoon lounging beside the round pool with the place almost to ourselves except for one other couple. Not bad. I think we will enjoy the peace a beauty for the next days. We may do some tourism but we will first spend a day just relaxing and watching the waves roll in.