Paris

Sitting together in the Jardin des Tulieries with a bottle of wine, a wedge of brie, and dark chocolate watching the sun set and the Eiffel Tower twinkle.  It's after 9 pm and still light,  people are running, pushing toddlers, kissing, chatting.  Paris is wonderful.

We took the subway RER from the airport to our amazing hotel (Wow, thanks Papa Wong) took a real shower, and walked along the Seine to the Eiffel tower.  We are probably the only people in the hotel drinking out of nalgenes and carrying a clothesline.  And made ourselves more presentable by changing out of hiking shoes and underarmour.  We met up with Andrew's friend, Jack, who manages Fat Tire biking tour company (where fellow PCV and friend Jay spent a summer leading Paris city tours).  Hi boJackson! Jack generously let us join an afternoon bike tour through the streets of Paris as his treat.  A little French history and a little exercise.  It was a perfect introduction to the city.

Narrow cobblestone streets, old charming buildings,  a river, parks, people interacting outdoors, open restaurants with sidewalk seating, produce markets... it's all so beautiful and romantic.  The selection of fresh and deeply colorful fruits and vegetables are caringly displayed.  As we rode our bikes through the streets, scents of lavendar, then baking bread, warm cheese, and cherries filled the air.  We enthusiastically explored a grocery store for picnic foods and almost cried - either from being overwhelmed with choices or happiness, we aren't sure - and then walked through backstreets to the hotel.  After dark we wandered through a Coney Island-like carnival with the neon lights, game stands, and ferris wheel.  Kristin had some fresh spun cotton candy.

Final words

Leaving today for Paris.  Madagascar is unique and exotic for sure, but we can identify closer than ever before with the author of National Geographic Traveler who said, "the worst places make the best stories".  Madagascar isn't a worst place; but it's a tough place for the budget traveler.  We had some difficult times (most notably on the pirogue trip), but the trip has been all-together wonderful.   We are really glad we made it here.  What we gain through over-land (or over-water) travel often makes any discomfort seem fleeting. 

A word about travel logistics to answer some questions. We each have a medium to large backpack (18 - 26 pounds each), and then we carry one small backpack with passports, money, credit cards, and books. We never ever leave the small backpack anywhere.  The raincovers for our packs have been invaluable.  We are finished with the tent, mosquito netting, sleeping bags, and sleeping pads for the trip.  After sending those home, our bags will be much more roomy and lighter.  We try to wash clothes every few days in a sink, but we have had our laundry done twice this month by someone else. It's cheap.  We have a smartphone that has made keeping in touch (this blog) much easier. There are 3 cellphone companies in Madagascar. Although service is poor outside urban areas it is generally good.  No 3 or 4G.  We use Orange and somehow can look on the internet and check emails for almost nothing. We paid 8000 Ariary (4 usd) for going on 28 days of data services. We're pretty sure this is a mistake.  Regarding the question of using the bathroom on the long pirogue or bus trips. We didn't.  Andrew had it much easier of course.  Prices have been much more expensive than say Thailand. We negotiated for everything. We bargained once for a beer.  Got a 25 cent discount thank you very much.  Even if a price was printed it wasn't really set.  We use a Steri-pen on all our water.  We've been pretty adventurous with food. Crab, langouste, and fish with scales and eyeballs attached were all a bit frightening at first. We had Koba, which is mashed rice and banana wrapped in a banana leaf. Not bad actually. We had ground cassava leaves with rice and pork. Delicious.  Grilled chicken head was served to us once, but we passed on that.  We also passed on the bowl of innards that came afterwards.  A traditional Malagasy drink we tried was Ranovola, which is water boiled in the bowl that was used to cook the rice.  Tastes like rice, turns out.  Also drank the milk from a freshly-shaved coconut.   Worst food is hard to say.  Best food was probably this Indian restaurant we found in Tana.  Enjoyed the jus naturel.

On average the places we stayed when not camping had a sink and sometimes shower in the room.  The shower had the handheld head;  once it was just a metal hose (difficult to control, like a snake).  Usually we had hot water.  And toilets were shared.  A couple of times they were squatties.

We hope this first leg of this epic 5 month journey has prepared us well for what is to come. We know that we have only skimmed the surface in understanding Madagascar culture, history, fauna and wildlife.  After an experience where you learn the language and engage with the community for 2 years this could not have been more different. 

Another entry will come soon as wifi and mysterious cell waves permit.  Fly at 9pm.

Lessons Learned from Public Transport

Always have some food and drink available, but use only as absolutely necessary. It's better to be hungry and parched than the other uncomfortable alternatives.

If you want to purchase stools and bananas at bus stops, be quick to pick yours out and claim its place on the bus.

Be quick to get back to your seat because you now have an obstacle course of aforementioned stools and bananas.

You start looking forward to music you'd never thought possible i.e. Akon or old twangy country.

When arriving to the final destination at 2 in the morning, it is generally acceptable to go back to sleep on the bus until first light when there will be transport out of the bus rank.

Earplugs.

Shallow breathing through the mouth is best.

Man, woman, or child - you can pee anywhere. Even one step from the bus.

Have toilet paper with you...always.

Expect that the trip will start later and take longer than stated.

Get a window seat for relief from stifling heat or to avoid unwanted icy blasts of wind.

Have a small bag to easily access money, passports, flashlights, books, food, rainjacket, fleece, etc.

Walk away or look confused at the first price offered and transportation costs may suddenly drop.

Night travel has less stops, is less hot, quieter, and cheaper because you're not paying for a hotel.

Convince yourself you will never arrive and you will always be pleasantly surprised.

Jason, Erica, Tim and Jayme... traveling mercies in Northern Mozambique.

We're back in Tana for our last couple of days.

Tamatave

We decided not to attempt the trip to the island of Saint Marie.  Among other reasons,  it was rainy.  We will spend the next couple days in Tamatave and then a couple in the capital to wrap-up our time here.  Today bought baguettes in the market for lunch and found a hole-in-the-wall ice cream shop with delicious homemade ice cream.  Easily decided to make it a daily stop.  Then wandered through a librarie (bookstore) and found a little French phrasebook.  Actually, it was an British English phrasebook for French speakers.  Funny but helpful.  Walked along the waterfront where friends and family sat and drank THB (Three Horses Beer) or juice and smoked endless Boston brand cigarettes.  The price of a pack or a large beer both under a dollar.  The 50th anniversary of Madagascar independence from France is Saturday and the city is preparing for a celebration.  Found a cute chocolate shop.  Put our laundry in to be done.  Watched some Coupe de Monde.  Looking forward to our next couple days sans traveling.

Indris

It was lightly raining when we woke this morning, so we set off to Andasibe National Park in our rainjackets.  It seemed fitting to be sloshing through the mud and rain in the dense rainforest.  This national park is known for the indri, the biggest type of lemur.  It makes a strange siren-like call that echos up to the 3 km.  We searched for over an hour before we heard the call.  Our guide started sprinting through vines, jumping over roots, and we followed, as best we could, through the thickly-padded forest floor of leaves and mud. But it turned out that the group was too far.  Not long afterwards, the guide spotted one on the side of a thin, but very tall tree.  Then there were two!  They are fluffy white and black and look like a cross between a monkey and koala bear, with strangely long limbs.  The two indri were eating leaves and launching themselves horizontally from tree to tree.

Then the guide found three very small wooly lemurs huddling together on a branch.  These are nocturnal,  so very rare to see in the day.  They are brown with red circlular eyes and an owl's face.   We were really close to these weird animals.

After lunch we headed northeast through the rainforest by taxi-brousse on the winding road to Tamatave, passing groups of palm-thatched homes on stilts (cyclones regularly affect this area).  Huge mounds of green bananas lined the road along with fruit and vegetable stalls. 

Tamatave seems like a nice coastal town - good selection of restaurants,shops, and snack cafes.  Thankfully they had an ATM that took MasterCard.  And they have a Shoprite (a familiar grocery store from Swaziland) where we stocked up on some foodstuff for meals:   PB, apples, juice, milk, crunchy muesli, beans, tuna, olives, and chocolate.  Instead of freshly baked loaves of bread, they had warm baquettes!  It is really comforting - to have some readily available and predictable meals.  Plus we like grocery stores.

Tomorrow we will be attempting to make it to the island St. Marie.

To Andasibe

15 hours later the taxi-brousse arrived to Tana.  It was a strange trip.  The driver made multiple stops in little villages that seemed like personal errands.  Then we met up with 5 other taxi-brousses for a dinner stop, and all 6 caravanned through the night.  If one stopped for a break, they all did.  Kristin's seat next to the driver was hard as concrete and burning hot because of the engine underneath,  so we ended up squeezing together in the front passenger seat.  After dinner the driver semi-reclined our seats and the rearview mirror became a movie screen.  For over 10 hours Malagasy music played as half-naked women danced on the screen.  We were in and out of sleep, but it seemed as though old "booty-vibration" is a very popular dance move here.  A 3 am stop was met with a man selling huge perfectly ripe avacados.  We bought 4 for less than $1, peeled and ate one right away.  Continually shifting around for comfort, we tried to sleep til we arrived at the station around 6 am.   From there we took a taxi to the eastern station.  While waiting for the next taxi-brousse to leave (this happened at 9 am), we crossed our fingers for good health and braved coffee from the street - the way the locals do it for cheap.  Many men walk around the station rolling, what can poorly be described by one of us, as "a giant Capri Sun juice box" in a basket with a spout.  Along with sugar and sweetened condensed milk, he also had a pail of water with mini metal mugs in which the coffee is served.  Ideally we would have used our own mugs, but we rubbed our shirts on the mugs to dry off all water and hopefully unwanted microbes.  It was actually the best coffee we've had here! And it seemed to entertain everyone around us.  We were offered an assortment of items to buy - googely eyes, a world map, bedsheets, a wrench set, screwdrivers,  hair straighteners - until the last second that the taxi-brousse pulled out.  If only someone was selling a mini metal mug...

The trip to Andasibe was 3 hours and beautiful!  Hilly, green rainforest, a stream, bursts of red and purple flowers.  Western Madagascar was so different.  Central and eastern Madagascar have so much more variety and availability of fruits and vegetables.

We are staying in a cozy little bungalow right next to the rainforest (Andasibe National Park) with a lake.  It's really peaceful and beautiful.  There are lots of different types of birds, and we've been listening to the sounds of the indri. Tomorrow we go hiking.

Baobabs

Driving through rice fields with clusters of palm trees and scattered baobabs it seems like nature made a mistake.  It is such a strange beauty.  Baobabs are giant bizarrely shaped trees with a swollen base,  sometimes narrowing at the top, and a flat, sparse, spread of branches that look like exposed roots at the top.  Nicknamed "the upside down tree," these freakish giants are the archetypal Malagasy tree.  They are awe-inspiring and  otherworldly.  Six or seven of the species are native to Madagascar.  

We went to see the les baobabs amoureux, which appears as 2 baobabs intertwined. (We were told it was one tree but that is not quite as romantic).  Then we drove through the famous avenue of baobabs and stopped to watch the sunset. Incidentally we watched the sunset with a Japanese tour group which oddly made the whole experience more familiar.

Today we are leaving for Tana by taxi-brousse making our way to the east coast.

Morondava

Finally.   It feels so good to be on land.  The waves and wind were powerful again but in only 5 1/2 hours the shallow ocean sand brought us to a halt. The drivers even on day 7 amaze with their acrobatic swinging on ropes and balancing across uneven wooden poles while our sturdy, but seemingly toy-like pirogue, rocks in a choppy waters.  We almost made it without someone falling into the water until Andrew fell down almost head first into 5 inch deep water while the pirogue was being pushed ashore.  Our delirium made the situation especially hilarious, and we paid with saltwater-dripping bills.

We tromped through the street of sand to a hotel, bargained and got a discount, then headed for a lunch of fresh mango juice and beer, pizza and spaghetti bolognese, and ice cream! 

Morondava is a quaint seaside town, important enough to be identified on most maps, with palm trees fringing the wide open ocean.  The water is very shallow far out;  we can see clean, smooth sandbars further out at low tide. 

Pirogues Part Deux

All pirogue captains here are not equal.  The Morombe to Morondava guys are at one with the sea. They took us far out where the winds and waves were stronger and propelled us faster.  Certainly the boat rocked more, but we were still able to read. (And no sea sickness, thankfully).  It was another 12 hour day, but we made a lot of ground and camped again on the beach.  It can be stressful and intimidating to go through bags and set up a tent in the dark. So we have learned how to perfectly organize the bags for quick access of what we could possibly need and have a rhythm with who does what to unpack, set up, take down and pack up to leave at 5 in the morning. The moon was a bright sliver (like the Cheshire cat's smile), and we sat at the tide's edge eating our dinner of bananas,  peanuts, homemade Malagasy treats similiar to coconut prailenes and peanut brittle.   We were going on day 5 without a proper meal.

The next day the wind was really strong, and we were riding the waves. Both going in our direction. It was a little scary when two successive white-caps rushed towards the boat.  The drivers started yelling at each other which only heightened panic.  Soon out past the break sailing got much smoother. We were happy when we started approaching wide sandy beaches and a picturesque little village with palm trees before lunchtime.  We are staying the night in a simple beachy bungalow in Belo-sur-Mer.  The owner friendly.   He immediately made us lunch (we must have looked like we'd been lost at sea- half wet pants and windblown hair).  Andrew had a beautiful red-orange crab with rice and a cold beer.  Kristin had a huge omelet, soup (turned out to be ramen), and sprite. It felt like our bodies were coming alive again!

Morombe

We need to continue north to Morondava, another seaside town, maybe a little bigger, and our only reasonable option is by pirogue.Again.  Hiring a 4×4 or flying is way expensive even when thinking about USD instead of Ariary.  This time we feel more prepared with little snacks and rearranging our bags to easily access only what we will need in the next 3 days.  We've been able to get much needed rest today, wandering the small town, and reading on the beach.  The local market was nothing special but very fishy.    Not sure if we will be able to update til we arrive to Morondava.

Pirogues

Two days ago we sat in soft white sand under stars as the fishermen loaded the bags into the pirogue.  It is a dugout canoe made out of a large tree with a smaller balance log about a meter away for stability. Many pirogue operaters (captains??) rig a rectangular sail with an ingenious combination of ropes and wooden poles.  We were out into the lagoon before the sun rose when the sea was still and quiet.  Philip, a young French guy living in Montreal, was seasick within the hour. The adventure was beginning, and we were awake with excitment.  The water was so clear like crystal and the lagoon shallow enough to see the soft white sand.  There was no seaweed for a while.   Then we could see sea urchins, huge bright red starfish,  pink spiky balls and lots of strange looking creatures.  We got stuck in the coral reef at low tide.  Had to wait it out for a while.  The driver cracked open a sea urchin and ate it.  Lots of men out in underwear, or nothing, diving for fish with spears.  Boys used nets.  Women waded in the reef.  When we got sailing we were surrounded by hundreds of other sailing pirogues with make-shift sails.  It felt like we were surrounded by a pirate armada.

Not sure if our drivers were inexperienced, the pirogue too heavy, the wind and tide against us, or all the above, but our 8 hour trip turned into 17 hours, and we didn't even make it to the first night's destination!  Poor Philip maintained a ball-shaped position for virtually the whole time.  Didn't see him lift his head once.  Lunch was at a remote fishing village: peanuts,  cassava,  crackers, and fried fish appearing just as they did in the ocean (maybe a shade darker).  Then we walked an hour through the white sand dunes to meet the canoe.  The driver kept saying "one hour".  The one turned to 8 more.  We were wet and cold and uncomfortable, but the sunset was beautiful in the uninterrupted sky - no land, no other boats in sight.  Then a clear full night sky slowly emerged.   You couldn't distinguish the ocean from the sky and it felt like an omni theater planetarium.   We saw 4 satellites,  more than one galaxy,  lots of planets and shooting stars.  The night was especially dark without the moon.  The only sounds were the roar of the ocean crashing against the reef on one side and the lapping of gentle waves against the beach on the other side.  There was no wind and the drivers started rowing.  Mysterious particles started lighting up and glowing in the water.  Phosphorescence!   We dipped our hands in the water and particles started glowing all around.  It was amazing.  Finally at 11:30 pm they pulled the canoe to the shore (at a random fishing village of about 10 homes), and we set up tent just above tide line.  No dinner. 

The sunrise was beautiful the next morning with soft pink light against white sand.  We switched pirogues and drivers 3 hours in at breakfast in Salary (original destination).  Our tea was like drinking ORS...salty water.  Probably needed it anyway.  

The new pirogue was smaller and faster.  Two less people.  The water again was gorgeous - blue, green,  and crystal.  It was pleasant until the sun began to set and the waves picked up.  It was a little scary and stressful as we realized we were again not going to make it to the destination and would be setting up our tent in the dark and sleeping wet.  A total of 11 hours for day 2.  It was supposed to be 8.  Another night on the beach of a smaller fishing village.  No lunch and barely dinner.  Dinner was 2 stale donut holes.  We did get some song and dance from some kids and a guy with a homemade guitar-like instrument.  Although we felt kind of miserable,  the setting was incredible.

Woke at 4 am this morning to start the day.  No breakfast.   At one point we ran into low tide and coral reef.  Had to walk through it, which was sad.  We finally made it to Morombe (11 hours later),  a small seaside fishing town.  We are warm and comfy and thankful to be somewhere before dark tonight.

To Ifaty

The arboretum was really interesting.   Lots of bizarre spiny, pokey plants and trees and interweaving vines that seem to have no beginning or ending.  Not much greenery or leaves in this harsh environment. The guide had lots of interesting information about medicinal uses for the plants.  Our favorite kind is the Pachypodium plant with its distinguishing bulbous shape. 

Taking public transport is not the most fun experience.  It's certainly not the most convenient, comfortable,  or efficient means. It is the cheapest and most rewarding because it gives insight into the daily lives of the people.   The 27 km journey north to Ifaty started by waiting 2 hours on a camion-brousse, which is a large, open-air truckbed with metal benches...more comfortably seating 40.  Ours had 60 plus some standing.  There was a breeze but the sun was hot and flies everywhere.  It may have been in part due to the raw internal organs of some animal piled in a pail on the floorbed.   We thought we were on our way as men pushed the camion-brousse to get it  moving,  but it seemed like a practice run as we made a loop in the lot and stopped to wait at a new spot a block away.

While we waited, we watched pousse-pousse running heavy bags and luggage from town to trucks to be loaded.   As soon as the pousse-pousse was close enough, the sweating driver (with muscular calves) dropped the handles and plopped down in the shade.Then more muscles came to lift the bags up the ladder to the top of the truck.  No need for weight lifting at a gym.  It's a daily job for some.  Young children and women walk around the lot selling samoosas from woven baskets.

The drive took 2 hours because the roads are eroded and sandy. Got stuck once.  But the scenery was interesting and spectacular!  Spiny forests of weird cactus trees with fingerlike extensions reaching into the sky looked frozen in a state of a windstorm next to an endless coastline of blue water and white sand with sun-bleached wooden canoes on the shore. We drove through clusters of tiny fishing villages where the homesteads had small houses made of reeds that looked like a strong gust of wind could flatten.  Children played soccer with rolled plastic for a ball or fetched water.  Women with gray-white clay-like masks to protect their skin from the sun sat and chatted.

Travel for locals off the main road is hard, especially during the rainy season when sandy roads become impassable.

Andrew ate a barbequed lobster-like creature for dinner; Kristin tried it.  Delicious.  Set our tent up on the sand under the stars. It's magical.  I didn't want to close my eyes to sleep.

Today we've been married 5 years!  Spending the day wandering an exotic beach.  We are having an amazing time.

Leaving tomorrow for a 4 day trip up the coast by canoe and camping on the beach.

Pousse-pousse

We woke early, washed some clothes in the sink, and left to explore the town of Toliara. It was really hot by 10 am.  The most common form of transport here is pousse-pousse.  It's a covered, wooden bench with large wheels that is pulled by a man.  Sometimes he is running even barefoot. Locals use the pousse-pousse a lot; the "drivers" can be seen washing the wheels, sanding the sides, and decorating their carts.  We are eagerly asked every 5 feet if we want a lift.  They're everywhere!  And they don't necessarily go faster than walking, so the use is kind of puzzling.   We want to give them business,  but it feels wrong to us to lounge in the bench while a man runs barefoot on a hot day carrying us through the street.  Maybe we'll try it later tonight when it's cooler.

We met a French guy, Thèofan, and spent some time talking with him. An engineer from Bordeaux, he has lived all over the world. A very interesting fellow. 

Now we are resting and reading in the shade and cooling off with some delicious cafe and tiramisu gelato.

Tomorrow we will visit an arboretum with strange plants!  And afterwards head north along the coast to Ifaty, where we hope to find a way to make it further north. Updates could slow as we could be out of network in the coming days.

Tulear

10 1/2 hours later we arrived to Tulear or Toliara.  Again we rode in the front with the chainsmoking driver.  Though long and tiring, most of the trip was scenic.  Hues of green terraced rice plots in shallow water surrounded by huge sandstone canyons and boulders gave way to yellow and brown grasslands and acacia trees.  The drier arid land reminded us of our Swazi home in winter. Then a strange mix of savannah and an occasional lone palm gave way to cactus trees.  The trip is completely at the mercy of the driver who makes it once a day. He decides when and how long we stop.  Cigarette breaks featured prominately.  By 7 we were starving and tried our luck with street food: samoosas, potato lahtkas, bananas and boiled cassava. Hopefully we won't be sick tomorrow; street food can be dangerously delicious.

There were also many police and military checkpoints,  where the driver for undiscovered reasons slipped the officer some bills, and without hassle we were waved through to continue the journey.   16 times. 

At one point it looked like houses were on fire in the distance as huge black smoke curled up into the sky.  As we got closer, curiously the smoke became black dots, which turned out to be swarms of locusts.   We hurriedly rolled our window up as the driver stuck his arm out the window trying to catch some.

The driver's playlist kept us laughing.  Maybe delirious from exhaustion or finding comfort in familiarity,  we enjoyed the music from the 80s and the reggae remix to "you are my sunshine" and Shania Twain's "Man, I feel like a woman".  I am pretty sure we were the only ones who understood the lyrics, until it switched over to Malagasy,  which the driver belted out the tunes.

Tonight's sky is beautiful.  The stars are shining brightly in the dark sky.

Ambalavao

In a small manageable town called Ambalavao. People are friendly.  Looks like a set from an old Western film. Resting today for the long trip tomorrow to our southernmost city, Toliara.

Ranomafoma

This is why we came here. Last night we set up our tent and read by headlamp as we fell asleep to the sound of the waterfall nearby.  It gets dark early so I think we were sound asleep by 7:30.

We woke early to crepes and coffee.   Cafe au lait means coffee with sweetened condensed milk here.  Then we met our guide, a local from the nearby village to start our 6 hour hike into the rainforest.   We were lucky to have 4 sightings of different species of lemur! Lemurs are "before monkeys " and look like large squirrels crossed with raccoons and monkeys. They survived extinction in Madagascar.  

The rainforest floor was steep and sometimes slippery.  We both got a leech.  We brought lunch and ate it next to a beautiful waterfall.   Andrew took a swim in the freezing water. 

One more night at this site.  Tomorrow we head further south.

Fianar

We are having trouble uploading pictures. :(

Yesterday we took a 9 hour public transport taxi-brousse (15-seater minibus) to Fianarantsoa. Fianar for short. We sat in the front with the driver. It didn't seem too long because the scenery was stunning. Low hills, green and lush, border rice paddies that look like mirrors along the ground reflecting soft light.  The countryside is dotted with tiny villages of narrow two-story white or red mud-packed homes with steep thatched roofs and openings for windows with wooden shutters. The land is fertile; it seems they could grow anything. We've seen bright delicious red strawberries, huge avacados and orange carrots... everything is colorful and big. Various roadside markets.  Thankfully we don't get carsick- it was a very winding road.

So far Madagascar doesn't seem African. The people look Indonesian or even South American.  They are shorter (average males shorter than Kristin), and they aren't as curvy as other Africans.  The tables are so short that Kristin can't cross her legs.

Last night we went to a place that was supposed to have Vietnamese soups.  The menu was in French and our dictionary didn't help too much with that one, so we just pointed to someone else's meal and asked for what he had.  We also ordered tea natural and tea with milk, but got hot water and hot milk. Not sure where we went wrong on that.  Even the few other tourists have been French-speaking. In a couple more weeks we'll be fine. 

Headed to Ranomafoma National Park to camp for a couple nights.

Tana

We arrived yesterday to Antananarivo, the capital. Tana for short.  To be honest it was stressful. Niel and his friend, Werner, who we stayed with in Joburg after Vic Falls, spoiled us by being amazing hosts. We toured Joburg, wined and dined. And found a strange salon where you put your feet in a little aquarium with tiny fish that eat the dead skin right off your feet! We stuck our hands in and all the fish started nibbling.  It was creepy.

The absense of any English and unmarked streets make it hard to get around in Tana.  Working on some French now after getting lost last night. But we have a rough comfortability with it now.

Tana is very hilly; there are tortuous stairs everywhere. People line all streets selling anything and everything, including foods from citrus fruits to fish and live crabs.  Many men seem to sell handmade rubber stamps.  Kids have bombarded us to feel our pockets and unzip bags.   But we were prepared for that.  Haggling prices for cabs adds to the stress, but we are learning what things should cost.

Today we have wandered the city. It radiates an old world, French colonial charm with two-story buildings and guesthouses with faded colors and open, wooden shutters lining narrow, winding, cobblestone streets.  There are lots of old, cream-colored taxis and pedestrians (dodging taxis) in the streets.

Tomorrow we head south into the highlands. 

Made it to Madagascar

It's lovely, crowded, poor and only French - speaking (besides Malagasy). We feel like giants! Everyone seems so small. More later.

Vic Falls

We are at the Zimbabwean airport and it has free wifi! Exciting!

The falls were spectacular. First we went to the Zimbabwean side, which is further back allowing you to take in the full view. It was beautiful, and there was the brightest rainbow we'd ever seen. Then we walked over the bridge where tourists were bungee jumping (no thank you) to see the falls from the Zambian side, a closer view than in Zim.  It was an awe inspiring to hear the roaring power of the  water.  And then to be drenched from the spray.  It is like torrential rain everyday year round! We couldn't stop smiling. That a natural phenomenon can elicit such pleasure is amazing. 

We were able to speak in siSwati because it is so similar to one of the local languages, Ndebele. We traded some shirts for a bracelet and a 5 billion Zimbabwean dollar note at the market. USD is mostly used here, along with Rand and other neighboring country currencies. We used dimes and quarters to buy stamps, and that was just weird.