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.