Back to Antananarivo

Flying into Tana.

Rice paddies on the way from the airport.

The view from Independence Square.

The beautiful Jacaranda trees.

The view down the stairs to the permanent street market.

Local private buses.

Part of the street market.

Wednesday, November 1st.

We were all up at the crack of dawn for our flight back to Tana. Tana is the short form for the long name of the city Antananarivo. When Denise and I were talking about it when I was booking it, we called it Ant, because we found it a mouthful. So does everyone else apparently, but they don't seperate it as Ant-anana-rivo but rather An-tanan-arivo. And for some reason they have nicknamed the city the middle syllable: Tana.

Since the Chez Maggie restaurant would not be open that early in the morning they provided us a breakfast in a cooler: a thermos of coffee, a French stick, a mango and a banana. I ate that, finished packing and then took my stuff to the parking lot were we met Patrick. He drove us to the airport where we again had to wait for it to open. There was no luggage scanner here and we had to open our bags so they could have a little peak. Shortly afterwards we boarded the plane for the hour long flight. I had seat 1F and jokingly thought I was the co-pilot. Turns out I had a rearfacing seat looking at the people in row 2. The flight was not full so the stewardess moved me to another row so I could have a forward facing seat.

We arrived in Tana about 9. The temperature here was much cooler, thankfully. It was early in the morning but it was around 20 instead of 34+ and not humid. Margaret and I said our goodbyes to Ryan and Sarah who are staying near the airport for the night and then flying home tomorrow. We caught a cab which took us to our respective hotels. We both had tried to book in at the starting hotel for the next trip but could not get in. So she is staying at the Grand Mellis again and I am staying at the Intrepid suggested Chalet des Roses.

The rest of the day was a lay low kind of day. I didn't feel like doing much and seemed to need to recharge my batteries. I spent thes time updating blog entries as I had no wi-fi for the last few days, sorting photos and reading.

In the afternoon I went for a walk around town. I found my way to the Grand Mellis neighbourhood and the street sellers were again running with their little tables from the police. Then I walked to the old train station. It was a public holiday and people were out in force. I continued on in a more or less circular route back to my hotel and found a set of steps that went up to a park. Margaret had told me that she had walked up a set like that and found a tourist office where she booked a walking tour with a guide. She had told me lots of information about Tana from that walk. I decided to check it out. I found the office and inquired. I talked to a nice young girl who told me about the walks but it was too book one that day. So, I left and walked back to the hotel.

I ate dinner in the hotel restaurant as that is probably the safest place to eat. There don't seem to be many local restaurants, just street food. The restaurants I have seen are all attached to a hotel where I surmise they know how to prepare food for the tourists. I had a pretty boring little pizza and then retired for the night to read Camino Island by John Grisham and to sleep.