Back to Tana (again)

 From the air the deforestation is evident and so it the rice paddy use in the valleys.

 I have seen this numerous times: people breaking rocks to make gravel.

 What future?

 Vendors running as the police turn on the street.

You can see people leaving the area with their cardboard boxes of stuff.

Thursday, November 23^rd.

This morning we had breakfast and then returned to our rooms to pack our bags and get ready to leave Isle Saint Marie. We had a transfer booked and then taxi van took the four of us to the airport at the south end of the island. It is a tiny airport and only has a couple of flights a week, which is why we stayed here this long.

The flight was supposed to leave at 4:45, but got moved up to 2:15 (luckily Denise notified us of that) and actually left at 1:30. Arrived in Tana before Graham, Lynn or Florien's pickups arrived. I said goodbye to Florien who has been a good room mate and travel companion. He reminds me of my son and is the same age. I will see Graham and Lynn again tomorrow as we are on the same flight out.

I took a cab back to the Grand Mellis Hotel where I was on my first day in Madagascar. The drive was about an hour again and took me past all the street activities, crazy traffic, abject poverty and the rice fields between the airport suburb and the actual city. We arranged for him to pick me up and take me back to the airport tomorrow. I checked in and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening catching up on things on the computer. 

I have a room on the 4^th floor with a balcony. From there I could watch the crazy street activity. As I mentioned before there are lots of peddlers selling things from little cardboard tables and every time the police come along they all quickly grab the corners of their table and run off. I saw it happen twice before and it happened again as I was looking over the railing.

I went down and had an Indian dinner in the hotel restaurant. The weather is cool and windy here and it rained for a couple of hours in the evening. Many of the people look like they are dressed for winter, with toques and coats.