Island Hopping in Madagascar

I haven’t written since Bassas da India in the Mozambique channel, I know, but it’s been really hot and hard to sit by the computer to write. Also, since I’ve been told that my blogs are too dreamy, so I’ve been mostly just dreaming to myself…

We arrived to Nosy Be, Madagascar, Monday morning, five days ago and it’s been like going back to the past. As we came in, all the other sailboats were these beautiful wooden outriggers that probably didn’t change in design for centuries. As we checked in to get our visas, all the paperwork got done either hand written or typed, on what we would consider, a really old typewriter, a lot older than what my 99 year-old grandfather used in Hungary! All the officers have about 12 stamps in front of them and they stamp everything and several times. Getting a registered mail sent out by the post office was also quite amusing. Besides holding up the line for about 15 minutes, the operation involved three people working on my one letter: a woman getting it officially weighted (three times and opening her eyes as wide as if she was seeing a huge spider), a man writing all kinds of things in a very old yellowed book with a red pen in one hand and a blue in the other, and a third lady putting stickers onto the letter and into two different books using glue from a tube. Granted, I was also involved. I had to fill out several forms and sign them. The post office itself is pretty much in ruins, I’ll try to get a picture of it to put online. All of this was in Nosy Be, supposedly one of the most modern places in Madagascar.

This is nothing but cultural shock. People here have beautiful and sincere smiles, I like it so much, it feels good. If you smile at them, they smile and stare at you in a pleasant deep way, that is rarely the case in our western cultures.

We’ve been island hopping for the last few days: swimming, snorkeling, hiking and eating lots of “banane flambee”. What a paradise! Yesterday, Willis and I hiked the highest mountain on Nosy Komba and it was amazing. A snake once crossed our path so I jumped back but it let us go through as did the many zebus on the mountain side. We met young girls carrying drinking water and they gave us flowers that smelled heavenly, I almost felt drunken by them. Ylang-ylang trees grew by our path and we saw lots of lemurs playing in the tall tropical vegetation. The views from the top were great and it felt so good to hike. We probably walked 17-minute miles, we were flying up on the steep path, excited to be surrounded by trees and wildlife. The lizards and chameleons are also very cool.

Tomorrow, we will get provisions in Hellville for our week-long passage to the Seychelles. We’ll be sailing out on Sunday morning and we’ll probably arrive onto Mahe island by the 19th or 20th of November. Time is going by fast, it will soon be Christmas. Good news: if all goes well, I’ll be able to be with my family in Hungary for the holidays. I can’t wait. It will be quite a change going from a tropical place into the snow.

I hope all is well with all of you! Remember that you can also write to me directly onto the boat at frankblair@uuplus.com if you wish to. It is nice to stay in touch. I’ll write more in a couple of days!