After arriving in Ambanja, we dumped our stuff and went to the beach. The beach was beautiful, and like most of the beaches I’ve seen in the this country, completely empty! The beach was in Ankify, the port town for Nosy Be. So from the beach we could see Nosy Be, a bunch of rustic sailboats, and fishermen out at sea. It was gorgeous. Our miserable brousse ride was totally worth it, if only for the pretty beach. But we also got to eat delicious fish brochettes and mango lasary and other delicious food. So I was happy. And then it was CHRISTMAS!
 |
| The beach in Ankify |
Christmas
Definitely a different kind of Christmas this year. First, I woke up sweating as opposed to freezing cold and when I walked outside, there was no snow! Just a goat wandering around. Crazy. But it was ridiculously hot and humid, so we spent most of the morning playing in the pump and trying to stay cool. Later on, we went to a Malagasy family’s house for lunch/dinner. Mama ‘Gasy is a woman who takes care of all the volunteers in Ambanja. She is amazing, and was hosting a huge Christmas dinner for one of the volunteers and his family who had come from the states. There was so much food. They slaughtered a sheep, and left the head to sit on the table in the kitchen. There was coconut rice and fried rice and sheep and a three-layer cake and fresh crab. I could go on. It was delicious. In the afternoon we all took a siesta and hung out at the hotel. For dinner we went to a hotely and then spent the evening at a nice Malagasy bar. Apparently that’s what people do on Christmas…so we were just trying to integrate.
 |
| Dinner |
 |
| Christmas Dinner |
The next day we went back to the beach and spent the day in paradise. For lunch we had a Malagasy family cook for us, so we had tongue (of some animal?) and some other mystery meat which was surprisingly good. We also made some friends with two guys who work for the UN in Sudan and were on vacation in Madagascar. So that was a good time.
After another day in Ambanja we got on another brousse, bus this time to Ankarana, a national park.
No comments:
Post a Comment