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The schools were very charming and there was a professional teacher. 12-Saradrano-22.MOV But even here, there was a poignant episode. The teacher brought a younger boy out to where we were standing. He had eruptions on his face and elbow and she was worried about them. It was very touching that she would think we were capable of helping, presumably because we were (relatively) wealthy and educated. I certainly hope that it wasn't because we were also caucasian...In any event, the ship's doctor was at a discrete distance, but he was looking after one of our looking guides who had fallen dead faint in the sand. We never heard what that was all about, but my guess is that she was pregnant. I sure was capable of doing that in that weather when I was expecting. Here is the local communication center. This was the first place it seemed as though the residents might not individual cell access. There was a lot more to see, a soft-drinks booth, the village latrine, the community pump, carefully watched and regulated and the singing and dancing, I think you can imagine what that might be like The treat of the day was to take an outrigger ride alongshore, and to visit the suspended beds of algae which were largely tended by the women. These algae were part of an extensive industrial supply chain and largely supplanted the former cash crop: fish. There was no way I was going to take an undignified tumble into one of those narrow boats, not to mention the unattractive possibility of photos of my disembarkation from said boats. No-one was more amazed than I when I clambered aboard. It was SO MUCH FUN! 12-Saradrano-29.MOV We returned to Le Champlain very happy, and enjoyed the changing sky from on our deck (with champagne (awful stuff) and hors d'oeuvres. Next, fancy dress for the Captain's dinner! Bye to Madagascar! Next stop: Reunion

We left for Saradrano quite early in the morning as it promised to be another hot, sticky day. As always we carried water and a bit of money in case there was something we wanted. Saradrano proved to be a remote, tiny fishing village. It was possible to come overland from, say Toliara, but that would be a bit of a slog. As we came into the bay, we saw a number of boats that were clearly bringing people from other locations, to visit or trade (maybe even with us). This was another wet landing along a sandy beach covered with hand made outriggers. There were local guides to show us around. Although I do not know of the arrangements, we felt pretty certain that Ponant gives a handsome donation to the village as everyone turned out showing us their work and responsibilities...which included a bit of singing and dancing! Here is a forger with his shipbuilding tools. The laundry.

Due to weather problems we were not able to land at Nosy Be. This is another excursion for snorkeling, diving and birdwatching. This is one of the reasons that I described the cruise as largely a cultural one. We have to remember that these cruises are adventures and there always are great surprises and occasional disappointment. January, Wednesday 24. We visited another interesting village: Sarodrono. OK, I admit this was not the 24th's disembarkation into zodiacs...but it is thought-provoking. IMG_1592.mov

Clothing stores! We were then treated to a ride on the tricycles that are used to run errands throughout Madagascar. It was a lot of fun, but we had to be mindful that the brakes (if rarely used) were liable to through us right over the handlebars! 10-Tulear-34.MOV We ended that exciting chapter in front to their Marine Biological Museum. Its most exciting exhibit was a pickled Coelacanth, previously thought to be sort of a "missing link" between fish and quadrupeds. Cool. Goodbye to Tolear, it was a great day! This is a view from our wonderful aft balcony, showing the modest local port and the sellers lined up to sell us souvenirs. I always feel badly that we can't buy from everyone.

After our trek through the beautiful forest, we were treated to a drink at a large resort. We sat under a pleasant palm tree, caught our breath and were treated to a parade of cloths with a lovely design. We then went back to town for a visit to the market, first to greet us was this seamstress, doing her electric machine work right on the ground. She seems to have a pile of work next to her.

We disembarked at the pier and were loaded by small groups into 4x4’s. Our first stop was a private botanical garden, full of magnificent specimens of native plants.

January 22. This was really a fun day. We visited Toleara. It is the capital of the southern part becamof Madagascar, still on the west side. This town has an interesting history. It was founded as a Vezo city by the Kings of the 18th century as fishing village, safely surrounded by a coral reef. It became a trading post, and by 1897, the French Vice-Residence shifted here. By 1903, Toleara became a deep seaport from where live Zebus, packaged meat and cassava were exported. It has now become a center of imports (to me signaling the dependance of this area on the outside world, even for food) and the harbor is largely silted in as it is part of an enormous estuarine system. It is now a spread-out metropolis of 200,000 people, with the main hope for financial success, an increase in to tourism. I guess we did our share! Before we disembarked, we had a truly wonderful lecture on “Customs in Madagascar, then and now.” It had particular meaning as the speaker, a Malagasy guide, was part of a traditional family. This helped us put together a lot of things we had learned and seen, and those yet to come.

......And, in the afternoon, we heard an excellent lecture on the importance of mangroves...but we had already seen the vast destruction of these on our briefly travels, taken for firewood.

Local Shops:

The local Hotel: The Door

Here is a beautiful completed hull:

jpalbny, I have enjoyed your comments so much. Without any editorial comments, I will simply say that we had no opportunity to enjoy Zebu meat. Sunday, January 21. This day’s report is based on Walter’s experiences in Belo sur Mer. This is the first village we were able to visit which was steeped in traditional culture, and which relies on the ancient tradition of shipbuilding, in this case, they are called boutres, a type of dhow. As usual, we were divided into language-based group and made wet landings along the beach. The heat required early departures and all were back on board by 11:00. Here is a boat being renewed by tarring.

Saturday, January 20, was an At Sea Day. We had a couple of great lectures. The first was on Zebu and Man in Madagascar, given to us by one of the Malagasy guides. I have already given you the shorthand version of this, but it was striking how plainly and down-to-earth he spoke about these quasi-sacred animals, their importance to the welfare of each family, but also the enormous numbers of the lazy “wealth Zebus.” Somehow, I became entranced and less-questioning about the animals as I listened to the simple explanations of the local customs. There was also a lecture on the geologic origins of Madagascar and its islands, which Walter said was excellent...unfortunately my sick days off began about then. So, I also missed the Ponant White Night Gala with the Officers, but Walter enjoyed that very much. I will take this opportunity to discuss shipboard life on Le Champlain. I would say that the cruise was about ¼ Anglophones, consisting of Americans, Australians and Germans. All of the cruisers were polite and friendly, but we were actually quite segregated according to language. The talks were given separately in French and in English. (The English was “sort-of” for the most part. The French are notorious for speaking English as though it were French, and it was certainly a challenge for native creole speakers to speak English as they had been instructed by their teachers whose second language was French. (Here I am just describing the realities of these lectures…and not in any way excusing us Americans for our pitiful abilities in foreign languages!) The tours were also segregated by language, for good reason. I think each group was only six to eight people, so therefore were very personalized and the logistics were generally done so well that we never had to even think about them. And, inevitably the social interactions were between language compatriots. I did have one chance to really speak French I will come back to when we get to that day. I had one treatment at the spa, and it was excellent. It’s always tricky to schedule these things as we only knew what the schedule would be the night before (and even then, the weather often required a change of plans!) The suites have butlers, and I really appreciated all the things that Hasan did for us. He really smoothed the way for any requests, and we loved the wheeled-in table beautifully set for breakfast each morning. The food. The cheese and pastries were uniformly excellent. At the Grill for lunch and dinner and the Main Restaurant for lunch, for 19 days, the starters were buffet style and almost the same every single day. It got tedious. At the Grill in the evening, there were several different choices for the main course, and also an excellent “Butchers offering”. It was there that lunchtime might also bring a Paella or a shellfish feast. There were usually more French folks there than Americans as it was pretty sticky and wind-still there. In both places, anything that was very traditionally old-fashioned French was greatly appreciated by all.

Hello, World Traveler! No worries, I think you can expect every kind of hot and humid weather. We had plenty of sun, some overcast skies, usually on rainy days, windy, still, and some rough seas. This is officially the wet season, and as I might have mentioned, typhoon season. Fortunately for this tour, western Madagascar seems not to suffer these on the western side, even though there was a typhoon over Reunion and Mauritius while we were onboard. In a way, not the best time to be there, but it was lush a nd green in many places which was quite beautiful. Here is a giant Baobab in the Green Spiny Forest.

IMG_1709.MOV Downtown Majunga!