DAY 53-54
Far niente! beach, picnic and that's it. We needed it badly after driving around the island like headless chickens. We arrived one day early and left also a day early too to have more time in Tana. We're in need of an Internet connection to organize Mozambique and Tanzania. When we wrap things up with the hotel owner, we agree on a price for the boat ride back to Manambato. When he brings us the final bill, the price has changed and he tells us that he had a second though about it. Of course we don't let him get away with it but it seems we have one bad experience with hotels in each country. Let's hope we break the curse in Mozambique.
DAY 55
We leave at dawn with the moon low on the horizon on one side and the sun rising on the other... Magical! The return trip to Tana is smooth and even faster than expected. Back to the civilization with Internet access but we have a lot to do before leaving the country.
DAY 56
Planning planning planning! Our only expedition is to the "cafe de la gare". The railway station is not used anymore but is now a mini-mall. It's a very cool vintage interior with a live piano; timeless experience. Fun detail, the bathroom is in an old train car.
DAY 57
We had no time to do it the first time around since we were frenetically planning the visit of the island but now we can go and visit the Queen's castle. Before that we follow the advice of the hotel staff and have breakfast at "La poliniere", excellent bakery and pastry shop.
Queen's palace - Manjakamiadana. The name was changed when the French exiled the last queen, ending monarchy in Madagascar in 1895-96. It's situated on a hill dominating the city so even though the weather is rainy we have a nice view of the city with rice fields in the valley. The hill is named Analamango - the blue forest. Blue is the color of perfection in Malagasy culture. Our guide tells us a lot about monarchy and it's as twisted and bloody as Game of Thrones. One character is especially evil. The prime minister poisoned the king then married the queen who became the 2nd queen of Madagascar. Later on he poisoned her and married her nice (3rd queen) who died young but of natural death. To stay in power he then married a grand niece (4th queen). Or when reality is crazier than fiction ;)
After the visit we go back to the "cafe de la gare", not only for the ambiance but also for their super fast internet connection. The one at the hotel is so bad it drives us crazy. The walk back to the hotel at night remind us that despise the appearance of development of the city, lots of people are left behind. Seeing people huddled around fires at night in the streets is a strange and sad sight...
DAY58
One last coffee in "le cafe de la gare" and our driver Andy pick us up for the airport. On the way there, we stop in the one and only camping shop in Madagascar but it's expensive and the selection is poor. We'll try our luck in Johannesburg's airport or in Tanzania.
Flying low over South Africa we notice 2 things. The fields with pie charts in them leave us baffled but the rugby field all over the place were expected. Lucky us there's a camping shop at the airport where we find the head lamp for Mar and binoculars!
In Maputo, it's a bit long to go through customs but we don't have any problem with the visa. As hoped, you can get them on arrival. We can stay in the country after all ! ;) Mar luggage however is nowhere to be found and of course no one knows where it is, or care much. We're just told to call the appropriate service tomorrow because even though it's not that late, everyone is already gone. To complicate our arrival even more, The apartment we booked through airbnb is a disaster. No running water, missing windows and dirty. It's too late to do anything about that but we'll have lots of problems to solve tomorrow :(