El regreso a Tana nos regala buenos recuerdos: dejamos el lago Rasoamasay al despuntar el día, con la luna ya baja, el sol rayando el horizonte y el principio de la calma del impresionante fragor nocturno de las olas del Índico, a solo una media hora a pie. El viaje se hace corto y entramos a la capital por el este, pasando por un estadio del tamaño de un canódromo donde todos los fines de semana se celebran multitudinarias peleas de gallos en que el personal se juega los cuartos al pollo más temerario.
El canto del indri y los lagos del canal de Pangalanes
El desayuno es nuestra última cena con Jon, que continúa hacia el sur para ver las montañas y el desierto, mientras que nosotros nos dirigimos hacia el noreste en busca del indri y los lagos salados que dieron origen al canal de Pangalanes. Larga jornada de coche, qué novedad, con un descanso bastante pintoresco en el monasterio benedictino de Ambositra, donde ya no quedan monjes pero sí una de las escasas 20 monjas, ya mayor, que nos abre pausadamente la cancela, la tienda y hasta la iglesia, muy cuidada, de techos altos y espaciosa, con las paredes de ladrillo visto, sencilla y tranquila. Nos cuenta que la sede de la orden está en París y nos vende lo que veníamos buscando: un queso, el último, que durante algunos días paliará el síndrome de abstinencia de Julien. Buen país: buen foie, buen pan, buena repostería, buen queso.
Un lémur, dos lémures, tres lémures
Visto que el tren tardó más del doble del tiempo previsto en llegar a su destino, retrasamos un día el inicio de la ruta de senderismo por el parque nacional de Ranomafana y nos lo tomamos con calma. Salimos a una hora normal por la mañana hacia Ranomafana y tenemos el resto del día para descansar y tomar algo con la pareja de holandeses que conocimos durante el descenso del Tsiribihina y están viajando también por su cuenta. Son bastante jóvenes, profesora y trabajador social, ambos trabajan en una pequeña ciudad y viven con bastante holgura; me hace pensar en la cantidad de jóvenes que, en mi país, no encuentran trabajo y tienen que marcharse al suyo, entre otros destinos.
Gombe National Park
The chimps are waiting! We get up at 5 and get in the boat. It's very dark and turns pitch black when we leave the bay of Kigoma and its lights. We have the endless lake on one side and the mountains standing out against the star files sky. Then gradually dawn comes. It's far from yesterday's display because we're hugging the shore. It takes much less than the 3 hours we were told yesterday (good surprise). We're even too early at the park. They offer us coffee while waiting for the guy is charge of tickets to get ready. All buildings in the park have wire netting on all windows and all the doors must be kept shut.
The bus rides that never end
Since there's so much you can do remotely, we keep our good habit of spending the first few days organizing the practicalities of our visit of Tanzania. We were thinking of taking the 2-3 days train to Kigoma but of course it's not possible to book train tickets online and we understand better why when we see the railway station. It probably hasn't change since the British kicked the Germans out.
On to Tanzania
We Leave the house today to spend our last night in Tofo. We talk the minibus back to Maputo at 4am tomorrow so we need to be closer. After a good week of everything being great and everyone being friendly we have a shitty experience with the taxi driver taking us back to Tofo. It seems there's a higher percentage of assholes working in the transport (bus, minibus, taxi) industry.
A week in paradise
First of all, the minibuses are bigger. Then, at the bus station itself, there's a well furnished Supermarket and it even comes into the minibus to simplify your shopping. They also take car of packages delivery but they come better packaged than in Ethiopia. We leave at 6am for about 500km of fun. The road is very good and we hardly believe it when the gps tells us we're going at 100 km/h. Our enthusiasm is dampened when we come across a scary accident. It looks like it happen less than an hour ago.
Rough welcome
Today felt like we were in a Klapish movie. You'll have to imagine each action as a 2-3 second scene, fast-forwarding the day into a few minutes:
Getting a sim card
Calling LAM to know more about the luggage
End of the road
Far niente! beach, picnic and that's it. We needed it badly after driving around the island like headless chickens. Wen arrived one day early and leave also a day early 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.
Lemur reloaded
Another day in the car to go back to Antsirabe. We're reaching our limits with bad roads because it's not possible for us to do anything anymore but look at the road or face the prospect of being road sick. Before breaking for lunch, we stop by the Benedictine monastery to buy cheese. The whole congregation is gone but for a nun. She shows us around, sells us their last cheese and even opens the church for us. The center for their order is in Paris and the church is built similarly she tells us. The walls are white with bricks of different colors for arches and pillars, the furniture are plain wood. The whole is very simple but bright and peaceful.