Adventures of Life

Foul Pointe

After two days of orthopedic screening, learning to cast, examining clubfeet and a day of regrouping and teaching the day crew, Kalinda and I decided to take advantage of our last weekend without patients on the ward. We decided to head an hour north to Foul Pointe. It is a beach town where it is safe to swim in the ocean. Although we have a beach here in Tamatave, it is not safe to swim in due to sharks.

Having confirmed with day crew a fair price for a taxi bus and reserved a hotel room, we headed out on our adventure Saturday around 7:30am. Due to having an overnight bag and not knowing exactly where the bus station was, we decided to take a pusse-pusse. When we arrived, immediately we were swarmed by four to five bus drivers all declaring they were going to Foul Pointe. We thought there was no way they all could be going. We ended up choosing a bus that already had local people waiting inside. One of them spoke some English and good French. He confirmed that the bus was heading to Foul Pointe and would not leave until it was full (18 people). As the bus slowly filled, we thought were nearing the time to leave. We learned that 18 people means 18 adults (children do not count as they sit on someone's lap). After waiting an 1.25 hours, the bus was full outside and inside. 20 adults including the driver and 5-6 children. On the roof, we had several rice bags, a frame, mirror, furniture, bike, large hard suitcase, and more. The road was in relatively good condition. We rode for about an hour with 5-6 brief stops for police officers to check the paperwork of the bus. Our "friend" told the bus driver to stop at our stop. This was good as we had no idea where we were and could not see well out of the window.

Pusse-Pusse

Taxi buse

We got off the bus and were once again immediately surrounded by pusse-pusse. We saw the sign to the hotel stating it was only 250 meters away. We said we could walk. After walking on the dirt road we arrived to the Manda Beach Hotel. It was a resort! There were games and karekoe all afternoon. Kalinda and I enjoyed a wade/swim in the ocean. We wanted to go see the fish in the coral reef. We noticed that no one was swimming out to the coral reef. Persistence pays off. One of the guys with an outrigger boat had come out to where we had walked. We finally agreed on a price. He paddled us out to the reef by pushing on the bottom of the ocean with a long paddle. He got out of the boat in a shallow area and collected 4 sea urchins. Next thing we knew, he was smashing them. When we arrived to the coral reef, we saw it was dead coral. He threw the sea urchins in the water to attract the fish. We remained close to the boat as goggles only does not do as well as goggles and snorkel. It was still neat to see the fish in person.

One of the Bungalows at the resort

Heading out to the coral reef

Feeling the sea urchin move

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the pool and even swimming laps. Other people from Mercy Ships were there. It was fun swim laps for the first time in about a year. We decided to have dinner at the resort rather than eat at the local "restaurant." A couple others decided to eat with us. We ended up with quite the assortment for dinner: French fries, small pizzas, a zebu dish (Malgasy cow), French chicken dish, and a traditional Malgasy chicken and rice dish. After dinner we enjoyed socializing outside beyond our curfew on the ship. Curfew is early on the ship as it is not safe outside the port at night.

Zebu...none of them look like they have much "meat" on them

We put down the mosquito net and settled into bed with a fan pointing at us. In the middle of the night the power was off. We noticed as the fan was off. The mosquito net semi worked as there were mosquitos on the outside and inside of the net. Thankfully, malaria is less common here than in west Africa and we are on anti-malarial medications.

After a delicious breakfast by the beach, we went for a swim in the Indian Ocean. We made a sand castle and enjoyed the pool briefly again. We then walked to the fort on the other side of town. The fort was built by the British I think in the 1800s. It was used to protect against people trying to sell slaves.

East Madagascar gets a thumbs up

Indian Ocean here is so salty you can simply lift up your feet and float.

Madagascar written in seaweed

We then walked back towards town attempting to hail every taxi bus that passed. We knew it would be difficult to find one as they leave a town farther north pack to the brim. After several failed attempts, a tour guide who was coming from even farther north was driving an SUV. He stopped to let out several tourists. We asked if we could get in. He agreed. He and Kalinda spoke in French for the whole hour back. He was very helpful with tour guide information for other areas of the island. It is difficult to get from one place to another. He gave us leeches (a fruit). They were delicious. It was a wonderful weekend away.