Ifaty Beach Club

... original guy who finally matched the price of the girls from the market after it was too late. I walked around the souvenir market and bought a few pieces of carved wood. They had some pretty things and it seemed as if I was the only tourist there so I got lots of attention. I walked around the central market a bit then when I was looking for a taxi back to the hotel, my original driver showed up and I ...

... took a walk down the main street from the hotel towards town. It's a very busy street with lots of people out and about walking up and down the street. Pouse-pouse (rickshaw) drivers would stop every 20 feet and ask us if they could give us a ride. We declined, and they were polite when we said no. Stopped to buy a few cocoa-colas to put in the fridge in our hotel room and came back to the hotel after walking about a kilometer.

... fish, rice and beans) then we do a variety of things like teach at the local school (the kids are really cute although incredibly dirty and slimy), do maintenance on the boats or the buildings, help with some of the shore based science research, help out at the family planning clinic,learn Malagasy or, my personal job, teach the local English teacher English (yes they have an english teacher who actually can't form a simple ...

Hello all, This will only be a short entry as this I am on the only computer at the hotel. We are in Tulear on the west coast of Madagascar. Gina and I both survived the treking and are doing well. We have seen many animals and are on our way to the beach tomorrow to relax. I will write more when we get to Tana on Monday. This is the first internet connection I have seen in 2 weeks. André

... and did a great deal of bottom wiggling while the boys wore sarongs over their jeans and trainers and did something similar to the twist. Of course we were all encourage to join in. After dinner, a couple of us spent some time trying to photograph the stars. We could clearly see the milky way and the southern cross and in the darkness they seemed to shine so much brighter than they do at home.

... wouldn't start. We had to drift aimlessly for a bit while the drivers tried to get it working. Then when it didn't and we had agreed which one of our party we would eat first should the provisions run out they decided to get going on just one engine. As we were crawling along, they continued take the spark plugs out, to pour fuel directly into the engine and then blast it out again, covering the boat in huge black ...

... We stopped 3 times along the way for the driver to present his papers (read 'pay bribe') to the police. We stayed at a great hotel called Nautilus, very pricey but it was the diving school that drew us in. The air con was also a big draw as the temperature was rising and it was very humid, especially in the afternoon. The Lonely Planet described ...

... a meal and each had the banana fritters for dessert, which made up for eating seafood again. By that time I had a bit of a headache from all the sun and was ready to head to bed. The stars were beautiful and a thin sliver of the moon cast light across the dark ocean. Matt sat out on the porch watching the stars and listening to the waves while the calming sounds lulled me to sleep. We both woke in the night when the waves stopped crashing for some time. Who turned off the ocean?

... the sea a fair way off, over the top of the coastal escarpment. Pass a very colourful oxcart full of firewood, stacked 3 metres high down the final descent onto the coastal plain. Pass the arboretum and airport and continue 17 kms into Toliara for lunch, a very important event on this tour. We're used to grabbing a bit of bread, and continuing on, whereas lunch and dinner combined take up ...

... It was early, but I had been overheated to the point of worthlessness. It was all I could manage to grab a soda and watch the afternoon goings-on of dusty Ranohira. In the morning I caught a taxi-brousse to Ilakaka, then on to Tulear. The taxi-brousse, just a minivan filled to clown-car capacity, is an interesting if slow way to travel. They don't have a set schedule, they just leave when they're full, so I've spent several hours hanging around taxi ...