Paradise.

         So the last few days have been absolute paradise to say the least. Yesterday we moved location from the port town of Hell-Ville Nosy Be to a more touristy beach location. Our hotel is right on the beach with its own bar and restaurant and other restaurants, shopping and nightlife are just a short walk away!

            Yesterday brought snorkeling, beach time and sun buns for most (not me though! I was one of the lucky ones-). The snorkeling was amazing and I do not think I have ever been in warmer water. It is incredible. We took a boat to a small island called Tanikely where there are reefs right off the shore.

            I have to keep reminding myself that I am on a little volcanic island off the coast of Madagascar 

because this all seems so unreal to me. I am so lucky to have these kinds of opportunities. Like in the last post, I won’t bore you with crazy boring details, basically my last few days have involved beach, snorkeling, walks on the beach, runs on the beach, ice cream and happiness. Here are a few pics to illustrate:

Tanikely- The little island where we spent our day snorkeling

Beach at Tanikely

So one of our SIT contact on Nosy Be was up at 5 am preparing this beautiful and delicious lunch spread for us- it involved shrimp and beef brochettes, fresh crab, giant fresh swordfish and barracuda, avocado and tomato salad, coconut rise, a little salad medley of carrots, zucchini and potatoes and fresh fruit. Sound like heaven? It was. 

Some of the girlies taking advantage of the warm bathwater

There was a lighthouse in the middle of the island which we climbed up- this was the view that greeted us. 

The beach outside our hotel at sunset

Getting ready to go to lunch! Note our awesome tans-

         So thats it for Nosy Be! I am sitting in the hotel restaurant right now looking out at the beach and wishing that we could stay for longer... But unfortunately our flight back to Tana leaves this afternoon so I am going to have to come to terms with parting with Nosy Be for a while. I still have some tropical beaches waiting for me (Mauritius anyone??!!) so I guess its not all that sad...

Goodbye Majunga, Hellooooo Nosy Be.

On Monday me and my SIT crew left the town of Majunga, which we have been calling our home for the past two weeks. Its not all bad news though, because we are now in NOSY BE!!!! Which happens to be paradise- it is an island off the North-West coast of Madagascar, and it is also the biggest tourist destination- but that is okay with me, a spring break is much desired. 

SO, just a short recap of y weekend and past few days: Saturday night I ended up going out in Majunga with a few friends and their host brothers. It was super fun! We ended up going to a club called Ravinala which was really hip and gun- It was like a blend of American top 40 hits and popular Malagasy dance music. What a combination. The next day brought more happiness and excitement, we had a picnic on the beach with all fourteen of us and our host families as a kind of thank you goodbye party. It was super fun and involved wonderful food, great weather and warm blue ocean! :-)

Traditional Sailboats that Malagasy Fisherman use

Petite Plage

All the students and their fams on the beautiful plage!!!

 After a wonderful day at the beach, I spent the night packing and saying my good-byes to my host family. The next morning was an early one as we met on the bord du mer at 6:30 for our departure to Ambanja, the town before the port, which one takes a boat over to Nosy Be. The van ride was a whopping 11 hours long and after some adventures involving rivers I the middle of the road, we finally made it to Ambanja where showers, dinner and comfortable beds awaited us.

Not exaggerating when I said there was a river in the middle of the road...

 Today we got up relatively early for breakfast and the last leg our journey to NOSY BE! We made a few stops along the way to shop for Lambas (which are the beach sarong things that you see everyone wearing in the pictures- you will probs see way more of them in pics as time goes on…) we also stopped at a cacao plantation, which was soooo cool! Madagascar exports lots of cacao and the Malagasy made chocolate here is soooo good!

The crew in the beautiful forests of the cacao plantation

The route to Nosy Be!!!

 So after some more adventures, which involved speedboats and hot orange lifejackets. I will spare you the details of the logistics from here; I think the pictures and captions speak for themselves- I also have to get out of this café to meet with my program so I’m unfortunately cutting this short… But I hope you enjoy the pics!

Riding in style....

I am so lucky to be able to do the things I do and go the places I go-

We spent the day exploring the streets of Hell-Ville, the main port town in Nosy Be (and yes, it is called Hell-Ville, there is some historical reason for this that I cannot remember-)

Some of Mes Amies- we decided to buy a corossol (a type of fruit found here) its super yummy and unlike anything I have ever eaten but spoons are a necessity. Unfortunately we did not have spoons and proceeded to eat it like Barbarians.