Day 2: Morondava

A.M.:  I slept all night with the sound of the Indian Ocean blowing on the sea breezes.  Breakfast at 8 a.m and an exploration of the beach made for a magical morning.  We walked to the lagoon where we were picked up by an outrigger canoe.  In the estuary, there were mangroves and mud flats filled with fiddler crabs and mudskippers.  Out in the main lagoon were a lot of small fishing boats.  The best was when we got out and walked to the edge of the sand flats for absolute low tide. Five little girls followed us the whole way just fooling around, dancing and singing.  The pictures are fabulous!  Fishermen came in with the morning catch and we got more photos of them sorting the fish.  There were shells on the tidal flats and I told the group about Dad and the shelling in Tanzania.  We followed sand trails that had beautiful shells at the end of each.  I got a couple of keepers and it was time for fresh tuna for lunch.  It’s not so bad here at the ends of the Earth.

P.M.: Avenue of the Baobabs in golden light was a sight.  There was a lot of foot, ox cart,  and bike traffic with the occasional vehicle mixed in, but my favorite shots might be from off the Avenue looking out on “wild” baobabs behind a lake filled with water lilies.  Storm clouds blew in late and we lost most of the evenings light until at the end there was a ray of light escaping from under the clouds that turned the avenue red.

The food is so good here.  Every meal has something special, but I’m going with rich chocolate ice cream floating in banana custard with slices of bananas as the base.  I’m calling it a Madagscar Hot Fudge Banana Boston!