Truck Stuck In Sand
Our last stop in Madagascar was the village of Anakao. Like Ambola, it is a Vezo fishing village, although because it is just south of Toliara it is more developed with better tourist infrastructure. We stayed at a pretty spiffy place, Longo Vezo, where we had out own bungalow looking out on the beach. Sitting here in the Montana winter with a foot of snow on the ground it sounds pretty good right about now!
However, they need to do some work on their signage. The sign to Longo Vezo pointed up an unused sand track where we got bogged down about 100 yards from the place. While Caesar and Lova did the hot grubby work getting the truck unstuck and backing out, we hiked and carried our bags to the reception area.
When walking down to our bungalow we found some tracks in the sand we suspected were some kind of lizard.
The next morning we took an outrigger dugout with a 5hp outboard on it south to look for birds and other critters in some mangroves. The boat traveled well; the sole was a board suspended by ropes from the thwarts and outrigger crossbars. Like most of the other dugouts we saw, it had only one ama and just a bare pole on the other side. In 3 - 5 knots of wind some sailors in another boat were keeping up with us pretty well;
We didn't see many birds, and it was no longer early by the time we got there.
In the afternoon we found a giant cockroach on a mat on the front porch. We put it on the hot sand by a chaise-lounge. We put her on her back at first and she couldn't flip over. She would have fried unless a bird got her but there were no birds around so we flipped her over. After recovering, she hurried straight to the shade under the chaise lounge. The track she made was what we had thought earlier was a lizard. I guess lizard feet are further apart...
My notes say:
.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. cockroach lizard .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
This was our last night before heading back to Antananarivo, and unfortunately it was uncomfortable. There was no wind, and it was hot and stuffy even with the windows open.
The next morning we took the Anakao Express boat to Tuliara. Dona had her brace on her foot/ankle for the walk up to the lodge to eat breakfast, but we took it off and tied our shoes together to board the boat. The boatmen backed the boat in, raised the motors, and we boarded via the dive platform.
At Tuliara we anchored out from the beach in about a half meter of water. A tractor pulling a wagon came out perpendicular to the stern and we all transferred over.
Once on shore we were met by Caesar, who gave us a quick tour of town on our way to the airport, where we said good-bye to Caesar and Lova. What a great team they are! Our plane was at 13:00, but 13:00 came and went... eventually we made it to Antananarivo.
There was a Sooty Falcon right outside the waiting room at the airport.
Our return trip was a nightmare. In Antananarivo the ticket / boarding pass printer at the counter didn't work, so we had to wait while they fetched it from an office somewhere. At security my hip, knee and ankle all set off the alarm so I had to go into a room for a partial strip search / wanding. Our flight leaving Antananarivo was delayed, but we made it to Nairobi in time for a security check and managed to catch the plane to Paris. The security check in Paris went much better than the one on the way out.
In Paris, my joing repairs again set off the alarms but a quick wand was enough. The plane to Denver was full, and we had a tight-ish connection so I asked the flight crew if they would ask people to wait to deplane for those with close connections. They didn't.
In Boston, immigration was a disaster. The scanner at the immigration station didn't like my face. The officer pointed the camera at me twice. I had my mask pulled down, but it still covered the lower part of my beard; I don't know if that was even in the image. If it needed to be removed completely, you'd think he would say so. In any case, the computer didn't think I was the guy in the passport photo, and we got sidelined where we had to wait for quite a while, then got taken to another area where we waited a long time. Other people came into the area and got checked out and left. I finally went up to an officer behind a counter who appeared to be doing nothing and asked if it was supposed to be first-come, first-served. He said yes, and when I pointed out that several other people were being dealt with who came in after us his reply was, "oh, they're a different department..." Eventually another officer came out, asked to see my driver's license, gave it a brief glance and looked at me and said we were good to go.
Fortunately, while we were waiting Dona managed to pull our bags off the carosel which turned a corner in our area. For some reason they weren't doing a customs check and we got in ok.
Then we had to follow the signs to terminal "B" for our flight to Denver. We probably walked at least 2 km, clear to the other end of the airport, carrying all our bags. When we exited, there was no place to re-check the bags for United. There was a bag re-check for Delta and some lesser carriers, but nothing for United.
So we had to drag all our bags to the United checkin counter, which was in terminal B where our flight left. There was no sign for a transfer train, so we followed the signs to terminal B. With Dona's bad ankle I carried my big backpack and her carry-on suitcase, wearing my pack and carrying a bag of souvenirs. Dona had her backpack and a bag of souvenirs. We finally found a wheelchair, put her in it with her pack on, piled my pack and suitcase on her lap, and raced to the check-in.
At the check-in counter we had trouble with the machine but a woman helped us. We got double charged for the bags, twice for two bags, and were told we "should get a refund in a week." The security check was slow; the guy scanning was being extra careful.
But eventually we did make it home.
