Our weekend to the coast didn't work out so we spent Thursday morning
cleaning our place and then in the afternoon we caught the bus to the
Dichye market. This is a tourist trap with over 200 little stalls. We
had hoped that there would be lots of tourists and we wouldnt be
noticeable but alas there were probably a max of 20 tourists in the
whole place! So besides being noticeable the sellers were desperate
for a sale. We had only taken a small amount of money in case we were
robbed so we quickly got rid of that and then just walked along
looking at things. I thought tim had kept our bus fare separate and he
thought I had so we had to let a couple of buses pass us by before we
found enough for bus fare home. We got home before dark and went out
and got some fesh green beans and carrots and tim made a stor fry for
supper. Arent you jealous?? Gill decided that she would like to go
somewhere on Friday and invited us along. She has the use of a car
which makes it nice. So we left about 7:30 this morning a d headed out
of Tana and into the country. It was so nice to get away from the
crowds of people and see some farming. It is harvest time for the rice
and the grain. Harold you would have loved the scenery today. It
reminded me of dad and grampa and bringing in the sheaves but a little
more primitive then I remember. The woman and children were sloshing
through the fields bent over work a little scythe and cutting the
grain or rice and putting little handfuls down on the ground and then
the children were gathering it into bundles and the men were loading
it onto their heads and carrying it up the sides of the hill and
loading it onto a cart pulled by oxen. The oxen would pull the cart to
a flat spot on the side of the road and men would beat it out on the
side and leave it to dry. Everyone helps I think. We drove until
about noon and found a room to stay beside a little lake. We went down
this crazy winding dirt road for five km and found a pretty waterfall
called Chutes de la Lily. Just as we got there there was a bit of
excitement as an ox pulling a cart over a bridge fell between the
cracks into the river. We though he might go down the rapids but got
to shore and the driver got him hooked up okay.
We spent the later afternoon looking for a crater but never found it
but saw a lot of scenery. We got back to the room had tea and crackers
and talked for the evening and went to bed.
In the morning we got up about 730h had a petite dejuener at the
little restuarant and headed to the Lemure park. Check out the lemure
Picts on the blog. It was really interesting to see all the different
kinds. We got back home about 3pm and got settled then went down to
the vegetable sellers at the end of the street. We got some food and
practiced some Malagasy words. We will have to make some plans for
Sunday so we will see.
Tim is catching a cold so we got water some stuff to make soup. We
hope your weekend was as interesting. Talk to you later.
Love Mary & Tim
From Tim McDougall's iPhone
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