For the weekend we decided to go to Mananjary, a nice ocean city on the east coast, just two hours ride from Kianjavato.

To move across Madagascar when you don’t have a car you can either walk, which is the best way to get from one village to the next, or take a taxi brousse. These are 15 person minivans, privately owned, that run the roads picking up those that signal them. You always find two people on a taxi brousse, the driver and a guy that directs placing, takes luggage and handles the fee. The number of actual places in the minivan doesn’t limit the number of people that pile up inside, and you can often see people squished inside and people hanging out of the open doors, 25 persons fit easily that way!

We took a taxi brousse from the main road in front of the camp after a long wait, fortunately it was quite empty and we were comfortable for the two hours drive. Actually it looked like the locals didn’t really want to sit next to us, for a stretch of the journey, it was four of us in the last two rows and nine people in the first two.

We lodged at Sorafa hotel, facing directly the ocean, it offered comfortable beds, warm showers and wifi, all things that are missing at the camp. The food was slow to come, and by slow I mean we ordered and then waited two hours on the beach before they came calling us, but a nice change from the rice meals we had up until then.

Saturday and Sunday are both market days at Mananjary, and we spend both mornings wandering around the colorful stalls offering fruits and vegetables, fabrics and clothes, and many other trinkets.

We watched canoes full of bananas coming to the city along the small river that borders it, as well as the small boats fishing in the ocean.

The sun setting behind the palms, colouring the sky in thousands of shades of yellow, orange, purple and blue was extraordinary, unfortunately the picture doesn’t do it justice.

We left Mananjary Sunday at lunch time, ready for the first week of work in the field, or the last one for the old volunteers.