A Journey Of A Thousand Miles: Adventure

Ask anybody on the ship that has been with Mercy Ships for awhile and they will tell you that this field service in Madagascar is so different than any other country they have been in as far as tourist activities. Most times the ship is docked in countries that don't have tourist attractions or aren't close to any counties with tourist attractions. Madagascar is such a unique country though and has many different kinds of places to visit that are relatively close to where the ship is docked. By close I mean like a couple hours drive haha. You can't really go anywhere in this country without driving for at least an hour. We are also finding that if they say it will take one hour it will probably take two lol. In Tamatave where the ship is docked we have been going to local restaurants, the beach right near ship and some shopping.

We tried this local Indian food the first week we were here!

Korean food. We find these restaurants through others on Mercy Ships that have tried them before.

The weekend before the clinic opened some roommates and I went to a beach about 2hrs away called Mahambo. Absolutely beautiful and our bungalow was right on the beach. I think we figured out that it cost something like $10 per person a night for the room. Everything is pretty cheap compared to our prices at home hahaha!

The view from our bungalow window.

Sunset at Mahambo beach.

OBF clinic nurses.

Sunrise at Mahambo beach.

Found a couple lemur friends in Mahambo.

This past weekend I happened to have 4 days off and went on a trip with my friend from college and a couple of girls to an island called Ile Aux Nattes. This is a small island off of the island of Saint Marie. I'm learning though to get anywhere that is really awesome it usually takes time. It usually is a journey or an adventure but the final destination is always worth it.

We first drove in a bus with about 15 local Malagasy people for 3 hrs. We then got off the bus and probably waited about an hour for them to get all the luggage loaded on this large boat or ferry I guess. The boat ride was an hour and a half of rainy, rough seas and it turns out I can get sea sick lol. Never threw up but they do have buckets just in case and let me tell you other people had to use them lol. Once we got off the boat we were finally on the island of Saint Marie! The adventure doesn't stop there. We then took a tuk tuk for about a 20min. drive and then a pirogue to our final destination of the hotel La Petite Traversee. Basically we were on an island (Ile Aux Nattes) off of an island (Saint Marie) off of an island (Madagascar) hahah. It was the most remote island I will probably ever be on and was totally worth all the traveling. It was like something out of a magazine. The owner of the hotel is a man from South Africa named Ockie. We had dinner every night like family style and got to know him and the other peopel staying there pretty well. He has an interesting life and pretty much visted the island one year for vacation, absolutly loved it and decided to stay. I don't think pictures will ever do this place justice but here's my attempt.