I Imagine Paradise Is A Lot Like Diego

PS: (as in Pre-S, b/c its before the post, but Post-S, b/c I'm adding it after crafting this masterpiece of pictures and words) You can click on the pictures to view them in their much more glorious larger versions (although still just 1/4 of the original files).  The pictures in this post are quite spectacular if I do say so myself, so enjoy!

So Tuesday morning I woke up, enjoyed some free breakfast (bread, jam, lemon grass tea, and I added an “omelette”) The jam was actually preserved pineapple, which was really really good.

 

Strolled around to the bus station and got a ticket back to Tana for the next day.  Came back to the hotel changed into swimming suit and took all the random junk out of my back pack and I was off.

To where you ask?

To the Emerald Sea!

After reading the Lonely Planet book and chatting with the girls that worked at the hotel I decided that was the place where I wanted to spend my one day in Diego.  So I found myself a taxi-camion that was going to Ramena:

It was 3,000Ar ($1.50) for 15 km / 30 minute ride to the town on the other side of the bay from Diego.  I sat in the back with all those lovely ladies and we actually had a fun time.  Half of them were Sakalava and half of them were Antandroy so I learned some cool Malagasy stuff while we cruised along.

To play: Milalao (Merina) Midola (Betsimisaraka) Misoma (Sakalava) Mihisa (Antandroy). 

They offered me some of a konikony which is a fruit I’d never heard of it before.  It was pretty good.  Other than lytchis and corosol juice I haven’t been super impressed with any of the crazy new fruits I’ve found in Madagascar (it’s a sad day when you realize the reason America mass produces and mass consumes bananas, grapes, and oranges is because they’re the sweetest easiest to eat fruits there are and there aren’t really any real secret fruits hiding out in the jungles that taste like paradise).  But the konikony was actually pretty delicious and had a good texture and wasn’t super messy (unlike many of the other fruits). 



View out the back ...er, "window" on the way to Ramena. 

Diego is located slightly out of view on the ride hand side, as in Nosy Lonja.

Towards the end of the trip they asked me what I was doing in Ramena – going to the Mer d’Emeraudes of course.  So this one older lady was like, “well you should get a massage. Have you ever gotten a massage? This girl here (a younger girl in the truck) gives good massages.” I was a little hesitant to commit to something that I had no idea about and I didn’t want to get myself into an awkward situation with some skanky Malagasy chick (she didn’t seem skanky, but that can always change lol).  So I was like, well, we’ll see.  But the girl (who was theoretically supposed to give me a massage) was really nice and showed me around Ramena.  Well there wasn’t anything to see so she took me to her neighbor/friend who owned a boat.  So I haggled with him and we agreed to 40,000Ar ($20) for him to take me out to The Emerald Sea by myself and bring me back. 

Along the way we saw a girl with crazy awesome masonjoany which is a root pounded into powder and then mixed with water to make a paste they put on their face.  Its supposed to make you look young, but when you wear it you look crazy scary so I don’t understand what the benefit is if you always wear it and you always look crazy scary.  This girl however had dope designs all over so I took a picture. 

I also met, Obama Girl.  She was friends with Massage Girl from the truck and will be part of the day's story later on.  But I thought her shirt was hilarious so I took a picture.  Oh and she had NO idea who Obama was until I told her lol. 

The word for canoe in Malagasy is lakana and they kept using that word to describe what we’d be in.  So I figured we’d be in a dugout canoe for half an hour going around a cove. 

Then we got to the beach and I realized a lakana is any small boat.  I had always wanted to sail in a Junk (I’m not sure if that’s the right word, but those Arabian-ish boats with the one big sail).  I got my wish!

I hopped in the super bright blue boat and these three sailor guys rigged up the sail and threw a motor on too and off we went. 

I quickly realized that the Mer D’Emeraudes was actually quite a ways away – all the way outside of the giant bay that Diego sits on.  But the water was oohhhh so blue and the sky ohhh so clear – it was a beautiful day.  And getting the boat all to myself other than the three Sakalava guys was fun.  I chatted with them about life in Ramena and stuff and when that was done I just enjoyed the scenery. 

We got out to the beach and I took some pictures.  But apparently the main attraction was snorkeling in the actual sea. So after 15 minutes on the beach by myself, the sailor guys told me to get back in the boat so we could go the actual Emerald Sea and not just a super nice beach. 

So we rigged up the sail and off we went back towards (what I’ll now call) Diego Bay.  We get to a part of the ocean that doesn’t look too abnormal if you’re just sitting in the boat – but they’re like ‘stand up and look at the water’ – so I did… wow! It really was this amazing turquoise/green water. The water was only a couple meters deep and super clear. 

They lent me a snorkeling mask (which was super nice) and I jumped in the water.  There wasn’t a lot of coral, but some, and a few schools of fish.  I saw a parrot fish (I think) which was pretty cool.  I have to admit that ever since seeing JAWS when I was a wee lad, I’ve always been a wee bit afraid of swimming in the ocean – especially what was essentially the wide open ocean and all by myself.  So I kind of just scuttered around while trying to look for cool fish and coral and never getting too far from the boat in the off chance that I would need to leap aboard to avoid a mouthful of teeth, or worse yet, be pulled in (minus a leg) by the heroic sailors who would rescue me from bloody-salt-watery death.  Needless to say, no sharks or even fish big enough to nibble my pinky-toe were to be seen.  

I got back in the boat and off we headed into the sunset towards Ramena.There some significant roller-waves in the strait entering Diego Bay that had me a wee bit worried we might capsize and drown, but other than that it was a beautiful ride back. 

We pulled into Ramena right as the sun was setting so I stayed in the boat and took pictures and video.

As I got out of the boat, I realized a lot of people were sitting on the beach facing towards some house and not talking.  So I was like “hmmm I wonder what this is?” so I asked Massage Girl (who appeared just in time to lead me to my massage) and she informed me it was a fahoriana or a Malagasy funeral.  Apparently some guy went out diving for octupai to sell and never came back up.  So thatwas a sobering experience.  So then I walked back through the houses and Massage girl and Obama girl show up.  And by this point I decided I wanted a massage.  So Obama Girl took me over to another part of the beach and had me lay down on this straw mat (tsihy) and she gave me a massage for almost half an hour.  It was pretty nice. And it only cost 5,000Ar ($2.50). 

Then the girls hooked me up with some guy who gave me a taxi ride back Diego.  I went down to a restaurant called Le Tsarabe Vaovao which means “The Really Good New”.  Dinner there was actually kind of expensive but I was already there and really hungry.  Halfway through my meal some French dude (later 30’s maybe?) and his foza friend sat down to dinner here (this place was actually kinda classy so they were all dressed up).  They chit-chatted in French and the only part I actually picked up was her saying “Tu es un egoiste” (You’re egotistical) which to me sounds like a pretty bold faced insult for some dude that’s buying you a nice dinner (but also wanting something in return).  The whole conversation was pretty subdued though and he defended himself pretty relaxedly.  She was pretty wishy-washy about what she wanted for dinner and eventually I think he just chose for her lol.  The dessert was by far the best – an icecreamy version of nougat which is like pistachio and honey in this whipped white fluffy-ish candy stuff.

I went home and probably posted my first couple blog entries and those pictures, and went to bed.