#1: Breakfast at the Cookie Shop: an American bakery in Antananarivo, with delicious eggs, pancakes and waffles, and the best coffee I’ve had in Madagascar so far. If only it were open on Sundays!
oh yes
Saturday morning at the Cookie Shop
#2: Taxi cabs, Tana-style: traveling by cab here is an experience. After negotiating the fare and jumping in (assuming you can get the door open, which is a challenge in itself – I’m 1 for 7 so far), many cabs will make a beeline to the closest gas station, and get you to prepay the fare so they can purchase enough gas to make it to your destination. From all that I’ve seen, this is common practice for any trip of 2 miles or more – which may have to do with the fact that some cabbies don’t use their gas tank but instead have an old beverage bottle with fuel next to the driver’s seat that’s creatively hooked up to the engine. Another fuel-economizing strategy: as soon as there’s a downhill stretch the engine gets cut to be started again only once the cab has slowed down to a crawl.
#3: Bastille Day: On the eve of July 14, the French embassy marks their independence celebrations with elaborate fireworks. Watching from the third floor window of my house on a hill I’m enjoying the spectacle from the distance. The next morning, though, I hear that many locals (especially those without a view of the fireworks) had a different reaction to the noise coming from an area where many government functions are housed: they called the police, assuming the – unannounced – firework shots to be a continuation of the violent 2009 coup. Not a great way for the French ambassador to make friends…
roofs of Tana
camera meets slow Saturday afternoon
#4: Running: By now I’m an official entrant for the 2011 Isalo Raid, a 100km ultra marathon in the south of Madagascar. As such, I have no excuse to not show up to the regular Sunday morning running group; and I even manage to get out of bed on Saturday morning to partake in an additional two hour run in preparation for Isalo. I’m excited – the ultra marathon is this weekend (start time: 2am on Saturday morning), and we’ll be getting on a bus to Isalo before dawn on Thursday morning to make sure we’re down there in time for the pre-race briefing. T minus four!
typical weekend afternoon
Sunday runners, encore
that + book + beer + music = good end to the day
