From Heaven to Hell-Ville

This journey took those of us aboard The Vista some forty-two hours. As usual, these hours were filled with eating, sleeping, communicating back home, cocktail parties, eating, Trivia - and I have now joined in the daily Mensa quiz there. Our Mensa quiz, if one completes ALL five multi-part questions correctly, awards one with a single Big-O point. A lot of time spent for a wee small point, but I am trying to earn enough Big-O points to purchase a wooden ATW jigsaw puzzle. :)

Nosy Be, an island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, has been known by many names over the centuries since discovery. Personally, I believe the most appropriate one is "the scented island" as its major export is vanilla beans. Also rans are all kinds of spices and sugar cane.

Greeting Committee in Nosy Be, Madagascar

Back to Hell-Ville. This community/town/village was founded in 1840 by a French Admiral named Hell. How unfortunate. Pity he wasn't named Pleasant or Prosperous or perhaps even Not So Bad. Not to be. People and places can sometimes live up to or down to their name. From this outsider's point of view, the latter would seem to be the case, here. Our first stop on the excursion was the same market at which we stopped in 2023. I did not purchase any vanilla, vanilla beans, nor spices then. I more than made up for that omission this time purchasing perhaps enough vanilla beans to supply all of Texas with vanilla for a year. Purchases made, vendor happy and it's back on the bus to a Ylang plantation. Our guide's idea of a visit to a Ylang (the tree that produces a flower which turns into a berry which is picked and distilled into perfume oil for French perfumes) plantation was a drive into the countryside for a bit, stopping to the side of the narrow roadway and instructing us to disembark while she proceeded to pick a few blossoms off the nearby trees and disburse said blooms among the tourists. Those still possessing a sense of smell seemed to enjoy the stop. No longer possessing that attribute, I simply enjoyed the scenery...

More on these trees below...

YOU get a Ylang Bloom and YOU get a Ylang Bloom and YOU get a Ylang Bloom...

Coffee Bean Stem (plucked just before 2:00 pm)

Way, way, way back "In the beginning. . . " these islands making up Madagascar quite possibly had the same majesty as Seychelles. Same climate, same soil, lush vegetation in every direction, same volcanic mountains, same bluer-than-blue skies and sea. Then along came man. Apparently, life is as hard in Madagascar as our guide, Guy, said was good in Seychelles. (What a shameful, disgraceful reflection on mankind!)

Next up on our tour was "The Sacred Tree." "What makes it sacred?" one might ask. Answer: when one prays to this tree, one may be granted their prayer... Or not. My presumption is that one also must leave a sacrifice to said tree. I shall never know, as it was necessary to don a huge piece of brightly colored fabric around one's body and over the shoulder, PLUS remove one's shoes in order to walk onto the pathway leading to this tree. I, unfortunately, had not worn any of the two dozen or more pairs of socks which I packed for this journey, so I chose not to walk barefoot through the canopied pathway to encounter the tree. Instead, I chose to wander around the surrounding area appreciating its beauty and pondering the question of why I had packed so many pairs of socks....????

We then were herded back onto our bus to be driven a short distance to an open-air venue serving as best I could tell as a dancehall/restaurant for a taste of the local cuisine. The same ladies who had been lined up outside the pathway to the tree singing & dancing, walked the short distance to the next venue and continued their performance. Here, the young girl with painted face who had been entertaining herself on a cellphone at the tree, was allowed to join the ladies. I tasted some of the foods and enjoyed a "National Cola" in a can looking remarkably similar to a Coca-Cola can. We ate, we drank, we watched the dancing, we contributed to the dancers welfare, we took pictures until our guide deemed it time to move on to our next stop: another market place...

Having already purchased adequate vanilla & spice, I made a quick tour of the place, seeing nothing I could not live happily ever after without, I decided to return to my seat on the bus. On the way to the bus, I made a tactical error! A woman was sitting on the concrete steps of the market holding a sleeping baby. The baby seemed so contented, I smiled at the scene... Big mistake! The next thing I knew the woman and baby were on the steps of the bus where she was gesturing wildly holding the baby in one arm and waving a small spiral notebook with markings on the page and saying something in her native tongue which I hope I misinterpreted. My conclusion was either that she was trying to sell me the opportunity to hold the baby or worst of all possible thoughts, to actually sell me the baby...

Day 65 of this 120 Day voyage was spent in Mayotte. Mayotte, like Madagascar, remains under French rule, has all the natural attributes as Seychelles, is situated in the Indian Ocean in the Mozambique Channel, but alas, is overcome with abject poverty and filth! Now, to add insult to injury, Mayotte is being overrun with illegal immigrants AND has insufficient drinkable water. (What is next? Locusts?) Our beautiful Muslim guide failed to mention what, if anything, was being done about the massive immigration which had caused all kinds of ills to befall her country. But upon my questioning, she did reveal that the huge construction site taking up both sides of the road was for a gigantic desalination plant. Noble effort, but not sufficient nor soon enough. At present, the island is under water rationing. A home or business can only have water every other day. (Is there a lesson here for our very own beloved Central Texas???)

What she did say at length to no-one's enjoyment was about a fifteen minute dissertation on Sharia law. Not what I signed on for! Not what I wished to hear! Yes, one of my reasons for these journeys is to see and learn as much as possible of the big wonderful world given us and the other people inhabiting it. But this lecture was out of place and totally unnecessary! Suffice it to say that I DO NOT WISH to return to Mayotte in this or any other life! Please, God, grant that wish.

There were, however, some beautiful people and scenes captured on each of those islands. So, I shall leave you on a positive note with some of those photographs.

Our Guide through the Gardens

What could this foliage be guarding?

Cacao beans! Yes that is a Cacao tree (dried and fermented, they are used to make cocoa)

Veloma Tsara, Madagascar!

Today is Someday! "Seas" the day!