Something I learned when home this summer is that even though things here may seem same old same old to us, to those of you at home they are still new things. So, I/we are going to try to update our blog with the things that we missed, and keep up with it again for our last 10 months here. So, I'm going to start with Easter weekend, which we spent up north at a resort called La Pirogue.
La Pirogue is near Mahambo, which is a place Matt and I have gone before. We stayed at Le Recif last year, and we often go to Foule Point for a Sunday at the beach. Mahambo is about 30 minutes north of Foule Point, and is much quieter. The beaches are private, so we aren't constantly bombarded with people selling shell necklaces, massages, and weaved baskets. To be honest, we both prefer Foule Point because of all the action, but for a nice quiet weekend away, Mahambo definitely takes the cake.
We went with our friends Alex and Dave, and arrived bright and early Friday morning. We had rented the deluxe bungalows, which looked like this:
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| Pano view from the second story balcony |
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Upstairs was where we slept - no power means no fan or air con, so you sleep upstairs with the balcony doors open for some air flow.
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Main floor living room area. The door on the left is the toilet, the area on the right is the shower room. |
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The stairs to the second level - extremely terrifying in the middle of the night with no lights. Just ask Matt.                            
We spent two nights in the resort, and had lovely quiet days. Lots of beach time, tasty food, and great company. Alex and I decided to try to drink our way through the cocktails menu, but got distracted by the drink called Sexy In The Drink..... About a 40 minute walk from La Pirogue is the spot where the Marahiboha River meets the Indian Ocean. It's really a neat place, because the fresh water meeting the salt water allows for some amazing plant growth right in the middle of the mouth of the river. It was a lovely walk near sunset and we got some beautiful pictures! I even managed to avoid stepping on the sea urchins! That night we went to dinner at the resort and had a lovely evening sitting and chatting. Unfortunately this was also the evening of the Huntsman spider incident.... After many bottles of wine and some scotch, conversation became about politics. Alex and I decided it was late and boring, so we headed off to our bungalows to read and catch some zzzz's, while the boys stayed at the restaurant and chatted. I got to the room, went upstairs, and attempted to close the curtains on the balcony so I could put on my pjs. As I pulled the curtain closed, in the folds was a GIGANTIC SPIDER!!!! I said some choice (not very lady like) words as I hopped back and tried not to cry. I had to work myself up to walk past it down the stairs to get help, as there was no way I was going to be able to move knowing that thing was anywhere near where I was going to be. For those of you that don't know what a Huntsman spider is, here are some pictures I found on the internet: So ya..... Anyway, I went running to the restaurant because I literally couldn't get away fast enough. Of course the closer I get to the guys I see they are laughing, because they've been able to see me for a while. I explain what is wrong, just saying there is a big spider because at the time I didn't know what kind it was. Both Dave and Matt rolled their eyes, Dave asking Matt what the chances were that it was as big as I said it was. Matt said that there was no way, and he would deal with it so Dave wandered off to get some more drinks. As we approached our bungalow, from the ground I pointed up to the second level and showed Matt that we could see the spider through the curtain, and that I in fact was not making it up. Matt's response? "I'm not touching that!!".... so I ran off to get help. I didn't get far, as Dave was on his way over to see if we needed help. The both stood on the ground looking up, trying to figure out exactly how to deal with this. They went inside, found a container I had brought with cookies, and decided to catch the spider with it. I stayed on the ground yelling as I heard them banging around. It was a Glad square container, one of the sandwich sized ones, and the spider was too big for it :( I kept yelling to see if it was dead, and they kept banging around trying to catch it. After a couple seconds of silence I asked if it had been killed, and they told me it had. I demanded proof...obviously. They then had to admit that it was too fast, but they had chased it out of the bungalow under the thatch roof. This was unacceptable to me, as I was convinced that it was in fact running away to get all it's other 8 legged freak friends to come back and exact it's revenge. The boys, sure that the problem was sufficiently dealt with, left to get their beer and come back to hang out on our patio, because I wasn't going to be able to sleep. I sat on the couch unable to move until they came back. Matt then had to come in the house and wait for me to get in my pjs, and then ensure that once I got on the bed I was completely engulfed in the mosquito netting with no possible points of entry for the spider, or exit for me. I still basically laid perfectly still for the rest of the evening, terrified that an army of gigantic beasts was on its way. Not to mention there was a rager of a party on the beach that kept me awake. Turns out that Easter in Madagascar is quite the party. Everyone arrives at the beach on Saturday and begins to party - and I do mean party - around noon. It's basically rave music for the next 24 hours. Sunday morning has a lovely brunch and fancy breakfast, and the party continues. Those that can't do the whole weekend spend the whole day Sunday at the beach. I seriously couldn't believe it. When we rolled out of the resort on Sunday after breakfast, the amount of people on the road walking to the beach meant that it took us an extra 1.5 hours to get home. You simply couldn't drive. All in all it was a lovely weekend. A little expensive for where we are, I believe our bill for the two nights was 1.2 million Ariary, which is about $600.00. That was a little hard to swallow when we only spent $25 a night at Le Recif, just up the beach. And Le Recif had solar power so we had fans all night - and most importantly, I didn't have an incident with a spider. That being said, it's probably the "fanciest" place we have found in a relatively close proximity and it made for a great weekend out of camp. |
