23,931 miles

Or 68 hours and 40 minutes travel time. Now matter how you look at it they are both big numbers representing my round trip journey between Toamasina, Madagascar and Edmonton. Pretty crazy now that I've added it up and I'm not even counting the fact that I lose a day waiting to catch the charter between the capital of Madagascar (Antananarivo) and my Madagascar home of Toamasina on the coast.

This the route from Antananarivo to Edmonton

And this is the route home

 My route starts in Toamasina where we board a sweet DeHavilland Twin Otter. This is seriously my favorite part of the trip - I absolutely love prop driven planes and the twin otter is as utilitarian as awesome gets. It is also comically ugly or as Lisa likes to call it "endearing".

I got the chance to snap some pictures on my flight today - and I've included the least crappy ones below.

River to the south of Toamasina flowing East into the Ocean.

Same river looking West.

Outskirts of Antananarivo peeking through the clouds.

Community on the outskirts.

Housing / farming / etc still outskirts.

Tana proper. Farms turn into housing turns into lake turns into city. 

Once you get to Antananarivo it is but a short bus ride to the Relais Des Plateaux (that's French for moderately crappy hotel). Upon arrival you are greeted with a beautiful courtyard and totally neat trees.

That's not where I parked my cart!

My building - 2nd floor, far right, top be my window.

If this was Star Wars this killer bush thing would eat people.

Tree with pretty flowers.

Nothing says luxury like a wooden novelty keychain.

Nicer than my room at camp! Wait.. what the hell is that painting on the wall?

.... ohhh k. i suppose it's... what the hell? why would you put this in a hotel room?

Rest of the room. Complete with sweet death trap light fixtures.

This might look pretty but rest assured behind this piece of conductive metal are  bare wires carrying 220V of exhilarating electrocution.

My office for the day - not bad. :)

The best part of Madagascar - Fanta Orange in a glass bottle made with real sugar. SO GOOD.

So I can't really remember where I was and scrolling up past all of those pictures sounds hard so I'll start by saying I checked in at this place. Killed a huge cockroach in my room, went and grabbed lunch which was thankfully cockroach free, took my laptop and sat by the pool in the sun and worked most of the day.

It was mid afternoon when about 100 Malagasi's showed up to have their annual Christmas party by the pool. They were very considerate... of what I am not sure. Out came the gigantic novelty speakers and the horrible Malagasi Pop playlist that consists of 10 songs they repeat over and over. Back to my room I ran where I plugged my ears with the blissful sounds of lame christmas music and continued working. Thing is, the thump of the same 10 songs haunted me into the early evening. I'll tell you I've never been so happy to have thunder showers and rolling black outs. It got rid of the music. Thank you mother nature.

Tomorrow I head to the airport at noon and my flight leaves for Johannesburg at 3PM. From Joburg I have a couple hour layover and then it's on to London on South African Airways. I arrive in London and have just under 2 hours to deplane, transfer terminals, and haul ass to catch my flight to Toronto. Why Toronto you ask? Because Edmonton was full. :( Once I get to Toronto I have a couple hours before I catch my final connector to Edmonton. Good times!

I leave Friday morning 5AM MST from Antananarivo and arrive in Edmonton Saturday evening at 5PM.

The weather better improve.