A Cool Stay in Tana

I have embarked on my annual tour of the countries of the western Indian Ocean to update the fisheries information stored in the WIOFish database which I manage. First stop this year is Antananarivo (Tana), Madagascar. While I work with some great people here, this is my least favourite stop since it is the only workshop that is held nowhere near the sea. If feels quite ridiculous to be discussing marine fisheries when we are approximately 145 km away from the ocean. The financial constraints of the project dictate that the workshop should be held here though because this is where the fisheries ministry, and hence the people required for the workshop, is based.

My trip here from Durban was fairly uneventful thank goodness. There was a half-hour delay leaving Johannesburg as Airlink had to swap planes as there was a problem with the one originally selected for the flight. Some of us had already gone through the boarding process and were sitting on the bus waiting for the transfer to the plane when the call was made. We had to be deboarded and we returned to the terminal to await the reboarding process. It was a very smooth flight across the ocean and I managed to have a bit of a nap during the three hour flight as the 3:30 wake up took its toll.

Getting through immigration took forever as I had to get a visa which seems to be a bit of a lengthy process with the passports being passed by three people before being returned. I was also stopped by customs for a bunch of random questions before being allowed out of the airport without my suitcase undergoing a search.

The driver from my hotel (Le Louvre) was waiting and he thought it was quite funny watching me avoiding all the porters trying to take my suitcase away from me. I managed to bypass them all and soon enough we were in the mini bus and on the 45 minute journey to the hotel. I'm not overly fond of travelling along the roads here as road rules, at times, seem to be followed in a very relaxed manner. Just a few hair raising over-taking events and we were at the hotel safe and sound.

The Le Louvre hotel is actually really nice. It is one of the most expensive places that I stay at but considering the security issues in Tana, it is one place I am willing to pay a little extra. The Malagasy are really poor and tourists are seen as easy pickings for the theft of valuables. I am warned every time I come here that I must not carry any valuables (but how could I live without my laptop, Kindle and phone) and I must be very careful. At the hotel I have everything that I need without really having to go outside and face all the vendors touting postcards, wet vanilla pods, etc and of course the pickpockets. It has a small but adequate gym to workout in, a lovely heated swimming pool and my room is really comfortable. So it meets all my requirements: clean, safe, free internet connection and hot water. I have been taking advantage of the facilities here and getting up early to train in the gym and then after work I go for a swim to unwind. One of the other great things here at the hotel is that the food is really reasonably priced. I had a delicious steak fillet for dinner which only set me back 14,500 Ariary (R58, $6.50).

The work started slowly but, as regular readers of this blog know, this is the norm! By yesterday afternoon everyone was up to speed and the work was going well. We only have three days to work here so the participants have to knuckle down a bit but I am fairly confident that they will manage to finish everything by tomorrow afternoon.

Since I have arrived it has been very cloudy every day and this morning we even had a bit of drizzle. As I write this though, the sun has come out and the day looks so much brighter. It is still rather cool at 25°C and there is a cool wind blowing. At night the temperature has dropped to the upper teens but my room has been warm. It is a good thing that the swimming pool is underground so I cannot be put off swimming by the weather!

The view from my room 

 Looking down from my room - love these quaint little cars that are used for taxis

My room

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