Return to Tana

Today we drove back to Tana, and this time I was prepared for the duration. We stopped for lunch at the Hotel Artist in Ambositra, and were treated to a traditional dance performance while we dined. I liked to think of it as a Malagasy PCC, of sorts. With so much of an (understandable) focus on nature, it was nice to see attempts to preserve their cultural heritage, too.

Here's a video I shot of one of their dances:

classic Malagasy architecture at Hotel Artisan in Ambositra

For a while I was lucky enough to have shotgun, and attempted to capture what this was like in photos.

typical produce stand

I got so excited when I saw this sign! (the LDS church in Malagasy)

Along the way, I remembered a silent film a friend had shown me several months before. It was a streetcar’s perspective as it went through a Spanish town in the 1920’s and was such a fascinating glimpse of their everyday because it was so different from my own. Here’s my little tribute to it, in the hopes you’ll appreciate this drive a bit more.
(coming soon, video!)
Back at Le Louvre in Tana, I treated myself to one last spa night before dinner. As I was preparing to leave the hotel, who should I see but a large group of LDS missionaries! It was fun talking to them and finding out where they were from, and they confirmed the chapels in I’d seen in Tana. Determined to enjoy the vanilla chicken one last time, I returned to Sakamanga and enjoyed every bite before asking my waiter for the recipe. After my unexpected luck in New Zealand I thought it was worth a try, and was again rewarded. It was a little vague due to translation issues, but I look forward to attempting it back in the US.

Au revoir, vanilla chicken