Ile St. Marie/New Years

The next day I headed to Sambava to catch a flight to Tana. My other Peace Corps friends who were already in Ile St. Marie had been calling me frequently, while I was still at site, asking when I was getting there, so I was pretty anxious to start my New Year’s vacation. After arriving in Tana and taking care of some business in the office I woke up early the next morning to catch a flight to Ile St. Marie. Once I got to the island, I took a cab from the south end, where the airport is, to the center of the island, where the big town is and where my friends were staying. After meeting up with two of them at a café and catching up on our lives at our sites and various vacations we had taken over the past few months, we headed over to their hotel to grab another room for me. Then we swam in the ocean and walked around town.

Although I was only in Ile St.Marie for a few days and didn’t get to see much of the island, it was still beautiful and I had a great time hanging out with Peace Corps friends. We went swimming in the ocean, walked up to a viewpoint where you could see both sides of the island, drank some punch coco (coconutty, homemade rum), ate some delicious seafood and spent some just hanging out. I really enjoyed seeing everyone and was refreshed and ready to head to Tana for mid-service conference on January 2nd.

Unfortunately we had a rough time getting a boat back to the mainland, because all the morning ones were full and the next boat we had a reservation for broke down. We eventually found a boat in the afternoon and got to Tamatave in the evening. The next day we took a bush taxi to Tana to be there in time to start our Mid-service training.