June 21, 2016

I was recently asked, “What is your favorite part of the trip?” “Well, I like ice cream and skiing. They are both amazing.” I replied. How can I sum up my favorite part of the trip? Everything has been beautiful, exhilarating, inspiring, and humbling.

I got a message from my friend Sara today, upon reading my most recent post, “Welcome to Madagascar…For Real”. She wrote, “Go enjoy your next adventurous day. May the love and joy and sense of wonder continue to embrace you.” This is what I’m talking about.

Today I leave my new family and pedal 65km to Maramanga. Upon departing, I asked my family what the road was like to Maramanga. The mother made a downhill motion with her hand. It was, as I found out, partly true. I am still in what is called the highlands region, heading east to the Indian Ocean. Today was marked by luscious, dense, green foliage, exhilarating sweeping mountain descents, and of course those same climbs on the other side. Due to the beauty of my surroundings, lugging an 80lb bike up hill never wilted my smile.

In Madagascar, the climate is split almost perfectly down the middle, when leaving Tana either east or west. The west side is hot, dry, and arid. The east is a rain forest. It is clear I am approaching the rain forest. Throughout the day, I am in and out of pockets of rain and sunshine, sometimes as far apart as 1 km. The rain is a light warm mist, barely enough to warrant a rain jacket or bubble up the lenses on my sunglasses. It is a welcome reprieve from yesterday’s war. The climbs are long enough for me to appreciate the descent, but not so long to debilitate me. Even in pockets of sun, the road is never fully dry as the air is too heavy. Around every corner or at the top of every climb, I am greeted by a warm and friendly smile, even by the occasional truck driver that passes me by. Sixty five km passes quickly and by noon I arrive in Marmanga with the sun shining on my back.

The name Mora-manga literally means “easy to beautify”. The city has an important place in the history of Madagascar. It was in here, on the night of the 29th of March 1947 that the Malagasy uprising against French colonial rule started.

While wandering through town, I randomly see a Trek bike, which is an anomaly for sure. I walked into the building that bike was parked in front of. There was an American Peace Corp volunteer named Steve, who of course knew my friends Jenna and Ian. While it is not random that he knew them, it is random that I wandered down this ally at this time, and met him. I know I keep saying this, but this just keeps happening to me. Gratitude.

Today I have no problem finding a hotel. For about $15, I have a luxurious room (with WIFI), with hot shower, flushing toilet, king sized bed, and a healthy portion of vegetable curry, nan, and orange Fanta. It’s been about 48 hours of being filthy so I’m going to enjoy this night…because you never know what tomorrow will bring.

These jokers wanted to race…and nearly won

Nice break from yesterday’s war