#Madagascar, Anakao

We finally arrived in Anakao. A completely different ambiance, fortunately. White sand, turquoise see and hordes of children playing under the eyes of their parents. We choose a small bungalow in a family hotel runned by a very kind Malagasy couple: chez Solange. We highly recommand it to you. For the bookings, it's here.

The hamlet is not very large but very friendly. We are with the Vezus, the tribe of fishermen. I'm fascinated by their dexterity on the canoes. From their youngest childhood, the children are building mini canoes and run behind their reduced model that are powered by wind and fast as rockets.

This is the place where we are going to buy our canoe and we decide to take lessons on the way to rig and manipulate the barque. It's a square sail done to be powered by back wind. The course is taken with the help of the paddle placed at the back of the boat, on the choosen side and more or less deeply. As told by our teacher: "Nothing with force, everything with intelligence."

The wind is not yet going in the correct direction but we have the immense chance to be there on a Saturday: it's the disco evening. It's a wonderful moment. Music is made to danse and the ambiance is clearly festive. Lights are not hyper moderns, obviously, but it's enough. Espacially with the (huge) amount of rhum.

The only downside of this stop is that, here too, the goal of some Malagasy is to pluck the tourists. For example, we were "protected" by 4 scammers all our stay. They want to pay for everything and then take a commission. Fortunately, we managed to get rid of them and discover by ourselves with the help of Solange.

With her help, we found an excellent canoe teacher: her husband. With a lot of kindness and patience, he guided us. And then he accompanied us during 2 days to be sure that we will not lack of anything.

Let's go to the north: Manguily, but trough Tulear for an overnight.