MAYOTTE, COMOROS ISLANDS
22 November 2006- Wednesday
Automatic wakeup at 6 am to find us standing off Mayotte. After docking we have to wait for the port authority to come on board and give us clearance to leave the ship. There is no organized tour today which means there's probably nothing to see in town. The bulletin says they did arrange a shuttle bus to go to town - $20 round trip ticket. I figure this is another hot place since we are near the equator so will take an early shuttle which is supposed to take half hour to get to town.
Should explain that Mayotte is not politically part of the Comoro isalnds. The rest of the islands voted for independance from France but Mayotte by 98% voted to stay as a French territory and they hope to be elevated to a 'department' which is like our state sometime soon. Well, it turned out to be a shuttle fiasco. 2 buses and two vans which took less than a hundred into town. The plan was to run a bus every 30 minutes but obviously if its a half hour trip each way that should be every hour. The crowd increased, milled around, finally somebody organizzed a quay (the Brits are the best at quaying up- left over from WWII where they had to quay-up for everything). It was super hot in the sun so we used the shipping container stacks for shade.Til they started moving them. Finally got on board a small bus and had a scenic ride to town. The women paint their faces with a yellow colored paste for their skin. The bus let us off at the market and I made a bee line for the post office (all markets have begun to look alike). Everything was uphill in this town and I did say it was hot. Asked in my best French for the post office and got directed to a winding uphill dirt path. Made it only to be 4th in line in a building with no circulation of air- then suddenly I was 6th- the natives have a way of slipping in I didn't get a chance to study how they did it, because the lady at the counter called me to the counter and I got 6 stamps- since this is French territory you had to have Euros which I luckily did. Now I had to find postcards to put my preprinted labels on- found a small stall picked out six and got distracted by a British couple who were in port on a 100 passenger ship- walked off and later realized I hadn't paid for the cards- they have probably sworn out a warrant for my arrest and I'm glad we're not stopping at any French territories. Wrote the cards in the village square and found a post box- they're canary yellow so you can't misss them..There were only a few people at the bus stop when I get back to the market- and they have quayed up nicely. Breeze in the 20 passenger van makes for a pleasant trip back to ship. Hit the shower. (Captain says we have a water shortage. We were taking on more water from Mayotte- note strong chlorine smell in shower) Then lunch where I learned I could have taken a cab for 3 euro instead of for $20 (I hate getting ripped off). Then a nap.
Afternoon spent fighting with my laptop. Took it up to the Charleston Room, a glassed in area that's used for after dinner dancing, etc. with a bar and a smoking area. It's close enough to the computer room to make a wireless connection. Just about the time I got my internet connection a couple of smokers marched in with their computer and lit up. ' Logged on, got to the blog page- a couple of copy-paste routines rejected, then I got the hang of it and sent the rest. Somehow 18 november may be lost in cyberspace because it's not on my notepad anymore. Final straw was that I could not log off because I couldn't get the "ocean mail" logo to show. Went over to computer room and found I was still logged in (eating up my expensive minutes)- until a lady showed up and gave me some clues. Tried to up load a photo from Amboseli; but, as my friend Dan the backpacker from Antarctica predicted, it took forever; so I may save the picture entries til I get home.
Early dinner and then up to see "Ricochet" the husband -wife magicians. They have to have 2 shows a night because of the number of passengers. I really barged in on the early show which is designed to entertain the late eaters until they eat at 8:15pm. I tried tthe late seating a couple of times last voyage, but going to bed with a full stomach wasn't a good idea.
Anyway, it was a good show, as usual. I think he blew a rope trick but decided I was not interested enough to sit through the late show. Another episode of Lost and sleep.
Automatic wakeup at 6 am to find us standing off Mayotte. After docking we have to wait for the port authority to come on board and give us clearance to leave the ship. There is no organized tour today which means there's probably nothing to see in town. The bulletin says they did arrange a shuttle bus to go to town - $20 round trip ticket. I figure this is another hot place since we are near the equator so will take an early shuttle which is supposed to take half hour to get to town.
Should explain that Mayotte is not politically part of the Comoro isalnds. The rest of the islands voted for independance from France but Mayotte by 98% voted to stay as a French territory and they hope to be elevated to a 'department' which is like our state sometime soon. Well, it turned out to be a shuttle fiasco. 2 buses and two vans which took less than a hundred into town. The plan was to run a bus every 30 minutes but obviously if its a half hour trip each way that should be every hour. The crowd increased, milled around, finally somebody organizzed a quay (the Brits are the best at quaying up- left over from WWII where they had to quay-up for everything). It was super hot in the sun so we used the shipping container stacks for shade.Til they started moving them. Finally got on board a small bus and had a scenic ride to town. The women paint their faces with a yellow colored paste for their skin. The bus let us off at the market and I made a bee line for the post office (all markets have begun to look alike). Everything was uphill in this town and I did say it was hot. Asked in my best French for the post office and got directed to a winding uphill dirt path. Made it only to be 4th in line in a building with no circulation of air- then suddenly I was 6th- the natives have a way of slipping in I didn't get a chance to study how they did it, because the lady at the counter called me to the counter and I got 6 stamps- since this is French territory you had to have Euros which I luckily did. Now I had to find postcards to put my preprinted labels on- found a small stall picked out six and got distracted by a British couple who were in port on a 100 passenger ship- walked off and later realized I hadn't paid for the cards- they have probably sworn out a warrant for my arrest and I'm glad we're not stopping at any French territories. Wrote the cards in the village square and found a post box- they're canary yellow so you can't misss them..There were only a few people at the bus stop when I get back to the market- and they have quayed up nicely. Breeze in the 20 passenger van makes for a pleasant trip back to ship. Hit the shower. (Captain says we have a water shortage. We were taking on more water from Mayotte- note strong chlorine smell in shower) Then lunch where I learned I could have taken a cab for 3 euro instead of for $20 (I hate getting ripped off). Then a nap.
Afternoon spent fighting with my laptop. Took it up to the Charleston Room, a glassed in area that's used for after dinner dancing, etc. with a bar and a smoking area. It's close enough to the computer room to make a wireless connection. Just about the time I got my internet connection a couple of smokers marched in with their computer and lit up. ' Logged on, got to the blog page- a couple of copy-paste routines rejected, then I got the hang of it and sent the rest. Somehow 18 november may be lost in cyberspace because it's not on my notepad anymore. Final straw was that I could not log off because I couldn't get the "ocean mail" logo to show. Went over to computer room and found I was still logged in (eating up my expensive minutes)- until a lady showed up and gave me some clues. Tried to up load a photo from Amboseli; but, as my friend Dan the backpacker from Antarctica predicted, it took forever; so I may save the picture entries til I get home.
Early dinner and then up to see "Ricochet" the husband -wife magicians. They have to have 2 shows a night because of the number of passengers. I really barged in on the early show which is designed to entertain the late eaters until they eat at 8:15pm. I tried tthe late seating a couple of times last voyage, but going to bed with a full stomach wasn't a good idea.
Anyway, it was a good show, as usual. I think he blew a rope trick but decided I was not interested enough to sit through the late show. Another episode of Lost and sleep.
Labels: Nairobi to Rio 2006
posted by DT at 11:17 AM
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