Anakeo

This is such a nice place. I went to sleep (and awoke of course) to the sound of the waves. Paolo (one of the Italians) had arranged for us to go to a small island off the coast called Nosy Ve (literally meaning "Is there an Island?"

The six of us set off together with a couple of locals on a tiny piroque (fishing boat). It took us about 40 mins to reach the other shore as there was hardly any wind. Nosy Ve was lovely, a real desert island and the two sailors cooked us a delicious bbq of fish and rice.

I met up again (by chance) with the two Aussies Steven and Rachel and the three of us walked around the island and arranged to meet for a drink later that day.

We returned to Anakeo about 1pm.

Paolo knew of a soothsayer in the local villiage and so four of us went along to see her. Paolo could speak fluent Malagasy (having married a Malagasy girl 9 years earlier) so it made communicating with the locals a lot easier!

The soothsayer was an old lady and took payment in the form of rum and cigarettes!! (apparently that's a tradition!!) and acted as a medium between the living and the dead. You could ask her any question and the spirits would answer it!! She put on a big white frock and a cowboy hat and lit up one of the fags.

We asked her a few questions to which she gave garbled responses (probably in fqirness as the questions were being translated English-Italian-Malagasy and back again!!)

In the evening Rachel, Steven and 4 other Italians came over so we had a few more beers!!