Mayotte

Mayotte is a gorgeous archipelago located about 200 miles from Madagascar and slightly further from Mozambique.

I've been here for a few weeks and have seen several of the smaller islands along with most of Petit-Terre, the smaller of the two populated isles.

Today we (Phil, Kimi, and Steve) rented a cute little zoomie Fiat Panda to ferry across to Grande-Terre to see what the rest of Mayotte looks like.

I got to drive as they are from countries who put the steering (and traffic) on the wrong side. I really enjoyed being behind the wheel for the 2nd day in the last 4+ months.

Just figuring out the ferry was a minor challenge - there are two and a third that passenger ferry that goes to the Comoros. We sorta lucked onto the right answer by just following the traffic. Sometimes it pays to be a sheep.

The ferry staff doesn't like passengers in the cars for boarding so Kimi & Phil jumped out and very nearly boarded the boat to Comoros. That would have been one heck of a story, but also a multi-hour international fiasco. Fortunately they got it squared away.

Disembarking from the ferry went smoothly and we dove into heavy traffic chaos in the downtownish area of Mamoudzou (the Capital). Once free from that we drove up into the hills and found the lovely Gite du Mont Combani. The hotel grounds are covered by lush flowering tropical plants, a grove of sensuously scented ylang ylang, and a friendly troupe of lemurs (who nearly stole our lunch!). We enjoyed some coffee and a beautiful view of the water, then a tasty chef's salad. As the only guests present we were happy that we found food, even better that it was yummy and healthy. I've noticed a propensity for meat and french fries around here... Salad made my taste buds happy.

After lunch we did a quick but very steep hike up to a communications tower, hoping for an even better view that did materialize. We were joined by one of the cute little hotel dogs, which was fun; and a variable but mostly light rain that was... Ok, still pretty fun. It's been hot down on the water so some cool mountain air and rainfall was a pleasant change.

While the vegetation and weather felt surprisingly similar to ~500m altitude tropical wet forests in Central America there was a surprising dearth of butterflies and birds. Sure, we saw a few birds... But really few and far between. I wonder if it's due to being an island or a sign of something unbalanced in the ecology.

After the hike, and dropping off our canine escort, we jumped back in the Panda and headed off to explore the northern portion of the island. Inconveniently the rain seemed to perk up its ears each time we stopped and so we didn't do much more exploration on foot.

Truth be told we were also feeling more than a little apprehension because several locals commented on the recent increase of insecurity including some tourist mugging. Better safe than sorry is rarely my mantra but in a case like this - we don't know the language nor what parts of town are safer/less safe - it seemed prudent to enjoy views vs tromp down pathways unknown.

In retrospect, a Sunday may have been wiser: safety in numbers and all that.

After a few hours of exploring we decided that Northern Grande-Terre is pretty and wet and has a much lower level of economic prosperity compared to Petit-Terre. Funny in that water is clearly much more truly-valuable than money*, and this area has true wealth vs the water-starved but whiter/richer Petit-Terre. "Civilization" does strange things.

*Don't believe me? Give up both for 3 days and tell me which one you want 1st.

The ferry ride back was uneventful once we realized we had to buy a card to pay the fare. Easy enough with the very helpful folks who pointed me in the right direction. Uneventful but refreshingly cool and sparkly in the night air. Even after 40 days aboard yachts, I freaking LOVE being on a ferry. My time commuting SF-Oakland trained me well. #ferrytales live on!Read more