from local markets and fishing villages

It's half past five in the morning. I'm sitting here on the terrace in front of the bungalow in the small town of Miandrivazo. As I write, I watch the city wake up. Crowing roosters everywhere, people going to work, chopping wood, fetching water, or gathering grass for roofs or whatever else... I still need to report about Morondova, the seaside town we reach after visiting the Tsingy and Baobab Avenue. We arrive in Morondava in the evening and drive along the main road. Life is pulsating here! We can only move slowly in the car, there are people everywhere. It's a hustle and bustle... After a long night (we finally got to sleep in) and breakfast, we set out to explore the city. A fascinating walk. Here, goods are sold everywhere: either vegetables or raw fish, ready-made food, but also mobile phones, furniture, or DVD bootlegs. You can find everything here... Some people sew clothes directly on the street or embellish fabrics. They sew on old mechanical Singer sewing machines. As far as I know, these are collector's items that are sought after in Europe! We are currently the only white people around here and we are being curiously watched. We greet politely with Salama resp. Salame and the people are happy to be greeted in the local language and greet us back joyfully. We venture into a market, immediately we are being pulled along, because the alleys between the stalls are so narrow that you can't just stand still without causing a traffic jam. So we keep walking, deeper and deeper into the market frenzy, wondering if we will ever find our way out again... Behind and under the market tables, whole families are sitting and lying down. They seem to find it amusing that a white person has wandered in here and whisper to each other... Some even offer us to try the fish. We politely decline and eventually find our way back outside. Wow, we have seen so much here, we need time to process... For the return journey, we decide to walk along the beach. There are also many people here. We arrive just as a crowd of people pulls a net out into the water and watch as the fish are quickly freed from the nets and thrown into baskets. The fish are also quickly sorted by species and size a few meters away. It feels like a lot of fish. Especially when you see how much fish is still being tried to sell in the evening. Everyone hopes for their luck, but a lot of the fish probably ends up in the trash. Unfortunately, some fishermen here also use mosquito nets, which results in even the smallest fish getting caught. In a few years, there probably won't be much fish left to catch here... In the afternoon, we take a canoe ride with two fishermen through the lagoon landscape and visit the mangroves and a fishing village. This is very impressive. A boy quickly fetches us two fresh coconuts from the tree, which we slurp while taking in the village. A beautiful afternoon! In the evening, on the recommendation of our driver, we go to a restaurant specializing in seafood that serves very fresh food. The two of us order a fish platter. It is so big that it is impossible to finish it alone. We even needed the help of the driver to empty the very delicious platter... The next morning, we start the journey back to Antananarivo, or Tana, the capital. The first leg takes us to Miandrivazo, from where I am now writing these lines. Today we will continue 220km further to Antsirabe, where we will stay for two nights. At least the roads are better here...