I apologize to my many, many adoring fans for no posts in about 3 weeks......I received numerous (read 1 request from my dad) to update. So here we go.......
I spent two weeks traveling. Visited Reunion Island...didn't stay long enough....Maroantsetra (Masoala National Park)....and Diego-Saurez (Montagen d'Ambre National Park). I'll go into detail about each of them over the next few days or weeks.....
My direct flight from Ft Dauphin to St Denis, Reunion had only about 10 people on the entire flight. It was a pretty big plane too......Air Mad must have lost a ton of money on that flight. They should have put us all in first class.....whatever.
Oh yeah, just before I leaving I received a bunch of emails that my other flights weren't booked and that the reservations were canceled.....great.
When I get to St Denis I decided to find Air Mad and fix that problem.....but there was a HUGE line. Instead I found my rental car.
A little Peugot 207....so little I think my mom could have put the seat all the way back and still reached the pedals. I swear the French don't know that there are people over 5'5" in the world....Also, I was so used to my work truck that I stalled the car approximately 2,243 times. I may have driven the car a little hard too....as in the engine may have visited the redline a number of times. I recommend NOT buying a used Peugot 207 from Avis.
The roads in Reunion are really nice, but super super twisty. I therefore recommend renting (hiring for those outside the US) a Porsche. That would be insanely fun!
I resolved the problem with my tickets from my many remaining flights. I took a total of 7 flights....kind of tiring of flying. I'm spoiled from my international business class flights for work....so I hate flying economy on my own dime. Hahaha.
Finding my auberge, which is kind of like a small motel, was a major adventure. I took at least 5 wrong turns. One huge difference from Mada is that the roads in Reunion are way, way nice. While the roads in Mada barely qualify as roads.
When I arrived at my auberge......no one was there. Great......called the owner and he wouldn't be there for a few hours. So, I decided to be adventurous and explore a little more. Didn't find anything of report and I actually found my way back to the auberge. I think that was the first and last time I made it there without taking a wrong turn.
Also staying at the auberge were a Belgian couple on their honeymoon and a Reunionnais couple from southern Reunion. They were pretty cool and we had a good creole dinner. They were all impressed with my French language abilities.
Apparently they don't have heat there.....so I had to have like 3 blankets to stay warm. Near the ocean is warmer but I was up a ways from the ocean in a little city called La Petite France. So, the mornings are chilly but the days are great. That night I decided to head to Cilaos the next day even though I would have to return to La Petite France.......
Stayed tuned to hear about my Cilaotian (yeah I made up that word) adventure....
Picture is of the circuit de mafate
I will try to give a day-by-day rerun of my vacation over the next while.......you might even get two posts tonight.....not likely. Don't get greedy.
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