A Day in Hell(-Ville) - November 16

The nearest town to the port is call Andoany but its former name was Hell-Ville.  It was named for the French Admiral, de Hell.  Some of the signs and some people still refer to it as Hell-Ville.  The island is called Nosy Be which means "large island" in the Malagasy language.  Surprisingly (to me at least), Nosy Be is the most developed tourism site in all of Madagascar.

I left my cabin just before 10 and headed to the tender as I was fairly certain that I no longer needed a card.  The tender left within two minutes of my boarding and we headed to land which only took about ten minutes.  I caught the shuttle to the downtown area at the Abud Hotel.  

It was very interesting watching the people going about their normal Wednesday activities.  Lots of people everywhere.  Unlike in our last two ports, the people paid no attention to me.  I walked for about an hour and visited a street lined with stalls selling everything (which were also for sale in small stores on the main street) from fruits and vegetables to cell phones.  I ventured into the main market and again, there was a wide variety of goods for sale.

Finally, the heat sent me back to the shuttle, where once again I was lucky that the tender left within a couple of minutes of my arrival.  I was back on the ship before noon.

I couldn't decide what to eat for lunch but as I was walking around I made a great discovery.  A lady was eating her lunch with a Coke Zero can in front of her.  I asked if she had gotten it onboard - she had.  I immediately went to Lido bar and got one (and it was Happy Hour).  Turns out they have had them all along and I just never saw a can of it.  I much prefer the taste of Coke Zero to Diet Coke and ended up having another one at 4pm trivia.

After a lunch shared with Judy (Lee) and her husband, Rich, I left to pick up my computer so I could sort out today's pictures.  Played trivia with Vicki and Dave at four, (rest of team was not there) and then came back to upload pictures.  After waiting for pictures to load, I got the idea that, instead of sitting and waiting for the pictures to upload, I could select five or more pictures and then take a lap around the deck, then pick more, etc.  Worked well.

Played 7pm trivia alone and then to dinner.  The entertainment tonight was one of the BBC Earth videos - I did not go.  I did two laps around the deck instead.

4pm trivia was on alcohol.  We had ten out of 18 (we didn't think we would get more than four) and the winners had 17

1.  What is cenosillicaphobia?

2.  What is the #1 wine producing country in the world?

3.  Which beer is "The champagne of bottled beer"?

4.  What fruit flavors Southern Comfort?

5.  What does ABV stand for?

1.  fear of an empty glass

2.  Italy

3.  Miller High Life

4.  peach

5.  alcohol by volume

7pm trivia - I had 10 out of 18 and the winners had 14.

1.  Where was James Bond's father from?

2.  What nut is used to make dynamite?

3.  Which country produces the most coffee?

4.  Where are a snail's reproductive organs located?

5.  What are the last two words of Queens' Bohemian Rhapsody?

1.  Scotland

2.  peanut

3.  Brazil

4.  head

5.  wind blows

Smooth sailing until next time!

Views of the stores and stalls

I think those are solar panels - they were marked "Made in Germany"

this woman was sewing with a hand cranked sewing machine

Some of the buildings I saw

a mosque on the left and the Abud Hotel on the right

The movie theater (top) and market (yellow building)

Inside the market 

lots of spices

fabric

Got beef?

dried fish in bottom picture

the "food court" of the market

Watched them put one of the tenders back in its place

Last view of Nosy Be

On my afternoon walk I found the device that the carpenters built so we could get on and off the tender