Andavadoaka

We had a day at Andavadoaka hoping to snorkel on the reef. Unfortunately it was too windy for the pirogues to go out. We settled for a morning walk along the beach and were rewarded with excellent views back to Coco's and the beach.

The "locals" were these very inquisitive sand lizards that had a mock eye on top of their heads.

As the tide dropped we could see lots of children out digging in the lagoon and went down to see what  they were doing.

Tey were digging for zanga (sea cucumbers) in the sand. They get paid 15 cents a kilo for them. We understand they are dried and exported to Asia. There seemed to be lots of them and they were very adept at the hunt.

Of course one of us thought this was a challenge worth pursuing. It took a bit of time to get the system worked out. They did not look for small holes in the sand, but small depressions into which you poked a finger and if you felt something soft you dug down quickly. After several attempts - the jackpot!

The kids of course were all wanting to be photographed, the challenge was to get them to stay back far enough to get in focus.

The rest of the day was fairly quiet, a trip into the village where we scored salt biscuits and Le cache qui rit cheese, and believe me that was quite a find in this part of Madagascar, where normal fare where we were staying is fish and rice.