May 26 – Mamoudzou, Mayotte, French Comoros Islands

Weather – 29º

Steps – 6,884

Humidity – high

Country #92!

It’s taken me a bit to sort out where we are exactly. First you have Mamoudzou, which is the capital city of Mayotte, which is an island in the Comoros chain of islands, but not part of the country Comoros. Mayotte is a French overseas

region and department located off the south-east coast of Africa. It

sail in

used to be part of the Comoros islands, but in 1974 Comoros declared independence from France, and Mayotte stayed with France. It is about 300km north-west of Madagascar. It uses the Euro and gets some, but minimal support from France.

On Dec 14 Typhoon Chido hit the island, lasted 4 hours and caused widespread devastation that was obvious today. Much of the island’s people live in huts, shanties, and there

roadside shops

is at least one refugee camp – the storm was brutal for those people and really all of the island. We saw boats and shipping containers still imbedded in the trees.

As we drove past the bay, our guide Anne, said it used to be filled with boats and yachts – today I didn’t see one boat in the bay.

Mayotte is close enough to Africa for migrants to make the journey from southeastern Africa across the Indian Ocean. Because Mayotte is a French territory, migrants see Mayotte as a potential road to France. An estimated

ylang-ylang

100,000 migrants live in Mayotte.  

The shanties we see that made out of blue corrugated tin we learn are provided by humanitarian groups.

Anne goes on to tell us that because education is free in Mayotte many people from Madagascar come for that. Although education is free, many families don’t send their children. Families where the grandparents and parents haven’t gone don’t see value in it, in addition to this, Anne tells us that they have other challenges in their lives.

On to the tour…

comparing lemongrass types

The ship was anchored again, so back into the tenders. The wait in the theatre today was only about 20 minutes. The seating on the bus today wasn’t as tight as yesterday, but there was no AC. Well, they said there was AC, but there wasn’t - like yesterday, this is no surprise.

Also, like yesterday, the traffic was incredible. We drove about 4Km in 20 min. Not all of the island was like that, just in the town. Anne lives 40 Km from the town, and she said it took her 2 hours to

not yet ripe starfruil

drive today. She said on a good day it could be only 1hr and 15 min! People leave for work at 4am for a 7:00 start time.

Our excursion was to the Rural Excellence Center a centre for plant studies. It takes about 45 min to travel the 20km to get there and longer on the way back. Along the way, in addition to seeing the typhoon’s destruction, we see shanty towns and a refugee camp made out of shipping containers. Today’s visit wasn’t as rural as yesterday. We

living conditions

basically crossed the island, going up and over their mountains.

Once we got to our destination, we learn about this government project that promotes the island’s agricultural endeavors. We see how vanilla is harvested and the various methods and varieties of vanilla they are testing here.

Next, we follow 3 of the centre’s workers as they show and explain to us this

blue corrugated

plant and that. As soon as we got off the bus aromas of ylang-ylang hit us. It was a bit cooler here and there was enough cloud that while hot, it was bearable.

I realized I lost my sunglasses somewhere yesterday. I put out laundry today and thought I may have left them

ylang-ylang tree

in a pocket…nope. Try as we, and Saravanan might nothing turned up. I hate pictures with them on, so they are always on and off and then I put them in a pocket. I think they may have fallen out on the bus…who knows. I rarely lose things, so it was aggravating. Luckily the ship’s shop carries sunglasses.