We left on November 4th for a 10 day tour to the South. I'm trying to download my pictures for the first two days but have to leave the hotel soon, so I will post once I have downtime.  It has been a lot of driving so far and more today. The roads here are in pretty bad condition so it takes a while to get places.

​I've had three bugs in three days:  bed bugs on both of my ankles my last night in Antananarivo, a stomach bug that has been with me now for two days, and yesterday after looking for lemurs in the rainforest, I came back to the Villa and had to pull a little leech off of my shoulder blade.

Africa is going to be way more expensive than SE Asia for traveling and I will need to book a group or private tour to see what I want to in Madagascar, and likely when I get back to mainland Africa. 

I have a 'tour guide' coming shortly to pitch a tour for either eight or 10 days to the East and the South of the country and I'm a little leery about shelling out any money in advance unless he's part of an actual tour company.  I also emailed some tour company online but haven't heard back yet.  Unfortunately Madagascar is not covered under the Skype Unlimited Worldwide calls (which covers only 63 out of about 200 countries in the world) so I haven't called them back yet but may need to buy some credits to do so.
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The hotel that I'm at is nice, with a big swimming pool, and I think a lot of the diplomats' families and business people stay here.  The food is good to and not too expensive for a hotel.  They hooked me up with a driver for a tour today in Tana.  This is a good place to know French, because my guide's English wasn't that great and my French is non-existent.  It was interesting but not sure that I want to spend a lot more time here. 
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The first place we stopped was the old train station (not operating anymore) which I guess is the beginning of the city centre.

​The same street has some Government Buildings.

​We walked up numerous steps to where I think a lot of tourists stay and where one of the Presidential palaces is. 

​Then we went to the Queen's Palace, which was re-built in 1995 after a fire and will be turned into a museum.  It's the highest point in the city with good views...

​We went down to see a memorial monument, where locals try to get you to pay to see the memorial. I am not convinced that these people actually work for the city, but my driver gave them some change to let us get close.

Finally, I had him drop me off at the hotel and I ate a late lunch there - it was local dish - pork and greens with rice.