Another long day in the car getting back to Tana and when we’re just a kilometer away from the hotel the famous Tana traffic reared its ugly head.  We sat with the car turned off for 10 minutes at a time, restarting it only to move 3 car lengths and shut it off once more.  This pattern continued for a solid hour before we finally arrived at the hotel for our brief rest (the flight to the coast was leaving at 6:20 am…) [Ed. note: we hiked all morning. Then drove all afternoon. And 6:20am really means “whenever Madagascar Air decides it wants to leave…] So this is how we once again stumbled into Monaco, travel weary, dirty, and overloaded with massive front and back packs.  No, we did not get lost or learn how to teleport, but we somehow got booked into the 4 room guesthouse attached to the Embassy of Monaco.

This guesthouse was basically the private residence of the ambassador with a few rooms they let to make some money for aid.  How do we know it was the private residence?  When we went upstairs for dinner, we started poking around into the living room and the staff member came running and told us not to go onto the second floor as it was private.   Then as we sat at the massive table, eating our Michelin star rated dinner on personalized, silver plated china, a couple appeared and sat in the living room.   The flourish of staff appearing from all levels approximately 30 seconds later created a small parade with a bucket of Champagne, platters of fruit, and once decadent looking serving tray of caviar.   [Ed. note: it was surreal watching what was happening, knowing that the real Tana was just outside the window.] Suddenly our melt in your mouth chicken felt like peasant food and we were put in our place once again by the country of Monaco…