Madagascar: Day 1

I still can't believe it, but I'm here. I arrived at 1:35pm local time this afternoon, got some local currency and took the waiting shuttle to my hotel. I haven't left the room until now. It felt really good to just relax for a while, get cleaned up (I'm actually clean shaven now), and go through everything in my bags. The room here is very spacious and nice, but I was very taken aback when driving here at the state of life in Madagascar. I knew that the country was poor (I believe it is the third poorest in the world or something nearly as depressing) but I thought at least here in the capital things would be a little better. While driving from the tiny airport to my hotel in business district of downtown Antananarivo (or Tana) I was a bit shocked to see countless workers up to their chests in rice patties or digging bricks out of the mud of the river by hand. While huge, this city does not seem like the capital of a nation, nore did the airport have the appearance of the country's only international hub. I'm sure it will take some getting used to, but I'm also sure that my time here (24 days and counting) will be very eye-opening. I'll write more a little later, probably about Europe as I'm a bit behind in that regard, but for those of you who care, I made it 1/3 of the way across the world alive and safe. I can tell I'm no longer in the north because it was dark at 6:00 pm here, as opposed to the 18 hours (4am-10 pm) of daylight I grew accustomed to in Europe. Stage 2 of my journey begins here.