Africa 2023:
Day 39 - Mayotte

	Friday, November 17, 2023: It's so cool to awaken to a new view through our patio doors. It's one of the reasons we love cruise ships: your hotel room moves while you sleep. For breakfast, we had muesli and congee again, and to our surprise and astonishment, blueberries were back! We hadn't seen blueberries anywhere on the ship for weeks.
	We were anchored in a harbor between two islands and ferries were running constantly back and forth between them.
	That's the main island, Maore, with the city of Mamaudzou in the center of the bay.
	Around 10:00 AM, we went down to Deck A and used our priority status to get aboard the next tender going ashore.
	Welcome to Mayotte!
	The tender dock had a table with brochures and representatives from the local tourist office on one side, and folk dancers on the other side. The folk dancers were playing instruments that mostly involved banging blocks of wood on hollow tubes. It was a pleasant enough sound, but the constant sound must drive everyone on the pier insane after a while.
	There was a woven bough hanging over the exit, with heliconia flowers dangling down from several spots.
	This dark pink ginger flower was beautiful. Additional blooms and boughs were attached to the slats of the dock as well.
	This cool stone face sculpture was just south of the pier.
	We ducked inside the tourist office to look around and found this relief map showing the layout of the main island and the second largest island, Pamanzi, in the upper right. Our ship was anchored just between those two islands.
	There were cabinets with handcrafted items for sale, ...
	... including vanilla beans, perfume, jams, ...
	... beautiful wood carvings, ...
	... and everything had prices! We hadn't seen a price tag on anything since leaving Cyprus twenty days ago.
	The tender pier shared a parking lot with the ferry terminal, but the flow of traffic was organized and under control.
	There were a few people out but not an overwhelming number. We opted not to go up the hill toward the city center and instead, turned left at this central roundabout.
	We walked past the vendor stalls at the edge of the harbor area.
	The manhole covers were rectangular and had Ville de Mamaoudzou stamped on them.
	Here's a view of the bay looking back north toward the tender pier, ...
	... and here's the view to the south. There is a marina just out of site beyond the rocks on the right side of this photo.
	The sidewalk in the harbor was interrupted by little cafes like this one, La Camion Blanc.
	The park at the southern end of the bay is at the top of a huge hill with a lovely little beach its base. Unfortunately, all of the entrances to the park are on the other side of the hill. Since it was very hot and extremely humid, and we were already sweating profusely, we decided to end our walk here, ...
	... and return to the pier area. There was a huge market just north of the pier, ...
	... with more souvenirs, clothing, and handicrafts for sale in the hundreds of stalls.
	This fish identification guide was posted on the wall next to a stall selling fish, ...
	... at one end of the vegetable market.
	We saw many people with what looked like yellow mud on their faces. We heard later that the locals do this as a form of sunscreen but this is unconfirmed.
	As we walked through the stalls, we bought cans of ice cold fruit drinks from a vendor, ...
	... and then made our way out of the market, ...
	... to enjoy our drinks in the breeze by the waterside. We got a can of mixed fruit drink that was carbonated and one that was passion fruit juice. Both were very cold and very delicious.
	We couldn't tell what this cat was stalking, but she was very focused on whatever it was.
	A pipeline, perhaps? The pipes ran down into the water and straight toward the neighboring island.
	That large hill in the distance is the park that we were originally headed to.
	Tropical islands have such beautiful plants. Plumeria is one of Debbie's favorites.
	After just one hour ashore, we decided that we'd seen enough and headed back to the tenders. We had originally booked a shore excursion through the ship, but it was canceled before the ship sailed, along with every other tour offered by Holland America. During the port talk, the cruise director briefly addressed the cancellations, only saying that they were canceled "by the local authorities for official reasons."
	Back on board, LEGO Debbie and Tom were embracing the French heritage of Mayotte with berets, baguettes, and croissants.
	Such a perfect day.
	In the afternoon, our cabin steward, Josmen, brought us fresh flowers.
	We took advantage of the great weather to have cocktails on our balcony using the pineapple Fanta that we'd gotten on the tour to Jozani National Park in Zanzibar a few days earlier. Cheers! We were still less than halfway through our first two complimentary bottles of Malibu and Absolut Citron. It was pretty clear we'd be hauling the other two home with us along with all of the other souvenir alcohol we've acquired.
	When it was time for sail out, we watched as the last of the tenders was lifted out of the water.
	The anchor came up, the engines started, ...
	... and we said goodbye to another port of call.
	A fruit bat suddenly flew by and Debbie happened to have her camera ready!
	That's the island of Pamanzi, or Petite-Terre, behind us.
	We went to the Dining Room for dinner, where Debbie had the seafood spring roll for her appetizer, and Tom had the French onion soup.
	For her main, Debbie had the Club Orange special, pork belly, ...
	... and Tom had fettucini. Club Orange menus contain one daily special specifically for those in Neptune and Pinnacle Suites.
	Back in the cabin, we watched the pilot boat departing after we had cleared the last of the reefs encircling the islands. This island got its name from the Arabic word mawuti, meaning "island of death," due to the number of dangerous reefs circling the island.
	We used the binoculars to check out a small forest fire on Point Douamounyo in the distance.
	What a gorgeous sunset.
	Around 10:00 PM, we watched as the moon set, turning a lovely orange as it neared the horizon. We realized that we've never seen a crescent moon set before.
	What a fantastic end to another fantastic day. Day 40 >