Slept well! Got up way to early to go see if the dive was going to work out. Found the Dive center I was supposed to go with, but of course they had no idea I was coming. Still, the dive master had a couple going out on a shark dive. He was a little hesitant to take me along since he'd never seen me dive and it was going to be quite deep (more than 100 feet), but I convinced him. The same couple had gone with him yesterday morning to the same place and they'd seen thirty or forty sharks. We didn't see any. Still it was a really nice dive. It was along the reef wall and the decent was through a chasm so your winding through a narrow coral maze and suddenly you come out in to the open about half way up on a wall - Incredible! Very reminiscent of Bell's, my favorite dive in Dahab.
I'm really torn as to stay here for three more days to dive and enjoy the splendid beach, or to bust my butt for three days getting up to Isalo National park. I'm going to go on another dive this afternoon and look into transportation back into Toliara for tomorrow morning. I'll make my final decision this afternoon, but right now I'm tending towards Isalo - as wonderful as the beach is I've got so little time here I really need to see as much as I can.
Spent the rest of the morning making use of the hammocks in front of the hotel. I made anew friend. There are these birds that kind of look like large black parrots - well they've at least got the beak. This one decided he liked me and climbed up on my chair - much like a parrot with clipped wings would climb, chinning his way up. He sat on my chair back and occasionally butted my shoulder. When I ignored him he made a lot of noise - at one point I was even a bit scared of him - he obviously wasn't scared of me and that beak was big.
Spent some time on my journal and napping. I arranged for a ride into Toliara early tomorrow morning - so it looks like I'm actually going to leave the beach. At three o'clock I went down for the second dive. The Dive Master said we could go, but the visibility was going to be poor due to the wind. Oh well. Spent the afternoon walking on the beach instead. It's so beautiful and so desolate. Every kilometer or so you come on a work gang hauling nets from the water, but other than that I had the beach to myself.
When it got to hot and the flies became to persistent I went in to my hut for a rest. When it started to get cooler (not much) I went for a walk through the village and then down to the beach to watch the sunset. It's a lot hotter and stickier than it was last night and the bugs are much worse - finally gave up on dinner because of their kamikaze imitations. And I don't even want to know what was skittering around on the ground just out of sight every time I walked anywhere...
