It would just so happen that right after we completed the fastest and easiest check-in/check-out experience we’ve ever had—on the French island of Reunion—we would come up against the most difficult by far. Brian started the process of clearing into Madagascar back in June, attempting to obtain an authorization letter which would allow us to enter and complete the rest of the check-in procedures. The official line is that it takes between one to four weeks to obtain the letter, but we had heard from other cruisers that it was taking longer. So we applied early—but apparently not early enough.

Brian followed up weekly from the middle of July, then more often as we moved from Mauritus to Reunion but we still had no letter. Two cruisers ahead of us had received their letters while enroute to Madagascar. Our email follow-ups continued, finally receiving a reply saying it was moving along and with “the superiors.” One cruising boat who received theirs’ enroute said they had gotten the email with the letter just a few days after they got a similar response. Knowing it would take us five days to get to Madagascar and we didn’t want to pass up such a good weather window—there hasn’t been one since, btw—we took the risk and set off.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the letter did not arrive by the time we did. On our final day of the passage, as we motored down the coast, Brian messaged with the agent who was going to be helping us, as well as a cruiser who had just arrived the week before us, also without their letter. We were assured by both that we could clear in anyway. With that, we arrived early Friday morning and spent the day waiting for word from our agent, Jimmy, who would let us know when we could come ashore and start the check-in procedures.

Finally at 5 pm—exhausted from the passage—we settled in for an early dinner, deciding it wasn’t going to happen that day. Not 10 minutes later, Jimmy called asking Brian to come to shore and pick up the officials. Thus began 3.5 hours of frustration that ended with us being… not checked in and $215 poorer (above, checking in by flashlight). In addition to the $115 in fees we had been told we’d be asked to pay, we also had to pay an extra $100 for someone to spray our boat with disinfectant for cholera—even though we hadn’t come from a country that had a problem with cholera—and a veterinarian to complete an inspection—we have no animals and she sat in the cockpit the whole time. None of the other cruising boats, even the one without an authorization letter, had been required to do this.

The real problem, though, was that we had purchased e-visas through the Madagascar government website prior to leaving Reunion, paying $180 for the four of us for 60 days. The immigration official was all set to stamp our passports after we paid his $35 “fee,” until he realized we had e-visas and wouldn’t be buying visas from him. He refused to accept our e-visas. He agreed that our e-visas were from the government, that they were legitimate, but said we could only use those at the airport. Brian: “Ok fine, we’ll go to the airport.” Official: “Nope, sorry. Can’t do that without the aurthorization letter.” Ha. So we either buy a second round of visas—meaning total check-in costs of almost $600—or we wait for our authorization letter. For some perspective, the costs to check in at our previous four countries (Cocos Keeling/Australia, Rodrigues, Mauritius and Reunion) had been exactly $0. Additionally, we had requested the authorization letter seven weeks ago and had been told it would “probably” arrive on Monday.

We opted to wait, even though our family hadn’t been on land for six days at this point and authorities told us we’d be confined to the boat until we had our passports stamped. Well, long story short, we held out until Wednesday, waiting in vain for a letter that still hasn’t come. Ironically, the authorization letter seems completely irrelavent to our entry so long as we paid everyone their “fee.” The deciding factor to just pay out and move on was when the government, apparently worried about cholera in several surrounding countries, decided to shut down any boats entering from Tanzania, South Africa, Comoros, and Mayotte.

We have several cruising friends in Tanzania that were waiting for their authorization letters and now have to dramatically alter their plans for how to get to South Africa without going through Madagascar. We were worried that they may extend the shutdown to all boats and frankly, after 11 days trapped on the boat with the boys, we were all getting pretty cranky. Brian negotiated with the immigration official, paying the bribe getting our new round of visas for $110 instead of $200. Win!

We celebrated our first full day of freedom yesterday by moving the boat to a nice anchorage at a nearby island, where we went for a beautiful three-hour hike, followed by a round of cold Malagasy beer at the beach bar. I’ve had much better-tasting beer, but it will be one of my most memorable for sure. After approximately six weeks here in Madagascar we’ll be checking out to head to South Africa. And guess what? We need an authorization letter to check out as well…