Tales from Madagascar - week 2

Antisaribe

After exploring the stunning national parks in southern Madagascar, the group made our way back up the bumpy and curvy National 7 to Antisaribe. Antisaribe is the third largest city in Madagascar famous for its natural springs and French colonial style. We stayed in a historic hotel, Hotel les Thermes, that had a beautiful facade but the interior suffered from a bad 1970's remodel. It was a bit past its prime, but it was fun to stay in such a grand hotel.

Hotel les Thermes

One of the things we did was take a "pousse pousse" tour of Antisaribe's sights. "Pousse" means "push" in French, but in actuality you are pulled in a colorful rickshaw by one of the locals. The pousse pousse is a very common means of transportation in the cities and you see everyone from old ladies to school children making their way through the town on the carts. The drivers often don't own the pousse pousse and rent them from a company by day. Our guide, Patrick told us that many of these men do not have homes and sleep on their pousse pousse at night. I felt guilty about having someone pull me around the city but it was their way of earning money and so we were supporting them by taking a ride. I had a chance to try "driving" the pousse pousse myself - it wasn't that hard for a few minutes but I am sure it was tough after a full day of driving!

Pousse Pousse Tour

Switching places.

Andisabe National Park and Private Reserves

As I predicted in my last entry, we definitely reached our lemur quota on our adventure in Madagascar. Not only did we visit lemurs in Ranofama and Isalo National Parks in southern Madagascar, we spent the second week wildlife viewing in Andisabe National Park and several private reserves in the eastern part of Madagascar. Fortunately for our group it didn't rain on our second visit to the rainforest and we avoided the leeches that plagued our first trip in Ranofama. We spent a lot of time looking at the sifakas and lemurs jumping from tree to tree in the forest. We also visited two private reserves (and a zoo) where the lemurs were a bit less wild and therefore more willing to come closer to the group. At one private reserve, they had a small island "lemur island" where the animals literally will jump on your shoulders and pose with you. I've included my favorite lemur shots from my entire trip in Madagascar since I had issues sharing photos in my previous post:

My small camera chose to die in Andisabe. Madagascar has been terrible for me and my technology! At this point, I have my SLR with only a working zoom lens, a battery operated old as dirt emergency back-up point and shoot camera and my iPad mini for photographs. I am praying that I can keep my cameras in working order for the rest of my trip!

Ile Sainte Marie - Tropical Paradise

The last three days of our tour were spent on a small island off of the coast of Madagascar called Ile Sainte Marie. The island had palm trees, beautiful beaches, small villages and a pirate cemetery. We stayed in a really pretty hotel on the water and enjoyed beautiful weather for the duration of our stay. The first day, everyone took a trip to Ile aux Nattes (another small island) to snorkel, kayak, or simply relax on the beach. I spent some time in the sea before enjoying a delicious lunch at a small hotel "Les Lemuriens". It was a really nice day. 

On the second day, everyone split up to do different activities on the island. I went on a tour of the eastern part of Ile St. Marie with Ester and Gabby two very sweet ladies on my trip. We spent the day with our local guide, Gregoire, who showed us around his village and his property near the beach. Gregoire grew mangos, coconuts, vanilla, cinnamon, lychees, and coffee on his small farm. We enjoyed fresh coconut juice on the beach and his family cooked us a beautiful fish lunch at his home. There was a reef a mile or so out from the shore and so the water in the ocean was relatively shallow up until that point. We went on a canoe ride to the reef, and about halfway through the journey I got so sea sick that I decided to jump ship. Fortunately there was a sandbar in the middle of the water I could stand on. I spent about half an hour standing in the middle of the Indian Ocean until the canoe came and picked me up. It sounded like a good idea at first (well anything out of the boat sounds good when you are seasick!) but I soon realized that I didn't have a hat or any sunscreen on my back when I was in the water. Fortunately I didn't get too sunburned in my ocean adventure! 

Our last stop was at a pirate cemetery located on the island. It was a scenic spot, but it was still a cemetery. We enjoyed the tour, but it was a really long day, When we got back to the hotel and joined up with the rest of the group, we discovered that one of the girls on my trip, Robbie, had fallen off of a scooter and had to go to the hospital. She was really banged up, but otherwise ok. It was quite a day!

The next morning, we had a farewell breakfast before packing up and going our separate ways. The majority of the group left for Antananarivo later that day but a few lucky ones had additional days in paradise. I am traveling today to Johannesburg and will visit Kruger Park over the next week. I am looking forward to the next part of my journey. Thank you so much for coming along!