Arrival in Madagascar
After my excellent adventure up the west coast of Africa
from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, I prepped for the next leg of my African
journey to Madagascar. Madagascar is a large island off of the east coast of
Africa and is known for its biodiversity, national parks, and numerous species
of lemurs (unique to the island). As a
former French colony, French is still widely spoken as a second language and
many cities still retain elements of the French colonial style in its
architecture. The island was settled by people from Asia, the Middle East and
Africa and the ethnic diversity can be seen in the 18 tribes that call
Madagascar home. My friend Derek
encouraged me to include Madagascar in my “big trip” plans because as he put it
“Madagascar was unlike any other part of Africa. “ Madagascar is a fairly
pricey travel destination so I decided to use my free trip credit I had earned
the previous year from Intrepid for their tour around the country.
I made a quick stop
in Johannesburg before flying to Antananarivo, Madagascar’s capital. While in Jo’burg I stayed at a very nice
boutique hotel near the airport. I had a private room complete with a soft
mattress, a TV and my own bathroom. After weeks of either being in a dorm or in
a tent with shared facilities, I was in heaven. Despite having all the
ingredients for a good night’s sleep at hand, I was awake most of the night and
fell ill after eating some bad Zambian fruit. This made for a particularly
rough flight to Madagascar the next day.
I survived thanks to anti-nausea medication and an empty row at the back
of the plane. Traveling isn’t always easy!
Antananarivo (“Tana” for short) is a large bustling city of
taxi brousses (old French cars) and throngs of people fighting for the right of
way on the small city streets. Cars do not yield for pedestrians (let alone
slow down) and I swore my taxi was going to run someone over before we reached
the hotel. Fortunately, we pulled into
the hotel without incident and I had a chance to settle in before meeting the
tour group later that night.
Once again, I am lucky to have such a nice group of people
to travel with over the next few weeks. The group is a mix of ages and
nationalities but the one unifying characteristic seems to be photography. We have
a lot of photographers on our trip and our bus is filled with lenses and other
camera paraphernalia. It is somewhat strange to be the person NOT taking the
most photos on a trip! I am sharing a room with a girl from Australia named
Robbie. Robbie has been traveling for about 4 months and had recently done the
same trip from Victoria Falls to Cape Town in the weeks preceding our trip. It
was fun to compare notes on the places we both visited. Our group is being led
by an excellent local guide named Patrick. He is very knowledgeable and is
eager to share information about his country. Your travel experience is so much
richer when you have an enthusiastic and engaged guide. We are very lucky to
have Patrick on this adventure!
Down the windy roads
Madagascar is country of many things… scenic landscapes,
fascinating wildlife, and unrelenting windy pothole filled roads. Within 10
minutes of driving in our little bus, I was terribly car sick. It was apparent
that it was going to be a LONG two weeks for me and I have spent the past week
trying to stave off continued bouts of motion sickness. The only benefit of
throwing up on the first day is that you get to sit in the prime shotgun
position next to the driver for the duration of the trip. I was able to find
some medication in a local pharmacy that has helped, but it has been a daily
struggle to keep it together on these roads. I will be happy to leave the curvy
roads and cramped bus behind in Madagascar!
Hunting for Lemurs
80 species of lemur call Madagascar home. Several lemur
species made “The Primate Awards” which you can check out the link below for a
good laugh. The “Biggest Disaster of a Primate,” while not a lemur, is still
one of my favorites.
Our first quest for lemur sightings was in Ranofama National
Park, a protected rainforest in eastern Madagascar. We were to spend 5 hours
hiking with a local guide searching for different types of lemurs. It started
to rain the moment we set foot in the park and continued to pour for the
duration of our visit. The first hour was spent looking at stick insects and
pulling leeches off one another (a major downside to the rainforest) and it was
hard to be motivated and cheery when you are soaking wet, miserable, with no
lemur in sight. Fortunately we came across two species of lemur in our rainy
quest, unfortunately I got water in the primary lens of my SLR camera and now
the auto focus is completely defunct. It can be manually focused but all of my
attempts to do so have resulted in blurry out-of-focus pictures. I have a
little camera as a back-up and my SLR still works with the zoom lens but losing
my primary lens is a major blow to my trip photography. With two months left in
my trip, I am hoping that I will still be able to take some decent photos!
We hit the lemur jackpot in Isalo National Park where we
were able to photograph the maki (or ring tailed lemur) in much drier
conditions. The park was filled with sandstone cliffs and canyons and looked
like it could be located in the American southwest. We spent the day enjoying
the scenery and swimming in several natural pools at the bottom of the canyon.
A few days later, we visited a village with over 300 lemurs
living in the surrounding woods. We will
also see MORE lemurs in the next few days so I will definitely reach the lemur
quota before leaving Madagascar.
Village Visits and Craft Workshops
When the group isn’t trying to track down lemurs, we spend a
lot of time in the villages getting to know the local people and learning about
their way of life. Malagasy culture is fascinating and Patrick has done an
excellent job describing the local traditions of the different tribes. Zebus (a
type of large cow) are very important to the Malagasy and denote wealth. You
will see herders walking with their zebu through the towns and the countryside
to either graze or go to market in some of the larger cities. We had a chance
to visit a large zebu market in Amavalo a few days ago. Everyone on my trip
agrees that zebus have a really tough life. As one girl put it “You work really
hard pulling carts of bricks and then you’re eaten.” Poor zebu.
The Malagasy have a lot of respect for their ancestors and
have specific funeral rituals. The bodies of a deceased loved one are wrapped
in silk and buried in the family tomb. After 1-2 years, the body is exhumed and
the shroud is changed. Only boys who have been circumcised can be buried in the
family tomb. Circumcisions are conducted once every seven years during the
month of October and if a boy dies before he is circumcised he is buried
somewhere outside the tomb.
We’ve been fortunate to visit several villages, interact
with the people and try some of the local cuisine. The food is very simple with
rice being a primary staple in the Malagasy diet. Malagasy people are so warm,
polite and welcoming. I have really enjoyed learning about their way of life as
well as supporting the artisans that we have met while visiting their workshops
along the way.
We are staying in Antsirabe tonight before heading to
another national park tomorrow. WiFi has been extremely limited on this trip so
the updates may be few and far between. I had trouble loading photos to my blog, but I have put some pictures on Facebook.
Thanks as always for coming along with
me on my journey!
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