Andohahela National Park

It was a tough choice deciding which pic to post as part of this adventure, but since everyone thinks of lemurs when they think of Madagascar, I went with lemurs. We had Thursday off from work and I decided to take Friday off as well (more about that later).

Andohahela National Park is about 1.5 hours from Fort Dauphin. Actually, there are multiple entrances, but the main one is about 1.5 hours away. I decided to head there early Thursday morning, so I got everything ready and on the road by 7:30 AM which is a pretty big accomplishment on a day off!!! I even borrowed and tent and had enough food for 3 days of camping, etc.

I arrived at my destination at about 9 AM. Got my backpack, camera, etc ready and hit the trail with my guide around 9:30. However, I used the restroom and when I left, I saw a GIANT spider. Glad I saw after I excited the restroom or might have fallen in the hole. Not a good way to start!

My guide is a local Malgache and speaks pretty decent French and English, so he decides to do the tour in English. The trail or area is called "Tsimelahy" is about 3 km and took us about 2 hours. It's in the transition forest between the rain forest and the spiny desert. I did not see any lemurs, but I guess they have some in July, so I might go back.

There's a nice river and gorge that runs through the middle of trail. Also, there's some interesting flora such as the boabab tree. Which are super cool and HUGE. I guess some can hold up to 120,000 liters of water, so the locals use them occasionally to get water.

After the trail and only seeing one other spider and some pretty cool lizards but no snakes, I went back to the national road and continued to the spiny desert or forest. Le circuit Ihazofotsy is the name of the next trail. When I arrived there was no one there and I barely made it since the roads are not well marked.

Then a couple of locals arrived and took me around. They didn't speak any French or English.....just a lot of finger pointing. However, they found a few sifaka lemurs for me. They were so hard to spot, just a tiny head sticking out of a tree. However, really cool to see.

I wanted to head back towards Ft Dauphin and into the rain forest part of the national park. I turned off the national route and headed towards the rain forest. However, I came upon a tiny bridge that was just logs and I decided it wasn't worth risk and returned back to my hotel.

Overall, it was really cool. A little disappointed I couldn't see the rain forest, I'll have to find another way to do that. Also, I'm glad I came home, because I was sick when I made it home.

Late Thursday night I found out we didn't have to work Friday, but it rained HARD all day on Friday and most of Saturday. When it rains, there's nothing to do but work on my Masters thesis......boring.

Sainte-Luce

Great weekend. This weekend I decided to go to Sainte-Luce because I read it was beautiful and yes it was! Its about a 50 kilometer drive on the same ol' crappy roads. Once I was off the national road, it got a little worse. I guess the recent rain had partially destroyed certain parts of the roads, so I had to drive around them. I bottomed out pretty hard in a few spots, just glad I didn't wreck my truck, but Sharky is tough.

So, after driving for about 2 hours I thought I'd be there already and I just driven through a little tiny village. Then all of a sudden the trees go away and you're at the beach. It's stunning.

White sand, tiny islands dot the baie de sainte-luce. There's a few pirogues on the beach and some local fisherman. Basically, its everything that Hawaii is and all the stuff you don't like about Hawaii (no tourists!).

It's a small, half-moon shaped bay with some rocks on the right-hand side. I decided to walk down to the rocks and see what's over there first. I climbed around on the rocks and I think I startled a family washing their clothes. The little kids here all LOVE to make noise, jump around and have their pictures taken.

I continued climbing on the rocks and discovered another idyllic bay. So, cool. Just me and more white sand.

I then ventured back to where I started and grabbed my sandwhich and bananas. Had lunch on the beach. There was a little rocky island close to shore, so I decided to see if I could reach it. Success! It was only about knee deep, so I climbed around on it for a minute. I saw a road that led further away, so I thought I'd take it with Sharky.

To get to the road you had to go through by this "hotel". I call it the Ritz of Sainte-Luce. It was a little, two story wood shack. It had a fence around it but no gate, so I just drove through. I drove for 5 mins or so and decided to turn around. I couldn't see that the road would take me anywhere interesting, so I turned around. Plus I didn't want to get stuck in sand.

When I came back, someone had placed a gate. So, I was going to get out of my truck, but instead a guy came to my window and said "50,000 ariary". I pretended to not understand what he wanted, even though I know he wanted money. So, he took off running towards the village. I have no idea what his plan was. So, I got out of my truck and moved and the gate while probably 10 locals just watched me and said nothing.

As Sharky and I were leaving we passed him running back towards the Ritz and I just waved and continued on back to Fort-Dauphin.

I love finding these little treasures all around!

I don't work Thursday so I'm hoping to visit the national park and take friday off too!

Ballin'

A few weeks ago, I received an email at work stating that QMM plays basketball on Saturdays. I set about trying to figure who and where. Not sure if they played the week before or not, but I found a guy (Olivio) who played and he agreed to go with me. When we arrived, there was no one there....then people started showing up.

My expectations were.....well, very low. When the averag height is barely above 5 feet, I didn't expect much. However, the tallest Malgache decided to come....and he was actually pretty good.

Also, I didn't bring my basketball shoes, since I assumed that I would never play ball in Mada. Big mistake! I tried using an old pair of hiking shoes but the soles are coming apart and they nearly tripped me a hundred times.

However, the biggest surprise was that they are really good. The tall guy was pretty good and the smaller ones had some pretty good skills. After playing at one of our "camps" we went downtown to play with the other locals. It was an interesting game, because they had "officials" calling fouls, etc. I learned how to say traveling (marche that's an accent grave on the e). So, now I need to find some shoes big enough for my feet.

Its been raining a lot lately, but I hope it clears up for the weekend.

Ohh and the photo is just of some people that I swear were going to fall off the building.

Agacements (french for annoyances, I think.....)

Some things in Madagascar tend to bother me. So, I thought I'd let you know what they are:
1-Sidewalks: I know there aren't many in Ft Dauphin, but where there are sidewalks, it would be great if they used them. I don't understand why people walk in the middle of the road (especially at night) when there's a perfectly good sidewalk to use.

2-Road construction: Ok, ok. So everyone has road construction. However, here they built a road, then a week later they ripped it up. I don't understand why they construct a perfectly (well, perfect dirt road), then turn around and re-do it........

3-Meetings: Apparently if you say you are going to attend a meeting, you really don't have to. Maybe that's a Malgasy thing.

4-No diet sodas. None. And you can only order a big bottle of water and of course I don't trust the tap water. So, I drink a lot of soda.

5-Begging: Apparently its ok for anyone to just walk up to you and ask for "l'argent". I think that's the only word they know in french. For instance, a guy opened a door for me at the hotel and ask for money. Come on.......then a lady near Lac Anony was begging and I offered her a bottle of water and she refused and was frustrated.

That's all I can think of. Despite this, Madagascar is still a really neat experience and cool place to be. The picture has nothing to do with the post, its just some cool plant growing out of a cement stair at the "hotel" we stayed at.

Lac Anony Weekend and other stuff

So, I have done a good job keeping the blog updated. Not sure why. A week ago I tried frog legs. Actually, honestly tasted just like chicken. If you would have told me they were small chicken wings, I would have believed you. The next day at work we had save the frogs day.......I felt bad. So, no more frog legs for me.

I went to see some frogs at work in our protected area.....but they only had some in bags. Kind of disappointing. I'm back at my original hotel, but I found out that I may have to go back to hotel #2 which I don't like. Grrrrrrrrr.

I was supposed to go to the Andohahela National Park with the guide who took me to Mandena Conservation Zone. However, I called him the night before and he said that his new born was sick and he couldn't go. I was pretty disappointed because we had Friday off and I had planned on this trip for a while. Friday, I just hung out at the beach, did some studying, etc. Nothing noteworthy.

Saturday morning, I called a co-worker to find out what time people play basketball at the this little church. She then invited me to visit Lac Anony. I think that's what its called. She said it was 2-3 hours aways and I could come back the same day.

I met up with her and her son and another family around 10:30 and we took off. I drove alone in my truck, which was fine and just rocked out to my music. Thankfully, my truck plays MP3s.

The road was rough and LONG.....just like all Malgasy roads. We stopped in a city along the way, but I don't know the name of the city, for lunch. I was scared of the food.....lots of flies around, but they said that they have eaten there before and did not get sick. So, I tried a tiny bit and I'm still alive.

We drove through a large sisal plantation to get to the Lake. Actually, one spot was pretty hairy. It was a large drop off with a tiny path to the side that was covered in cactus. So, we had to hack away the cactus to clear a path.

This area reminds me a lot of Utah. We even ran across a large pack (not sure what the right word is) of crickets. Its very dry and with similar vegetation. Well, they don't have sagebrush, but still very dry and barren. The picture is at sunset of the lake. It reminds me a lot of many other lakes around Utah. Its a brackish lake. We stayed in an old hotel, that had no water or electricty. Actually, I planned on coming back the same day, but it was like a maze getting to the lake, so I didn't dare go back in the dark. Oh well.

On Saturday, we arrived around 4:30 PM and basically just set up tents for the kids and found out who ran the "hotel". It was 40,000 ariary for 2 rooms. Which is only about $20. Pretty cheap. I was scared that I would be eaten by spiders or mosquitos, however the insect nets seems to have spared my life for the time being. I forgot to take some pics of the hotel though....too bad.

On Sunday we just kind of hung out on the beach and played in the lake a little. A bunch of little local kids ventured down and played with volleyball with us in the water. They were soooooooooo excited when they saw the ball. I'll have to admit, they were a little clingy at times. But very kind. One of them had a cool hair cut, long in the front and 90% of the rest of his head was buzzed.

I almost forgot, I think I found where all of our donated clothes go to. At the city where we ate lunch, they had piles and piles of clothes on the street. I'm not sure if you had to buy them or not. I think I found a pair of my old spider man underwear there........let me know if you donated something and now want it back!

The way back, we tried a different route and avoid the perilous drop/cactus way. It seemed a little smoother and less hazardous. I'm sure I've forgotten other things and I've got a bunch of photos I wish I could share. Oh well.

I'll try to post more "stuff" later this week.