BootsnAll Travel Network



Days 435-455: Madagascar

Antananarivo, Andasibe-Mantadia NP, Ambositra, Ranomafana NP, Ambalavao, Andringitra NP, Isalo NP, Ifaty

I like to move it move it!

Lemurs, lizards, and leeches. Amazing critters and scenery.

En route to Madagascar we had a layover in Bahrain. The country looked really cool from the air, but incredibly flat and low, like it would be flooded by a small wave. It also appeared very wealthy, if you can judge a country by the look of its highrises and airport terminal. They now have a cool (and maybe a bit scary) feature on the airplane personal entertainment screens where you can see what the pilots see through a camera mounted on the front of the plane. Too bad we flew at night.

Our arrival in the capitol of Madagascar, Antananarivo (Tana), was not a good way to start off a country. On the drive to the hotel we passed a horrendous car accident and people helping up a very bloodied guy who came out on the wrong end of a fist fight. Our first full day was a Sunday, and the only things open for business were the beggars. Madagascar is a shockingly poor country, and we’ve been to India.

Tana is a beautifully laid out hill city.
tana.jpg

The people of Madagascar speak Malagasy and French. Since we didn’t know any Malagasy, we had to rely on Marc’s high school French. We were surprised how necessary French was, even at the tourist hotels. The keyboards were also French-style (we think) and were the most confusing arrangement we’ve had to use. Sorry to anyone who got a lot of Q’s where there should have been A’s in email.

Public transport in Madagascar is by ‘taxibrousse’, which is any means of conveyance on four wheels and packed to the brim with people and their stuff. We chose to go the expensive route and rented a 4×4 and driver.

Malagasy taxibrousse.
taxibrousse.jpg

Our first stop was Parc National d’Andasibe-Mantadia to the east of Tana. It is famous for the largest of the lemur species: the Indri. Indri are large black-and-white lemurs with the face of a bear, a long tail and limbs, and can leap huge distances in the trees. But they are most famous for their cry, which is a haunting combination of Euro police siren and a baby, and can be heard up to 3 km away. They only sing for a few minutes each day to mark their territory, so we felt lucky to right under a foursome of indri when they sang. Okay, a park lady set them off by playing a tape recorder of other indri songs, but it was still amazing and we got a recording of it that we’ll play for you when we get back.

A melodious indri.
indri.jpg

The trouble with rainforests is that it rains a lot – even in the ‘dry’ season. The leeches love it when it rains and come out in force. Despite covering our feet and legs in bug spray, we still managed to get leeches all over ourselves. Kelly had one on her left cheek that Marc removed before it bit her. Kelly returned the favor, albeit after biting Marc, but the leech was on Marc’s “other” left cheek.

The park also has Parson’s chameleon, the largest chameleon species. These guys are bright green and huge (the size of Kelly’s arm).
parsoncham.jpg

The park was also home to some incredibly tiny chameleons. This guy was maybe an inch in length.
micro.jpg

The short horn chameleons were easy spot at night because they start out as a pale white, but turn brown and green as you hold the light on them. Love the spiral tails!
shorthornbaby.jpg

Cute nocturnal tree frog.
nocfrog.jpg

And one in the day.
treefrog.jpg

We managed to get the most amazing guide for our second day in the park. Marie could spot lemurs rustling in a tree across a valley, and then take us through primary forest to get right under them. She managed to find all of the lemur species that inhabit the park in our three hour walk.

The funky looking diademed sifaka.
diademsifaka.jpg

Cute red-bellied lemur with a white nose patch. These guys made really cool grunts to let each other know where they were.
redbelliedlemur.jpg

We managed to blow our timing and missed both insect and orchid season. But it was good to miss mosquito season. At least one orchid was blooming though.
orchid.jpg

The colorful town of Ambositra. The guy in the beige jacket and hat is offering to sell a live goose to the restaurant. While we were eating there were two offers of live chickens.
ambositra.jpg

Driving in Madagascar is incredibly scenic and it doesn’t take long for the landscape to change dramatically. One minute your driving through hillsides covered in terraced rice fields and the next your faced with steep colorful cliffs. All along you pass huts made out of red mud brick with dark thatch roofs.

Village with rice fields.
villagericefields.jpg

We were in the town of Ranomafana for Madagascar National Day on the 26th of June. One of the great things about Madagascar is the national pride. Every house and business – from oppulent hotels to the most meager mud brick hut – has a Madagascar flag flying proudly. The night before National Day hosted a candle-lit lantern parade through town that we mistook for a lynching at first.

Enormous resident geese roamed Ranomafa in packs.
ranogeese.jpg

The greater bamboo lemur didn’t care what we did as long as we didn’t move our feet. As soon as we took a step, their eyes would lock onto our shoes and they’d freeze.
greaterbamboolemur.jpg

Madagascar is a Malaria zone, so we started taking an anti-malarial drug called Mefloquin. The drug has a few unpleasant side effects, such as making us surly, giving us really weird/scary dreams, and seems to cause Marc to sleep-mumble loudly.

The national symbol of Madagascar is the traveller plant. So called because it can be tapped for water by travellers.
travellerplant.jpg

At least something is cheap in Madagascar: sugar cane is only $0.01 per stick. Too bad it doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Marc is bleeding profusely after a sugar cane accident. Note the stream crossing behind the hotel which was used by the locals. There is no bridge across, so folks just stripped down and waded across (quite a difference from the modesty displayed in the Middle East).
dillweedsugarcane.jpg

While in Ranomafana we caught a local soccer match while the World Cup was still going on. These guys were really tough! They played in bare feet without shin guards and we never saw one take a dive or writhe in pain.

Neat antennae on this bug.
antennadude.jpg

Who needs a guide? We found the endangered golden bamboo lemurs on our own. This one was bashful.
goldenbamboo.jpg

The green day geckos were everywhere. They clean their eyeballs with their tongues.
daygecko.jpg

This orange and black legged spider even gave Marc nightmares. Or maybe that was just the Mefloquin.
orangelegspider.jpg

Love the beak on this mantis.
mantis.jpg

This moth would have been incredibly awesome if it hadn’t been so close to the next moth.
moth.jpg

Simply the coolest and largest moth we’ve ever seen! Big as a dinner plate.
megamoth.jpg

Marc discovered a new beverage called “punch coco”. This is sweet coconut milk spiked with rum and is really, really good. He went through a few bottles while in the country. Rum is the main drink in Madagascar. They soak bananas and pineapple in it and serve them on fire.

Near Ambalavao is the Anja Reserve, which is home to many ring-tailed lemurs. These guys were incredibly cute! They make a cat-like alarm call and snuggle together for warmth in the cold.

A ring-tailed lemur snacking on some leaves.
ringtailmouth.jpg

Some of the chameleons were really well camouflaged. There was one that our camera simply wouldn’t focus on because it couldn’t find it.
camocham.jpg

Nice light on the valley outside of Anja Reserve.
lemurvalley.jpg

Another cool moth.
mothybw.jpg

We went to the Andringitra National Park. The place was a bit of a disappointment because of a complete lack of animals, but was pretty none-the-less and seemed to have a perpetual rainbow.
potogold.jpg

Shy kid in an Andringitra village. The kids here were great! Very friendly and never once asked for a bonbon. Nice to know there are still places that tourism hasn’t spoilt.
andringkid.jpg

The national animal (and national meat) seems to be the cow-like zebu.
zebu.jpg

Bright flowers on the aloes in Andringitra.
andringyellowflower.jpg

There is not much infrastructure in Andringitra. We stayed in “rustic accomodation” which was a nice house that had all the plumbing and wiring of a modern facility, but none of it worked. We cooked outside using “Malagasy gas”, which is unfortunately locally-collected firewood.

Lots of cute kids in Madagascar.
kidshouse.jpg

Isalo National Park was quite beautiful. Grassy plains, multi-colored cliffs covered in green lichen, and endless sky.
isalo.jpg

Nice sky.
treesky.jpg

Despite all the nice scenery, Marc’s favorite find in Isalo was the giant Madagascar hissing cockroach. This guy was quiet though.
roach.jpg

Some kind of green grasshoppers.
greendude.jpg

The stout “elephant foot” plant.
elphfoot2.jpg

The Piscine Nature (natural pool) in Isalo was a nice place to soak our feet.
piscinenature.jpg

This bug was incredible! When settled on a tree branch you would never be able to tell it wasn’t part of the plant. We saw this guy flying with huge blue wings.
stickbug.jpg

Cute brown lemurs in Isalo.
brownlemur.jpg

Isalo also has a few varieties of biting flies. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t been the first day Marc was able to wear shorts in months.

Isalo had a bunch of semi-tame ring-tailed lemurs that didn’t seem to mind us getting close.
ringtailed2.jpg

We visited the beachside town of Ifaty on the west coast overlooking the Mozambique channel. This was an incredibly relaxed place and there was nothing to do but walk around the spiney forest and gaze at the ocean.

There were all sorts of enormous baobab trees near Ifaty.
baobab.jpg

Pretty church on the drive.
church.jpg

On the way to the airport we passed a noisy parade of folks banging drums, blowing whistles, signing, dancing, and waving sugar cane (and who doesn’t?). There was a young boy, maybe 3 years old, on his dad’s shoulders at the head of the parade. We asked the driver what was going on and he made a cutting gesture towards his crotch. Oh! This was the circumcision ceremony we’d read about. We could only wonder if this was the tribe where the grandparents have the honor of eating the “leftovers”. Yikes!



Tags:

4 Responses to “Days 435-455: Madagascar”

  1. zcookes/Mom Says:

    Madagascar must be home to Zartan’s cousin. Really cool critters’ pictures guys.

  2. Posted from United States United States
  3. Mom Says:

    Great blog – well worth the wait! Gotta love those ring tailed lemurs!

  4. Posted from United States United States
  5. Lata Says:

    wow- these animal pics are a biologist dream! wish we still taught organismal biology- i plan on showing some of these great pics to my students when school starts in a few weeks-
    all is well here- 6 months pregnant- hanging in and getting bigger! keep you posted:)

  6. Posted from United States United States
  7. pete Says:

    oooh… hissing roach. so trendy as an exotic pet right now!!

    glad to see you guys are still circumnavigating — I was starting to get a bit worried when so much time passed after the Cairo missive.

  8. Posted from United States United States