NDBT

So I think whenever I get a few minutes on the (finicky) internet, I’ll give a brief update on what is going on, and then I’ll fill in the details from my journal, probably in Perth.

Things here are FABULOUS. I am having the ABSOLUTE BEST time. Seriously – I can’t stop grinning. Everyone here is soo friendly and kind and helpful. And the scenery is gorgeous, and so far the transportation hasn’t been too bad! (knock on wood). We took a 9 hour taxi brousse to Fianar my second day, and yesterday we went out to Ranomafana. We took a 4 hour hike and a 2 hour night walk. The park was GORGEOUS (if a bit steep) and we saw 6 – 6! – species of lemur (including Edwards Sifaka, brown mouse lemur, golden bamboo lemur – very special!, grey bamboo lemur, red-fronted brown lemur, and one more whose name I forget, but I wrote it down in the book.), a fosa (say foo-sah, and I thought there was no WAY I’d see one of those), a ring tailed mongoose (those lqst 2 are 2 of the 5 carnivores in Madagascar), a forest rat, lots of cool insects, GIANT spiders (they have this kind that looks like a black widow, but it’s 3-4 inches across), birds, chameleons, geckos… it was great. I would have been happy with 1 or 2 lemurs. And we saw them jumping and climbing and grooming… The whole day was great.

Cqme back to Fianar this morning, and taking a night brousse to Toliara. On the way back we might stop at Isalo NP and Ambositra. And then we’ll head East.

As for the cyclones – nothing where we’ve been has been disrupted at all – everyone is surprised when we bring it up and ask about it. Apparently it hit the very north tip of the island. It means that roads past Ile St. Marie are probably gone, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to Mananara (aye-ayes), but we’ll see. And there doesn’t seem to be any volunteer efforts springing up at all (ones not already established).

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, April 13th, 2007 at 1:02 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.