Anja & Lemur Cattas galore

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 Our second stop along our roadtrip was Anja, which is a community managed protected area. We only spent one night there, it was a pretty nice little campsite with little shelters under which we could set up our tents. There was a great view with these dramatic rock formations(mountains?) on both sides.

 

The best thing about Anja, we found out the next morning. First off, while waiting for breakfast; a group of ringtail lemurs came and passed by our campsite. Later that morning we did a circuit tour where we learned that the lemurs passing by our campsite was just the beginning of our lemur experience. According to our guides, about 400 ringtails live in Anja, in groups of about 20. Being a community managed protected area, the lemurs here have never been hunted by locals and are very accustomed to humans. So when we did our circuit tour, we found ourselves in the midst of a group, with lemurs passing overhead.

 Also we're in the season for baby lemurs and saw a fair few of those too, some of them starting to assert their independence by hopping between branches on their own- which was nothing short of adorable.

Lemur proximity scale

  

The hike also included some great views, but the lemurs were definitely the highlight. It seems pretty incredible to find lemurs here more approachable than they were at a private reserve (called Berenty) that we visited in the south. I'm still in Tana now, not working as hard as I should be on a paper but enjoying a reasonably fast cybercafé and getting lots of practice with the french keyboard. Until next time! Veloma!

Isalo

La Fenetre

 So I'm back in Antananarivo, the capital for the next week. Since Tulear; we road tripped through Madagascar, visiting several different Parks and protected areas. The first place we stopped was Isalo National Park, which was incredible, even though a large portion had been burned several weeks before by an out of control brush fire, the rocks and the views were incredible. I just realized I don't have much more time to write- but here' a bunch of pictures! I'll try and write more soon.

Museum

In the town near Isalo

The Tata, our beloved roadtrip bus

Isalo views!

Tulear

Mangroves when the tides out

Today's our last day in Tulear, which is a coastal city in the Southwest region of Madagascar. Tulear is bigger than Fort Dauphin, much flatter and from what I've seen it seems more touristy too. We spent our first several nights, camping in a place South of Tulear, near a strip of mangroves where we could swim when the tide was in early morning and at night. I have to say, swimming in warm ocean water, among mangroves under the moon is a pretty cool experience.

Ombiasy & offering of rum

La Table

Our second night we did a hike up to "La Table" with an "ombiasy" which is basically a spiritual/medicine man, with knowledge about  medicinal plants and their uses. At the top there was a place where the ombiasy speaks to ancestors and gives offering of rum, candy or other things. He did this and asked for good fortune for everyone in the group and we shared the remainder of the rum, and watched the sunset from the top.

The next day we had the chance to go with local fishermen, to go fishing in the pirogues. It was hot out on the water but pretty incredible. The pirogues are manned by two fishermen, and they paddle out to the spot where they plan on fishing. The area where they fish is aways from shore, but still shallow so when they fish they jump into the water to set up their net. The net was extremely "homegrown" it looked in parts to be made from mosquito netting, and used pieces of flip flops for floats. The use of mosquito netting for fish netting is actually illegal, because it catches everything, including small juvenile fish, but regulations are not enforced and because the area is so overfished, fishermen resort to small fish for some protein. In the water, they drag out the net into a big circle, then bring it in to this small pocket in the end where the catch is. We caught a lot of really neat looking small fish, including small pufferfish, some starfish(which they threw back) and even a few seahorses. Some point during that time I realized I'd probably held a seahorse for the first time in my life, standing in the Indian ocean near a pirogue. Going back to shore, we sailed back. The sail was also very homegrown, made from rice sacks sewn together, and then lashed to two poles, which were tied in place.

Being in Tulear is interesting,  because it definitely has the feel of a bigger city than Fort Dauphin. It's much flatter, and the roads are in much better condition, certain parts of it seem almost modern/urban. At the same time there's those dirt side roads and street vendors all over. One cool thing about Tulear are the "pousse pousses" which are man-pulled chariots, which are everywhere. I had my first(and second) ride in one today, which was a little unnerving, but all in all not a bad form of transportation. It's incredible, these men spend their days pulling people in chariots, often running most of the way, many of them wearing only sandals on their feet.

In the pousse pousse

Pousse pousses,  lining the street all over

So that's it for now. We leave Tulear tomorrow off on our road trip back towards Tana(the capital). It's been nice the time we've had in Tulear, although it's been quite hot and I've been getting a little fried from the sun. Until next time! I've figured out some photo uploading so here's a few more random photos from the last few days...

Sifakas, Mouse lemurs and more...



 

Sifaka in action



So this is definitely a little late on posting, we did our "lemur ecology unit" several weeks ago, but I'm now enjoying a favorable internet connection and figured out how to change the keyboard into english settings so I can type here at this Cyber cafe in Tulear. We did most of our "studies" on the sifaka lemur, which is one of the larger species still existing today. The area where we found the lemurs was definitely not in how one envisions finding lemurs in Madagascar. We were in dry spiny forest, with these really cool trees- the forest definitely earns the name "spiny". It got pretty hot during the days, but was pleasant at night. We also did a night walk and got to see some of the nocturnal mouse lemurs in action. Seeing lemurs definitely gave that  "I'm in Madagascar" concreteness to the experience. I have a lot more pictures (as usual) but not enough time/patience to post them. Right now I'm in Tulear (Southwest coast) for the week, and then we're doing some more travelling after. Until next time!



Nocturnal mouse lemur, caught resting











Ifotaka spiny forest sunset



Faux Cap village stay

Getting "tresses" before the end of the village stay party

One moment of many spent dancing

First of all, I apologize it's been so long. I would say it's a safe bet to say that if I don't manage to post for extended periods of time it's because I've been having a lot of amazing experiences. I feel so behind, but I have to start somewhere. It's already been a week already (almost) since getting back from a week long stay in a small village in the Faux Cap (deep south) region of Madagascar. I was in a very small village, with only 5 houses and only 2 zebu, which is saying something as zebu are equated to status and wealth.

I was with 2 Malagasy students from Fort Dauphin, who served as translators, but for the most part my Malagasy communication was limited to "tsara" (good) and "elefa" (go on) but whatever other vocabulary I had learned was promptly gone. The village was definitely the sign of poverty, with children wearing dirty, holey clothes and no shoes. At the same time the village was joyful, and every day or more often we danced for a good chunk of time, including one day when we danced to another village and back. I'm short on time and internet connectivity in order to load more pictures and explain more. But tomorrow we leave Fort Dauphin tomorrow for Tulear on the west coast for Marine Studies and afterwards we travel through Madagascar towards the capital. I'm not actually sure if I'm ready to be leaving Fort Dauphin already, but luckily will be coming back for a period of time before leaving Madagascar. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out the photo uploading soon, but until next time!