Blogs from Madagascar, Africa

Tesiasi mano keliones. Afrika - tai antrasis zemynas pasaulyje pagal plota ir gyventoju skaiciu po Azijos. Pries du metus lankyta Afrika ne daug kuo pasikeite. Pietu Afrika kaip ir buvo, taip ir isliko pati civilizuociausia is visu kitu Afrikos valstybiu. Madagaskaro sala irgi buvo kazkada lankyta, bet kiekviena karta leisdamasi i ta pacia vieta bandau atrasti kazka nematyto. Madagaskaras, tai ne tik sala, bet ir visa valstybe, kuri turi savo kalba, savo valiuta. Madagaskaras yra vienintelė vieta Žemėje, kur laisvėje gyvena lemūrai – medžiuose gyvenančios pusbeždžionės. Ir pati juos maciau. Nukeliavom iki vienos salos Madagaskare specialiai paziureti laisveje gyvenanciu lemuru. Gidas laike banana rankoje ir taip viliojo juos. Greitai ir pasirode keli bezdzioniukai, tykiai tupejo medziuose ir stebejo mus. is pirmo zvilgsnio atrodo, kaip iskamsos, bet pastebi, kad vis nejuciomi... read more

Hearing that people at home are getting hit with snow and wintery conditions, I figured it would be a good time to send you pictures of the Malagasy flora & fauna . No big lessons here... Just a chance for you to look see what I have been enjoying for the last week during my adventures. As usual, I don't know what half of them are, but I can appreciate their beauty, Hope you appreciate them as well.... read more

I arrived in Sainte Marie, an island in the northeast of Madagascar yesterday. There was a delay with my flight in Tana. What was supposed to be a 730AM flight was delayed to 4PM and then bumped up to 2PM. Apparently, this is common since the only airline that does domestic flights is Air Madagascar. Since it is the only airline, it apparently, doesn’t care too much about customer service. Good to know if you’re thinking of getting anywhere in this country. I am not complaining. I met several people who were delayed by days, re-routed to cities they weren’t supposed to go to, and those who who had already resigned themselves to the fact that they would be spening Christmas in an airport. We arrived at the Soanambo Hotel late yesterday afternoon and magically, all ... read more

On my fist night at Vakona Forest Lodge, I fell asleep to the very large sounds made by some very small frogs. I awoke to the sounds of birds singing in an incredible surrounding. I had Bungalow #1, just off the main building. What a gorgeous place! I was meeting Njato at 730AM. He brought a local man with him who apparently knows the national forest like the back of his hand. Which was helpful since we were looking for lemurs in the wild. We jumped in the truck and set out to the point where we would hike in the in the Mantadia National Park. The road was so rough that it took us almost 90 minutes to go 14 kilometres. The road used to be maintained at one time when there was a graphite ... read more

1998 Sightseeing around Nosy Bé. Our hotel room was right on the beach of Ambatoloaka. This was where Bossi was moored and where we first went on board. The room and bathroom was very basic with only a cold water shower, which wasn't too bad, considering it was quite hot. They both needed a lick of paint and some maintenance, but we would survive, as it was only for one night. There was no seat on the toilet either! But the beach made up for it. Time to explore Nosy Bé. We negotiated with a taxi driver to drive us around the island. First we went to the ylang ylang factory where they make perfume essence. When driving around the island we noticed the ylang ylang trees that are bent and pruned for easy access to ... read more