Here are some pictures from Me and Ari's adventure!!! [View Full Entry]

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In recent years traveling in remote parts of Madagascar and Tanzania, I had, indepently and spontanaeously had the same conversation - once over a campfire in the Udzungwa Mountans (Tanzania), the other in a small village some 200 Km from the west coast town of Majunga in Madagascar. Some background, in Tanzania, I'd embarked in a multi-day walk through the upland rainforests of the Udzungwa mountans - a fantastic experience but tense. You come around sharp bend on the trail in the dense rainforest and come upon bowling ball sized dung, still steaming, from elephants. The Serengeti, not. You r [View Full Entry]

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after presenting our final projects we finished with a wonderful tour of the north [View Full Entry]

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Over the course of our trip we have heard Madagascar's top ten pop music dance hits about 30 times each- usually the songs are threatening to blow another speaker as we are sitting in the cramped Taxi-brousse and trying to catch a few Z's. But, it has been our pleasure and amusement to watch the few music videos that have circulated throughout the island and are shown in the small roadside restaurants. I'll try my best to give them justice... As most islands seem to be, they are a couple of decades behind the times with their biggest influences seeming to [View Full Entry]

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Hey all first mate Colin here! I was demoted from Commander after a wild and crazy night in Morondava on my bday. It turns out that all the ladies that were hanging from me at the club had a price tag, and thankfully for Ari s bulldog ways she shooed them away before too much damage was done. But for my poor behavior I was demoted, and Ari found some old French ex patriot that she says she loves and will be moving to the south of Madagascar to give back rubs to Jacque, while he paints the sunset while puffing [View Full Entry]

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After Krindy we thought it may be a good idea to practice a bit of masochism- ya know, since we have been so good to ourselves. We got a ticket for a taxi-brousse ride from Morondova back to Tana * The ride could take anywhere from 16-21 hrs we were told. With our time dwindling and the ticket to hell not too expensive (44,000 AR per person - about $23 each) we grabbed the opportunity to cover a large distance even if it did mean cramming into a smelly van with enough leg room for the average 8 year old or [View Full Entry]

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The trecherous and bumpy road to prostitution did not actually take us too long... We took a large covered truck on the 4x4 road from Toliara north to Ifaty. Ifaty is a madagascar/Jamaica setting with many old french ex-pats looking for a good time with the young malagasy girls. It was actually really sad to see, almost every old hairy sunburnt man had one or two malagasy girls with him- we had heard the problem was getting worse in the area and most of the girls actually came from Toliara to um work. But Besides the Hookers, Ifaty was very beautiful! [View Full Entry]

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From Toliara we took a 20ft fiberglass dinghy to the Manjaki hotel on a small isthmus from the mainland. This is a very nice place to visit because the village is small and you must be a rugged tourist to stay. The only way to get there is by boat or pirogue. A pirogue is a carved out sailing canoe with a single outrigger. They are all made of wood and very traditional. The hotel was on the beach with five dollar a night bungalows and three amazing meals a day. The meals were octupus, calamari, crab, or fish. With a [View Full Entry]

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Current residence: Antananarivo Just returned from three weeks spent in Moramanga conducting field research on free-tailed bats living in public buildings in Moramanga. here is a morseau des les choix que je faire durant ces temps: [View Full Entry]

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We got a little later start the next morning after our bike ride to Betafo, at the time it seemed worth it with a relaxing morning and breakfast served in the room. We got to the bus station (a row of huts where malagasy drivers try and sway you to ride in their lovely van) around noon. After a bit of bargaining we bought a bus ticket to Ranamafano- they threw our bags on top and we were set to leave around 2. Not so bad we thought- there were alreadly people waiting in the van so it looked promising. [View Full Entry]

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