http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Madagascar en-us Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:17:57 BST Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:17:57 BST From Matt Just sent nana karl and assany to the airport. They should be back in the motherland in 24 hours. Vance Rush and I will fly to Joburg in the morn and will have a 22 hour layover before leaving for Kruger Nat. Park. We will be staying at a very plush photo safari resort called Manwana. Look it up on the internet. I feel certain they will have satellite internet but they may not. If we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-300665.html From Rush We got to eat cow yesterday. Karl Assany and i got to swim in a bay. We found lots of sea shells and two of them had hermit crabs in them. Karl and I caught two sandcrabs while we were looking for shells. Today we went to a national forest. We saw lots of lemurs. We also saw flowers that Uncle Gayle had on her wedding. We saw about three waterfalls. We also saw a 30 mm long Chamellion http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antsiranana/blog-299736.html From Matt As you will see below the rest of my family arrived in 'Tana last night. Very strange to be sitting around in Madagascar so far from home with all my brothers and my mother I really wish our wives were here too It's hard to even think about them without getting soggy eyes. I figure we are laying the groundwork for a future visit here with them included. We had to scoot out of Cai http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-298663.html Hello to everyone After two very long flights and a very windy bumpy drive I am here. I arrived on Wednesday July 9th. I have to say the flights were good. Flying buisness was great. The air france lounges were amazing. All you can drink open bar and food. The food on the plane was even great. As soon as you sit down they offer you a drink of champagne or orange juice. They give out hot han http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Moramanga/blog-298291.html Well do we have some stories to tell about our 2nd week in Madagascar Bushtaxi trips poussepousses wild weather village chiefs bandits and a unique national celebration made the past week one to remember.Choosing to give the pricy tourist busses the flick we quickly got the gist of the local bus aka taxibroussebushtaxi system and left Antananarivo in our wake heading south on the sm http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Ambositra/blog-292417.html Hey allVery sorry for the extended absence. I had a little while with nothing very exciting going on as well as being quite sick for the past few days. Here is a short update on what's been going on.Work has been interesting to say the least. I had been working on the website for the Ankoay and Carton Rouge projects and finally finished that up. I did run into a bit of a brick wall however. W http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-291513.html Everywhere I go I have a crowd of children tagging along behind me like baby ducks following their mother. Now that I live in a small village the people here are so astonished to see a foreigner like me in the town and when I walk down the street I can see people running to their doors to just to watch me stroll by. Most of the adults are pretty shy and just stare while the young children a http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-290104.html One word to describe what i felt is Wow Madagascar got me in my mind and heart. My trip was too short but it was what i could manage too many responsibilities I spent only ten days in Mada but already thinking of another trip there soon.So i started on the 8th June and landed in Tana the same day. Tana is short for Antananarivo the bustling capital of Madagascar. Weather was quite cool http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-289846.html Hi everyone Bonjour tout le monde Nous sommes sur le point de terminer notre priple africain aprs deux mois passs sur le continent. Nous retournons sur Johannesburg demain et restons chez une copine de Sydney passer le weekend avec sa famille. Et lundi nous nous envolons vers de nouvelles aventures direction Madagascar Nous pensons trs fort vous tous Je vais publier dans la foule qu http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-286839.html Millions of years ago when Gondwanaland decided to split up in the continents we have today it left an island in the middle that we now call Madagascar. Madagascar is the fourth biggest island in the world and just off the south east coast of Africa. I just needed to get that out of the way because if I mention Madagascar everyone asks me if I enjoyed the animated motion picture. Although the mov http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-286481.html Madagascar is more than I could have ever expected. Itrsquos like nothing Irsquove ever seen and it is far from similar to any other African country. The ride from the airport to my hotel in the capital city of Antananarivo also known as Tana much easier to say was maybe the best car ride Irsquove ever experienced. It took about an hour and the sun was setting while we were driving. I go http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-286146.html What a weekend Friday night was a great time at Mojo the popular expat bar. I've started making friends beyond the couple people I knew before coming. I had a great conversation with two guys Patrick and Warwick both are 6'6 and people in the bar thought it was the funniest thing they'd seen in a while. Most Malagasys are quite a bit shorter than the three of us. Everyone I've met here has http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-285382.html Up until the last entry I had been getting my sea legs and adjusting to life in Madagascar. As of right now however no more I started work yesterday at the Ankoay project. They took no time in giving me plenty to do including a few hours of work I had to get done at home after I had left the office. All the people working on the project are as they say tres sympas. Dr. Fano is a really ent http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-283265.html Yesterday was quite the day. I decided that the one thing I wanted to do was to visit the school I attended when I was here. I only went to K3rd grade but my memories of the school are as strong as if I had just been there. I walked the two blocks from the house to the American School of Antananarivo and was immediately overwhelmed. The place had changed so much Many new buildings had been add http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-282114.html May 8 15 Well the rest of this week or rather the last four days as we left BV on the 12th was also science. Dives during the day and data entry on the computer at night. And we got everything we needed to do for the expedition done with a day to spareI was feeling better for most of this week but then on the last day of diving I was ill again. I dove but upchucked at the end. Ick. I http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-281764.html April 30 May 7 Well not too much in highlights for this week. The weather got better at the start of the week and I quickly passed my fish test and got on to do the science that I had come to do. Fish belts fish belts and more fish belts. It was great if a little tiring.I didn't feel much like reaching out to people and I was sick again not as badly but felt weak for most of the week. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-281759.html April 23 29 Well this week would be great and sad all at the same time.First off the weather started to go sideways a bit. Strong winds for three consecutive days caused dives to be cancelled and then whole extra days off because the viz was so poor. Not great only so many days to pass my fish test and time was running out.Also this week there was an exorcism in the village. It seems that http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-281755.html April 16 22 The highlights this week included an overnight trip to a small village up north by pirogue. While there we would wait for the low tide at night and collect the sea cucumbers which were maturing in a pen count and weigh them.It was another beautiful day all told therersquod only be maybe three brief showers after that first bad rainstorm at night during the six weeks and we http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-281749.html So Irsquove been in Cape Town now for nine days and have only got the first week at BV blogged. Clearly I need to write a little less. The rest of the five weeks followed a similar pattern diving in the morning workshops in the afternoon teaching English to the Malagasy EcoGuides although I didnrsquot do much of that and learning Malagasy as well. Generally afternoons had some kind http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-281738.html Tuesday I went to sleep in a plane after leaving DC. I woke up in Paris seven hours later. Last night I went to bed in Antananarivo Madagascar. After 22 hours of travel I am finally home. It's a very weird feeling being away from a place for so long but still feeling that it is home. I only lived here for four years of my life but those four years were very crucial to my socialization and deve http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-281504.html Day 28 Monday May 26 2008The original plan today was for me to go to the university to visit the veterinary school and then for all of us to go to a Rotary meeting in the evening. We waited around until 1130 before we finally found out that everything was cancelled and again we had nothing to do today. Kris wasn't feeling well so she stayed at Rontu's Josh went to visit a local Rotarian who http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-281310.html Day 25 Friday May 23 2008We were supposed to go to ANGAP the Madagascar version of the National Park Service today but the President of Rotary International is in town so our vocational day was once again postponed. We were supposed to go to his reception that evening but otherwise nothing was scheduled. So once again we were on our own in Ivato. We found that the TV gets BBC world news f http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-280250.html April 3 April 8 Week One The Facilities Well I woke up with the sunrise the first day and man what a gorgeous place Just steps from our hut there is small cliff with steps leading down to a fine yellow sand beach HalfMoon Bay. It's pretty much a private beach just for the vols and the swimming there at high tide is fantastic. The water is warm but not too warm 27 degrees which http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-279656.html Day 22 Tuesday May 20 2008During our first three weeks in Madagascar we have suffered a series of illnesses including traveler's gastrointestinal upset a severe allergic reaction to bug spray and Liliane has had problems with anemia and low blood pressure. So this morning we had an appointment to see an English speaking doctor that was recommended by the embassy. The appointment was at 11AM http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-279302.html March 30 to April 1 So Kat Ralf and I were up at 5.30 getting ready for the transport which was supposed to be arriving at 6.00 am. Also at the guesthouse was Al the brand new just out of the box dive manager for the expedition. It was quite funny we were asking Al questions about Andava and his response was I don't know I just got here. Please let me wake up or something to that eff http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-278664.html Road to ToamasinaWe left the capital city Antanarivo Tana fairly early in a nine passenger van and headed out to gather the troops for the District Rotary Conference in Tomasina called Tamatave by the French but Tomasina by the Malagasy. No exaggeration it took an hour and a half just to pick up the four Rotarians we were traveling with and get to the outskirts of Tana. Tana is located in the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-278591.html Day 15 Tuesday May 13 2008We set off for the southern portion of our Madagascar visit. We drove to Antsirabe in two 2 hour trips. In the middle we stopped at Ambatolampy for lunch which was a typical Malagasy affair and took about 1.5 hours. When you combine the slow French restaurant style with Malagasy moramora meals can take forever. After lunch we went to see an aluminum smelting op http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-278184.html Day 9 Wed May 7 2008We were supposed to go to ANGAP today but were given a rest day instead. ANGAP is the organization in Madagascar with the task of protecting the national parks I hope we get there eventually. I went to an internet caf in the morning while Josh and Stu went for a run which required an elevated level of situation awareness. Later Josh Stu and I ran some errands and got http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-278178.html March 25 March 28Time to get started to update you on what has happened for the past two months. With luck I can get at least one blog entry done before I have to sign off and get something to eat. So I left Canada on March the 25 starting with a snowing blowing and frankly awful drive to Pearson International from Grand Bend. There Mom and Dad can I get a collective aawwww here paid fo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/Antananarivo/blog-277527.html Well guessing by the volume of emails in my inbox everyone is wondering where I've been since the last post. The answer Madagascar Home to chamelons lemurs and baobobs the spiny forest and huge freaking spiders. For those of you who don't know for the last eight weeks I've been travelling and volunteers in a small village on the southwest coast of Madagascar called Andavadoaka Andava for s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Madagascar/blog-276941.html