Move to Feon'ny Ala

---

Geo: -18.9427, 48.4085

Sad to be leaving the wonderful camping at Mitsinjo but we decided to leave our tent there and see what we wanted to do after a week at Feon'ny ala. There were preparations underway for another meeting of the research team and some of the members of the association. Because of this, the Feon'ny ala vehicle came to pick us up because the Mitsinjo vehicle was in use for the event.

Our room was on the third level, 90 steps up and 90 steps down to the bottom! Great exercise and a wonderful view when you got to our room. We had picked it out because you could see the water from the front porch. Got ourselves settled in and set the last of our clothes from the earlier washing out in the sun on the front porch. Evidently one of the workers thought we had just washed the clothes and put them out there. Robert had a nice visit with him and explained what was what. We also gathered up some clothes to be washed here.

The name Feon'ny ala means "the voice of the forest" and when the indri indri start their haunting cry, it is as if the forest is calling to you! We heard the indri several times most days we were here. We also heard the dogs out on the road and an errant rooster or two!

Had relaxing afternoon with Laura trying her hand at painting and Robert reading more about Madagascar. Decided to sit outside for dinner and had some delicious food cooked by someone else! Robert starts visiting with the girl sitting behind us and she joins us. She works at Mitsinjo and traveled to the United States to study GIS mapping at the University of California, Davis. She helps with the determining of where the reforestation should be taking place. Sounded quite interesting.

Another girl comes up and she also is working with Mitsinjo and her two areas of specialization are bats and indri indri. Talked a little about the fady/taboo dealing with the indri indri. All in all it was a very interesting evening. We also talked about the mines that are messing things up in the Andisabe region.

---