Blogs from Madagascar, Africa - page 6

When one writes on the first page of their trip journal, "1 USD equals 3,200 Ariary", exciting times are coming. It was a late September day, I had come back from my Ethiopia trip in January and was headed back to Africa again. My 74 year old strong as an ox father had called in June, said that he was intrigued by my Madagascar trip in 2008, asked me if I wanted to meet him there. Of course, I said yes, it wasn't the ideal time to travel (it rarely is) but I would make it work.For Dad, as a retired biologist and fluent French speaker, the appeal of Madagascar was obvious. Madagascar was a French ... read more

Volunteering was a blast! Nosy Komba, or Lemur Island, was where we based ourselves for a month. It is a small, road-free, volcanic island off the northwest coast of Madagascar, a few km boat ride from Hell-ville. Our time there working with the Madagascar Research and Conservation Institute (MRCI) was a bit of a flashback to our Junior Ranger days. Some hard work but loads of fun and lots of good people, from all around the world. There were four different volunteer projects going on at the Institute: Marine Conservation, Construction, Teaching English, and Forest Conservation. We'd both picked Forest Conservation before our arrival and ended up very were glad we did. A typical volunteer day at 'camp' went something like this: We'd wake up (in our separate huts -- boys with boys and girls with ... read more

Happy New Year!! Wishing everyone all the best in 2017! Decided to post another, just because we are fascinated with this country! After 3 days on the East coast we moved into the Highlands to Andasibe, where we visited two National Parks Mantadia and Andasibe. It was a beautiful rain forest, but much harder to track the lemurs. But loads of fun when we did spot them. At a local restaurant, we met several Peace Corp volunteers. It was great to talk with them and all of them were loving their experience in Madagascar. “We won the lottery” was how one volunteer stated his PC experience. Continuing down Rt 7 which runs basically down the center of the country from East to West, we stayed one night in Antasrabe which we easily could have stayed longer. ... read more

We got to Antanaranivo, or Tana, as Madagascar's capital city is thankfully abbreviated, in early December. It was a busy place. Especially between 12:00 and 3:00, when everyone travels from work and school for lunch and siestas. We found the traffic, smog, and constant tropical heat and humidity made exploring the city a little challenging. At least the cars drove on the "right" side of the road-- both Peru and Tanzania were left lane drivers and often made for some adventurous street crossings for us. Not that crossing the street in Tana was easy though, we still had to be wary of the ubiquitous speeding yellow tuk-tuks and endless old French cars. One of the first things we did in Tana was to take a guided walking tour, where we learned lots. It turns out Madagascar ... read more

As we bumped along the pockmarked bitumen to Lakobe a truck filled with Ylang Ylang flowers heading for the distillery past us. I closed my eyes and inhaled, the smell of the fonnes of flowers overpowering even the diesel fumes. The hot heavy february madagascan weather expectant with rain seemed to momentarily liven the heavy scent and I realised I had smelled that before. I was in a 2000 year old ylang ylang plantation where the finest first press oils go directly to paris bouncing along in an ancient citroen with a cracked windscreen heading to trek through a national park to see Lemurs and Chameleons. I searched my memory for the smell and suddenly realised I had stood in a Ylang Ylang plantation before..In Tahiti. Almost 16000km away yet the people here like the people ... read more