it is crazy to me to just write out this date.....HAPPY NEW YEAR and soon to be HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR to all those around the globe reading this......i have just returned to hot, harmatan ghana....what's harmatan you ask....it's when the sands of the sahara blow south west for a change and they come and cover all of west africa.....makes it harder to breathe and looks a bit like shanghai skies on a 200+ day....but at least it is just sand, not pollution and it does help lower the heat....it also makes for beautiful sunsets....and sand on your lips.....not such a pleasant feeling.....but this is what i have come back to....the harmatan has started about 1 month early and is the worst it has been in years....so the ghanians say....at least i know it will end and it will be back to hot, hot and more hot.....
i learned a new toast this past break, from my friends sand & jeff dibler and this particular trip really embodies that toast - "here's to my ridiculous life".....this particular trip has to be one of my all time best....madagascar for two weeks and kenya for one.....amazing scenery - very different mind you, amazing company in both places, running into people i knew, meeting some really cool new folks, eating tasty food, and the ANIMALS!!!!!!! in both places...lemurs, insects, snakes, chameleons for madagascar and the Big 5 + in kenya......this particular update will focus on madagascar, and the next will focus on kenya.....i have found that my camera (not my phone) is officially dying....so the better, closer pictures are from the camera, and this may be its last trip....makes for an interesting choice ahead.....what do i get next....i am not a crazy photographer....but i like something that takes a good shot without much work.....so if you have any suggestions....send them my way :) on with the show though.......madagascar......so much more than the movie....
this first shot is taken just out side of the capital - antananarivo....everywhere we went on this trip i saw women and children doing laundry this way....they leave the clothes and blankets and such out to dry on the river bank after they have been washed....much of the land is used for rice patties....so this is along the main canal and behind this woman are farms of rice and other veggies....the people of madagascar are mostly poor, i read somewhere that 90% of the country survives on $2 a day....just incredible....
along the roadside we could stop for fruit and veggies...this stand is where we picked up some bananas...i loved the colors....they had great bananas, pineapple, mango....and of course papaya....which i just do not like....
our first stop was in andasibe (an-di-sa-bey) - 4 hours north east of tana (the abbreviation for antananarivo)...the main language spoken in madagascar is malagasy - and many of the words are super long with lots of vowels....anyway....in andasibe, there was a national park and was our first spotting of lemurs....the animal endemic (only found) in madagascar....it is a subspecies from the same line as primates, but is not related to apes and monkeys.....the one above is a sifaka lemur....there was a family of them jumping from tree to tree in the search of food....when we first saw them, i was amazed....so able to jump & jump far....it was awesome.....
insects were another big highlight on this trip and this is actually an ant's nest in a tree - the big black ball....the reason they have their nest in the tree is because we were there during the rainy season....and it really rains during the rainy season....they are actually expecting cyclones by the end of january....lots of rain....but the ants put their nests in trees so they do not get flooded...pretty darn smart....
the second type of lemur we saw in the andasibe forest was the indri.....this is the largest lemur and has a very nubby tail (4 cm or so)....not normal for most lemurs....we came across a family of 15 or so of them jumping from tree to tree...also eating....these two lemurs are daytime lemurs....there are quite a few that are nocturnal....so we saw some of them sleeping in groups in the trees too.....
hopefully most of you will be able to open the video link here (if not go to the website directly at wheresdani.blogspot.com) the coolest thing happened while we were hanging with the family of indri...one of the guides played the call of the indris of another family of them on her phone....this caused the family we were watching to start up with their calling....definitely not what i expected to hear.....soooooooo cool....
after the national park we headed to lemur island....this is a place where lemurs can not leave from....they HATE water and are afraid of it...in some ways i did not like lemur island, because i think the lemurs have come to expect bananas from the people that visit....i am not sure they can actually find food on their own....and because of this, when the bananas show up, two types of lemurs get very excited and climb all over you....this is shot of a brown lemur, yes that is what it is called, with a banana we brought over....and then we were friends for life....or for as long as we were on the island with bananas....
the shot above is a rough lemur (the one king julian was designed after in the movie) who also jumped on top of us because of the bananas...he is with my friend sandy....we had lemurs on us for a bit of time.....well, at least until the next group of people showed up with more bananas.....
this is me and the brown lemur....their "hands" did not have sharp claws and were more padded and they have "hands" and feet like apes, used for jumping and grabbing.....so cute....they are a bit heavy though...and very persistent for the bananas....
this is the village of andasibe, located outside of the national park....they had all wooden houses and they were described as being built like the wild, wild west of the USA....and really it did kind of look like an old western town, no swinging doors or saloons...but very cool none-the-less....
on our way south we stopped in a chameleon farm type place....run by malagasy....we had seen many chameleons and insects in the forest, but these species were mind-blowing....i learned that chameleons change colors based on their moods & emotions, not for camouflage....wild...i loved the colors of this one above....
then the guide here went out and grabbed some live cicada...the chameleon's favorite snack....he held them and the chameleons shot our their tongues for the tasty treat...i know it is hard to see, but in the shot above, this lucky chameleon had just caught his snack.....
from andasibe we drove south through tana again to a town known as antsirabe, a town of thermal springs (although many of them are now used medicinally) and for its gems....who knew that madagascar has so many gems....most of them in fact except rubies and diamonds....wild...this is a shot of the garden of the place we stayed in....when it finally stopped raining.....most places we stayed were owned by a french man and his malagasy wife....the malagasy do not have any love lost for the french, who basically raped and pillaged this country....at least they are no longer really there....this means the first language is malagasy and the second is french, with english on the upswing - they are now teaching it in schools.....one thing that was really sad to me was the deforestation that has happened here...it was everywhere, except the national parks....so sad...
BUT even with the deforestation, the landscape of the country, especially the blue skies and white clouds, was mesmerizing....i loved it....this is what we saw for landscape as we headed south to ranomafana, another national park with more lemurs of differing species....
unfortunately i was not feeling well when we were in ranomafana, and got very few pictures and saw very few lemurs...needed to end my hike early....BUT, i did see this one amazing mushroom....came to find out it is a magic mushroom of the area...and no, i did not have any....it is about 3 inches (7.5 cm) in height....and swayed with the breeze....amazing.....
this is sandy and i walking across the river to get to the thermal sping swimming pool on christmas day....which unfortunately was closed...but we met some cool folks while using the small pool set aside for locals and for people to put their feet in....
we then headed even further south from ranomafana towards isalo, which is canyon lands in this country....so we came down from the highlands and the rainforest, into the dry region....we passed through a few larger towns and i just loved this stall seller in the second largest city of madagascar called fianarantsoa (told you the names were long)...she was selling mango....
also while in fianarantsoa, it was a holiday, and where we stopped to pick up some money there was a festival happening.....this was the rambla-rambla competition that was being held....these are wooden carts many people have in madagascar in this region, that can be pushed and steered with a steering wheel....which is where the drivers are standing in this picture....fun to watch...not sure who won....
another landscape shot on our way to isalo....i loved the sky...and when it was not raining, this is what it always looked like....simply stunning....
we stopped in a very small national park on the way to the canyon lands....in anja....we literally walked ten minutes and then were surrounded by ring-tailed lemurs....we watched a family of 20 lemurs here jumping from tree to tree and eating....they had babies....but they were too fast for me to get them with the camera....love the eyes of lemurs....they are considered to have reflective eyes, which gave them a ghost-like appearance...which is how they got their name - lemur - it means ghosts or spirits in old roman.....they really can't see well, and rely more on their sense of smell and sound.....as you can tell from the video above....they all have specific cries they use....such a cool animal....
in the highlands the houses were mostly two story...but as we drove past, i could see there was not much in them....most malagasy still cook on charcoal fires and the black smoke coming out of the windows attested to this...in the picture above, you can see the structure of the houses in this area....i loved the pillar aspect of them....
when we arrived in isalo, we were staying in "tents" overlooking the caynon land...glamping, as it is referred to...amazing views....this is my front porch of my swanky tent....the bathroom was nicer than most apartments and had both an indoor and outdoor shower....too bad it kept raining....
the next day we hiked the canyon area.....which was incredible to start....this is a the land of the Bara tribe, and when a member of the tribe dies, as long as they are not a child, they are buried in the canyons - their "tomb & coffin" are covered by rocks....and here they stay for a few years....after a few years the body is exhumed, a party is held and they are reburied higher in the canyons for the rest of time....still covered in rocks and such...this tomb was a higher one and one for the rest of time in the wall of the canyon....i took no more pictures on this hike because soon after this shot it started to pour rain....and i mean pour....we actually crossed a river that was up to my chest....a bit crazy...but we made it and have a story to tell from it...unfortunately due to the rain, we did not see any more lemurs or chameleons or such....and we did not hike to the waterfall....just too wet....
from isalo we went further south and west to the town of ifaty on the beach....we passed through a crazy part of madagascar though, where boom towns had been set up due to the mining of gems....in this picture above, women and children are at the river of one of the towns hunting for sapphires....it was crazy...in these four small boom towns the dealers of the gems were pakistani, sri lankan, israeli and guinean.....all types of gems...and if you found a big gem, there were new cars and new houses to buy....it was wild....
on our drive to the beach we had our driver's wife and four-year old son drive with us....the son was scared to death of me in the back seat...non-malagasy people are called vassa....and the stories that are told to children when they do not want to go to bed or eat their veggies or do their homework is about vassa eating people...of course the four-year-old thought i was going to eat him....gotta love that....he warmed up to us by the end of the drive, but really was not too sure if i would eat him or not....
this was our driver nori....love his shirt....what a great guy...kind of became out older malagasy brother while we were there...drove us a long, long way in madagascar....and then turned around and drove back to tana...and picked us back up in the airport after three lovely days at the beach (coming up)....he was terrific....
this is one of the sunsets at the beach....and what a beautiful place the beach is in madagascar...sandy, clean, empty, snorkeling, fresh seafood....amazing!!!!!
at the beach they have three types of boabab trees...this is the "bottle" type i am hugging....its branches look like roots and over time they hollow themselves out as they get older....it has been proposed that this is how they get soooooo big and live so long....i love them....as they remind me of a dr. seuss style tree....
as you can see from the picture above, the water is stunning....and great for snorkeling....actually seven km (4.5 miles or so) off the beach there is a reef that has caused amazing waves...this is where madagascar is starting to focus on tourism - surfing.....the waves are always there....you take a boat out to them....too cool.....this shot is of one of the traditional boats of the fishermen in the area - a pirogue, a type of canoe that has a sail.... we took one of these out to the reef where we went snorkeling....awesome....
like most parts of africa, people carry things on their heads in madagascar....not as much as ghana, but when the load is heavy, it goes on the head....these ladies are headed into town - about 15 km (about 9.3 miles) to sell brooms...interestingly enough though, not all malagasy look african....many look asian - like malayasian or phillipino....depends on the region you are in....beautiful faces and many different colors....loved it...
i loved looking at this form of transport at the beach, but was pretty happy i did not need to ride in one...it is a taxi-busse and let me tell you, they pack people in and things on....reminded me a lot of chivas in ecuador....we saw one that was literally overflowing with people and things...i was too busy being amazed that nothing was falling to even take a picture....
and for our last evening in tana....sandy and i celebrated a four course dinner for new year's eve....with "drink breaks" included....amazing....
and there you have the small version of my trip to madagascar....if this place is not on your bucket list....you should change your bucket list....the skies, the views, the landscape, the plants, the people, the food (very french in places) and most of all the animals!!!!!! i really enjoyed my time here...it was a lot of driving for the trip, but because the scenery was so incredible, we were okay....and it had so many different landscapes....it was a bit expensive for the flight and our tour....but food and drinks and gifts and such were not expensive....so really....it's worth it.....and going during the rainy season was a good choice, as everything was green and the temperature was not very hot, except at the beach, which is what you want anyway.....it was an incredible adventure....i went in with little to no expectations, and little knowledge about the island....but was really blown away by my time there...people have asked if i would go back...and i would...but i would go to the north....to see different lemurs and experience something different....really, an incredible place and overall an unforgettable trip.....loved it....
hope each of you had a great holiday season and i wish you and your families a very happy 2016!!!! next update will focus on the second part of this trip....kenya...extremely different from madgascar...but also simply amazing!!!!! talk soon :)
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