Everything has calmed down. There are varying reports of 2 to 5 dead. The 30 mutineers have allegedly been captured. So have a number of DJs of the radio that broadcast messages from the protesters. Allegedly the government doesn't know the whereabouts of the leaders of the ecclesiastical cult that joined the protests. I think I'd be in hiding, too.
This morning I had a meeting in the Ministry of Environment buildings just next door to the Fort where the fighting took place. There were still burned out dumpsters and some large boulders in the middle of the road, but the taxi-bes, taxis, pedestrians, and other travelers took it in stride - taking turns going around, flashing their lights or waving in thanks. This is the Madagascar I know.
Our lovely weekend plans to go on a 3-day bike ride have been disrupted. We're hatching new plans, though. Off to a local lake with some new friends...for a piquenique.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Birthday Conflict
Hey all -- I wanted to thank each of you for your birthday greetings, and update you all on some of my birthday goings-on.
What did Madagascar give me for my birthday? A little inter-military clash! [See the BBC story]
Yesterday was actually pretty quiet, but it set the stage for a pretty eventful morning. Kirsten had an early meeting today, and returned to the house around 9:30 AM, carrying newspaper reports of a stage set for a conflict. Essentially, a small group of military forces (FIGN - the 'gendarmerie') loyal to the previous president (Ravalomanana) barricaded a street outside their Fort yesterday and arranged a large demonstration this morning. The military forces (FIS) allied with the current 'transitional' government tried to stop the demonstration and barricade this morning. [For those of you new to the political scene here, the 'transitional' government came to power via a military-backed coup last February]
From our high vantage point in Andohalo, we saw trucks loaded with soldiers heading to the other side of town (where the fort is located). We could see the soldiers move across the hill, but could not see the actual conflict. The noises of automatic weapon fire and tear gas launchers echoed around the hills of Tana from about 10 AM to noon, when everything fell quiet. Reportedly, the soldiers were primarily firing into the air to disperse the protesters. By 1:30 PM it was announced the the FIGN (the opposition's military force) had surrendered, and that 5 people (unclear whether civilian or military) had been admitted to the hospital. We've recently heard that they haven't surrendered, but are now just at a stand off. While editing this post, sporadic gun fire has started again.
The shops down-town closed their doors and everyone is a little shaken, but life goes on here. Maman'angie is making beans for dinner, our neighbor Marie is helping our other neighbor, Jean-Cristophe, to decorate his house with new curtains - and she's more worried about making the design 'too female' for the bachelor than she is about the fighting across town affecting her life directly.
Folks here who lived through the actual coup last February saw much worse fighting. Even then, the combat was mostly just between soldiers and was very localized. The attitude is essentially, "You live your life around them -- everybody knows where they are, and you don't go there." A local editorial that Kirsten found puts it very well: “Il faut rappeler qu'il y a une différence entre la vie de tous les jours, plutôt calme, et la vie politique, plutôt très agitée.” [local editorial, Sobika.com] = “One must remember that there is a difference between everyday life, often calm, and political life, often very agitated.”
So, if you read about the scary events in Madagascar, please know that we're safe and as informed as we can be.
Tom and Kirsten
What did Madagascar give me for my birthday? A little inter-military clash! [See the BBC story]
Yesterday was actually pretty quiet, but it set the stage for a pretty eventful morning. Kirsten had an early meeting today, and returned to the house around 9:30 AM, carrying newspaper reports of a stage set for a conflict. Essentially, a small group of military forces (FIGN - the 'gendarmerie') loyal to the previous president (Ravalomanana) barricaded a street outside their Fort yesterday and arranged a large demonstration this morning. The military forces (FIS) allied with the current 'transitional' government tried to stop the demonstration and barricade this morning. [For those of you new to the political scene here, the 'transitional' government came to power via a military-backed coup last February]
From our high vantage point in Andohalo, we saw trucks loaded with soldiers heading to the other side of town (where the fort is located). We could see the soldiers move across the hill, but could not see the actual conflict. The noises of automatic weapon fire and tear gas launchers echoed around the hills of Tana from about 10 AM to noon, when everything fell quiet. Reportedly, the soldiers were primarily firing into the air to disperse the protesters. By 1:30 PM it was announced the the FIGN (the opposition's military force) had surrendered, and that 5 people (unclear whether civilian or military) had been admitted to the hospital. We've recently heard that they haven't surrendered, but are now just at a stand off. While editing this post, sporadic gun fire has started again.
The shops down-town closed their doors and everyone is a little shaken, but life goes on here. Maman'angie is making beans for dinner, our neighbor Marie is helping our other neighbor, Jean-Cristophe, to decorate his house with new curtains - and she's more worried about making the design 'too female' for the bachelor than she is about the fighting across town affecting her life directly.
Folks here who lived through the actual coup last February saw much worse fighting. Even then, the combat was mostly just between soldiers and was very localized. The attitude is essentially, "You live your life around them -- everybody knows where they are, and you don't go there." A local editorial that Kirsten found puts it very well: “Il faut rappeler qu'il y a une différence entre la vie de tous les jours, plutôt calme, et la vie politique, plutôt très agitée.” [local editorial, Sobika.com] = “One must remember that there is a difference between everyday life, often calm, and political life, often very agitated.”So, if you read about the scary events in Madagascar, please know that we're safe and as informed as we can be.
Tom and Kirsten
Monday, April 12, 2010
Fombas and finoanas
Today, I went to a funeral in my slippers.
Saturday night's all-night party at the neighbors, and the singing I disparaged in my Facebook post on Sunday, were to mourn the death of our neighbor. Mourning involves an all-night singing session. This morning, Madame Bernadette, the self-proclaimed 106 y/o nun (maybe 86 but who am I to say), asked me to meet at the end of our street at 6:30 pm. The 'gasy custom (= fomba), it seems, is for neighbors to stop by to offer condolences and a collection. I was immersed in editing octopus when she came to get me -- I darted out the door only to realize that I had fuzzy feet. No problem on the dark street, but when we were in the family living room, all in a circle, with eyes cast downward, praying, well, I thought I might die. (Maybe they think it is a vazaha custom?!)
What other customs might there be? My favorite so far is the ingrained belief (= finoana) in ghosts and witches. Witches, in particular, are a real problem. So much so that our language/'gasy culture teacher did not want to teach us about them. Eventually,she capitulated, but we had to plan the lesson to avoid Wednesdays because that day is when you can/are more likely to see them. I'm not sure anyone has ever seen a witch, but the say, "They say that witches..." and continue the rumor. Witches are often possessed and suffer greatly, and if you allow them to touch you, they can pass on the evil spirit to you. They dance on graves (of course). If you see a witch, you much talk first or you will be turned into a horse. Luckily, you can identify witches by their messy hair and "alternative" clothing. And you can keep them out of your house by putting some voangabory (my favorite bean here) on the doorstep and window sills. You can also indirectly accuse someone of being a witch by feeding them voangabory -- apparently witches can't eat them, so you know right away. (Much nicer than Salem!) But now I know to make a joke when I ask Juliette to make us voangabory -- she was minorly offended the first time.
Witches are kind of handy when you think of it -- when things go missing or creepy things happen (someone breaks into your hut, for instance) -- you can blame a witch. This way, you don't need to confront anyone. It fits in well with the tendency of 'gasies to avoid conflict.Witches can be male or female, and are different from witch DOCTORS, who can cast nasty curses to, for example, kill your competition for your paramour. Witch doctors are a legit business. Um, calling. They use herbs and spells...and have immense power. (I wonder if I can give nasty peer reviewers bad diarrhea??)
Saturday night's all-night party at the neighbors, and the singing I disparaged in my Facebook post on Sunday, were to mourn the death of our neighbor. Mourning involves an all-night singing session. This morning, Madame Bernadette, the self-proclaimed 106 y/o nun (maybe 86 but who am I to say), asked me to meet at the end of our street at 6:30 pm. The 'gasy custom (= fomba), it seems, is for neighbors to stop by to offer condolences and a collection. I was immersed in editing octopus when she came to get me -- I darted out the door only to realize that I had fuzzy feet. No problem on the dark street, but when we were in the family living room, all in a circle, with eyes cast downward, praying, well, I thought I might die. (Maybe they think it is a vazaha custom?!)
What other customs might there be? My favorite so far is the ingrained belief (= finoana) in ghosts and witches. Witches, in particular, are a real problem. So much so that our language/'gasy culture teacher did not want to teach us about them. Eventually,she capitulated, but we had to plan the lesson to avoid Wednesdays because that day is when you can/are more likely to see them. I'm not sure anyone has ever seen a witch, but the say, "They say that witches..." and continue the rumor. Witches are often possessed and suffer greatly, and if you allow them to touch you, they can pass on the evil spirit to you. They dance on graves (of course). If you see a witch, you much talk first or you will be turned into a horse. Luckily, you can identify witches by their messy hair and "alternative" clothing. And you can keep them out of your house by putting some voangabory (my favorite bean here) on the doorstep and window sills. You can also indirectly accuse someone of being a witch by feeding them voangabory -- apparently witches can't eat them, so you know right away. (Much nicer than Salem!) But now I know to make a joke when I ask Juliette to make us voangabory -- she was minorly offended the first time.
Witches are kind of handy when you think of it -- when things go missing or creepy things happen (someone breaks into your hut, for instance) -- you can blame a witch. This way, you don't need to confront anyone. It fits in well with the tendency of 'gasies to avoid conflict.Witches can be male or female, and are different from witch DOCTORS, who can cast nasty curses to, for example, kill your competition for your paramour. Witch doctors are a legit business. Um, calling. They use herbs and spells...and have immense power. (I wonder if I can give nasty peer reviewers bad diarrhea??)
Thursday, April 8, 2010
New photos posted!
I put up photos from biking, Andasibe, and other fun things.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tomandkirsten/Madagascar?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/tomandkirsten/Madagascar?feat=directlink
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Research updates...
Once again an apology for the lack of communication. Busy, busy with gasy lessons (a upcoming blog post will detail some interesting 'gasy fombas (customs) and finoanas (beliefs) about WITCHES and CREATURES. Look for it...), research, and fun. For the moment, let me try to tell you why we've bad bloggers.
The octopus saga continues, dear friends. Last month -- it seems so long ago! -- we had 2 biologists from Blue Ventures living in our house for 3 1/2 weeks. Tom taught them statistics. A surprising realization for both of us was that biology training in the UK does not include stats. But Sophie and Haj worked their tails off, learned basic stats and a hardcore computer coding language called R, and are now well equipped to run some analyses on the enormous datasets that Blue Ventures continues to collect. Tom volunteered for a month to teach us. (Really in the end, my octopus problem became his octopus problem. Fetsy aho! (= sly I!)) We now have biological results about the successes and failures of the reserves. WOOHOO! Let the economics begin (a year late)!
But in case you think that is all we were doing last month, not so! Tom was preparing for a "Rapid Assessment Program" of biodiversity and ecological health in the northeast. While he is paid for the work by Conservation International, he worked days and days off-contract to gather materials, herd cats (a.k.a. the other marine scientists), confirm the methodologies, etc. He sat on our patio cutting and assembling quadrants...try explaining THAT in 'gasy. A wonderful coincidence of the RAP is our first friend visited Mada -- Sea flew in the night before the expedition. I got to spend more time with him than planned because Air France kindly left all his luggage in Paris (including enormous amounts of gear for the expedition that he schlepped). Lovely for me!
(News flash: Tom is well. He's in Vohemar, the infamous shipping port town from which all rosewood is being illegally exported. In fact, a friend of mine told me that this morning 'gasy radio reported suspicion of the RAP boat -- CI team are illegal exporters of rosewood! They clarified that the boat was full of SCUBA divers, and they had no idea what they were up to. So much for the communications push CI did -- Tom was on TV before they left.)
I have been working (for Blue Ventures) on a funding proposal for a UK call regarding ecosystem services. It was a nightmare -- the proposal was 2 pages, but the call included 36 pages of instructions. And then their online systems kept adding up our budgets incorrectly. Finally we gave up and left the sum 2000 pounds off, only to receive an email weeks later acknowledging the mistake and asking for spreadsheets. (The best part was that ALL the applicants were copied on the email, so now I know who else has applied -- Gretchen, Peter Kareiva, and a bunch of other usual suspects! Tough competition.)
Back to octopus, I've been developing the economic models to value the marginal benefit of the marine protected area. It bends my brain a bit. Lots of fun, though, now that I have data to work with. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't break my connection to my model (just one more adjustment! one more run!) and I don't sleep until the wee hours of the morning. I'm hoping to have a rough draft to vet with some folks here by the end of this weekend.
My climate change policy analysis project is cooking as well. I hired a fantastic research assistant (a law/environmental policy student) who is helping me gather the myriad documents and understand the legal/institutional context of marine conservation here. People in the NGOs have been incredibly generous with their time and with information. Soon I'll approach government agencies for interviews, which is going to be a whole new can of worms...
Tom and I have narrowed our potential sites for fieldwork, I think. I'm going to meet him up north the end of next week to check out two of the sites. One on the NW coast is an existing MPA where WWF is working on climate change integration. The other is on the NE coast, a new MPA co-managed by Conservation International. Projected climate impacts are quite different in the two sites. I don't know enough about the sites and management regimes yet to know if they offer interesting contrasts.
Then there are all the extraneous things going on that an economist can sink her teeth into. Commenting on World Bank policy notes, discussing environmental impacts of ginormous mining projects, debating export policies, tracking down facts about illegal concessions being sold by a corrupt government...
We've also been having a lot of fun. Amend that. I (Kirsten) have been having a lot of fun. While Tom taught octopus, I went to scope the marine parks on Masoala Peninsula (and hike for 4 days). Masoala is the largest remaining standing forest in Mada (its protection is run by the 3rd big NGO here, Wildlife Conservation Society). Unbelievably fun. I'll blog soon about that trek. While Tom herded cats the weekend before last, I went mountain biking through the rice patties about 3 hours outside of Tana. I suffered a bloody knee (I didn't realize we were supposed to bike on the tiny dike, I guess, and literally went INTO the rice patty). I have some great photos I will upload (of the landscape, not the bloody knee). Then this past weekend (Easter), I joined a group of folks to go back to Andasibe to worship the lemurs. We got up close and personal with indris and Goodman mouse lemurs (OMG! Like, SOOOOO CUTE!).
The inter-tubes have been clogged recently, so this is probably all they can handle. I'll post again soon!
The octopus saga continues, dear friends. Last month -- it seems so long ago! -- we had 2 biologists from Blue Ventures living in our house for 3 1/2 weeks. Tom taught them statistics. A surprising realization for both of us was that biology training in the UK does not include stats. But Sophie and Haj worked their tails off, learned basic stats and a hardcore computer coding language called R, and are now well equipped to run some analyses on the enormous datasets that Blue Ventures continues to collect. Tom volunteered for a month to teach us. (Really in the end, my octopus problem became his octopus problem. Fetsy aho! (= sly I!)) We now have biological results about the successes and failures of the reserves. WOOHOO! Let the economics begin (a year late)!
But in case you think that is all we were doing last month, not so! Tom was preparing for a "Rapid Assessment Program" of biodiversity and ecological health in the northeast. While he is paid for the work by Conservation International, he worked days and days off-contract to gather materials, herd cats (a.k.a. the other marine scientists), confirm the methodologies, etc. He sat on our patio cutting and assembling quadrants...try explaining THAT in 'gasy. A wonderful coincidence of the RAP is our first friend visited Mada -- Sea flew in the night before the expedition. I got to spend more time with him than planned because Air France kindly left all his luggage in Paris (including enormous amounts of gear for the expedition that he schlepped). Lovely for me!
(News flash: Tom is well. He's in Vohemar, the infamous shipping port town from which all rosewood is being illegally exported. In fact, a friend of mine told me that this morning 'gasy radio reported suspicion of the RAP boat -- CI team are illegal exporters of rosewood! They clarified that the boat was full of SCUBA divers, and they had no idea what they were up to. So much for the communications push CI did -- Tom was on TV before they left.)
I have been working (for Blue Ventures) on a funding proposal for a UK call regarding ecosystem services. It was a nightmare -- the proposal was 2 pages, but the call included 36 pages of instructions. And then their online systems kept adding up our budgets incorrectly. Finally we gave up and left the sum 2000 pounds off, only to receive an email weeks later acknowledging the mistake and asking for spreadsheets. (The best part was that ALL the applicants were copied on the email, so now I know who else has applied -- Gretchen, Peter Kareiva, and a bunch of other usual suspects! Tough competition.)
Back to octopus, I've been developing the economic models to value the marginal benefit of the marine protected area. It bends my brain a bit. Lots of fun, though, now that I have data to work with. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't break my connection to my model (just one more adjustment! one more run!) and I don't sleep until the wee hours of the morning. I'm hoping to have a rough draft to vet with some folks here by the end of this weekend.
My climate change policy analysis project is cooking as well. I hired a fantastic research assistant (a law/environmental policy student) who is helping me gather the myriad documents and understand the legal/institutional context of marine conservation here. People in the NGOs have been incredibly generous with their time and with information. Soon I'll approach government agencies for interviews, which is going to be a whole new can of worms...
Tom and I have narrowed our potential sites for fieldwork, I think. I'm going to meet him up north the end of next week to check out two of the sites. One on the NW coast is an existing MPA where WWF is working on climate change integration. The other is on the NE coast, a new MPA co-managed by Conservation International. Projected climate impacts are quite different in the two sites. I don't know enough about the sites and management regimes yet to know if they offer interesting contrasts.
Then there are all the extraneous things going on that an economist can sink her teeth into. Commenting on World Bank policy notes, discussing environmental impacts of ginormous mining projects, debating export policies, tracking down facts about illegal concessions being sold by a corrupt government...
We've also been having a lot of fun. Amend that. I (Kirsten) have been having a lot of fun. While Tom taught octopus, I went to scope the marine parks on Masoala Peninsula (and hike for 4 days). Masoala is the largest remaining standing forest in Mada (its protection is run by the 3rd big NGO here, Wildlife Conservation Society). Unbelievably fun. I'll blog soon about that trek. While Tom herded cats the weekend before last, I went mountain biking through the rice patties about 3 hours outside of Tana. I suffered a bloody knee (I didn't realize we were supposed to bike on the tiny dike, I guess, and literally went INTO the rice patty). I have some great photos I will upload (of the landscape, not the bloody knee). Then this past weekend (Easter), I joined a group of folks to go back to Andasibe to worship the lemurs. We got up close and personal with indris and Goodman mouse lemurs (OMG! Like, SOOOOO CUTE!).
The inter-tubes have been clogged recently, so this is probably all they can handle. I'll post again soon!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
"Le responsable..."
The silence in our posting, dear friends, has been due to "les responsables." All of my energy has been dedicating to discovering who "les responsables" might be, other than a concept. I talked to many a "le responsable" who passed me on to another "le responsable" until we quite literally held the "non responsable" hostage in our house. Then, miraculously, the internet was turned on. Yes, dear friends, one month to the day after delivering 2 hand-drawn maps in duplicate, copies of our passports and residence certificates, and signing a 10-page contract in French that probably promised our first born to the imperial powers, we have internet at home. I think I should leave this story here - I had thought about writing an entire, long post about the joys of dealing with a combined Telma (the landline monopoly) and Moov (the cable internet monopoly), but I already feel my blood pressure rising and it is early in the morning, so I think I might just move on...
In the meantime, though, we have been making great progress organizing and analyzing 6 years of octopus data. The biologists from Andavadoaka have been living with us and we have been pushing them pretty hard to get something done (ah, ha, there is a hostage theme here I now realize!). We have all been learning an amazing amount from Tom - he is a great teacher of databases and the statistical/analytical software "R". There just might be a couple of great papers at the end of this tunnel. It will take another 6 months to see them as the lead author is going back to her beach life in Andavadoaka on Monday...sigh...
Tom is busy preparing for his big expedition - leaving in 3 weeks to go live aboard a 28 meter sailboat. That deserves its own post. Besides, I am green with envy. However, last night a friend of mine invited me to join an expedition to Masoala Peninsula. I leave TOMORROW! I'm dropping my research for a week to go to the park. As Tom said, "this is why we are here" -- I still feel a little odd, but I will put my research assistants onto tasks that don't require my presence. And I'll think of this as a scouting trip - after all, I am considering Masoala as one of my possible field sites so it is totally justified. So radio silence from me until I'm back in a week...
- Kirsten
In the meantime, though, we have been making great progress organizing and analyzing 6 years of octopus data. The biologists from Andavadoaka have been living with us and we have been pushing them pretty hard to get something done (ah, ha, there is a hostage theme here I now realize!). We have all been learning an amazing amount from Tom - he is a great teacher of databases and the statistical/analytical software "R". There just might be a couple of great papers at the end of this tunnel. It will take another 6 months to see them as the lead author is going back to her beach life in Andavadoaka on Monday...sigh...
Tom is busy preparing for his big expedition - leaving in 3 weeks to go live aboard a 28 meter sailboat. That deserves its own post. Besides, I am green with envy. However, last night a friend of mine invited me to join an expedition to Masoala Peninsula. I leave TOMORROW! I'm dropping my research for a week to go to the park. As Tom said, "this is why we are here" -- I still feel a little odd, but I will put my research assistants onto tasks that don't require my presence. And I'll think of this as a scouting trip - after all, I am considering Masoala as one of my possible field sites so it is totally justified. So radio silence from me until I'm back in a week...
- Kirsten
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Andasibe National Park and Mitsinjo Reserve
About 3 ½ hours outside of Tana by road, or 4 by train, is a delightful national park called Andasibe-Mantadia. Our 2-day adventure began on a whim. Early for a meeting with Sidonie, our language teacher, we wandered into the newly refurbished train station at one end of Avenue de l’Independence. Our impression from the posted guards, chic bistro, and upscale shops was that the gare is for the exclusive enjoyment of those with money. Had we not had 20 minutes to kill, we probably would have avoided the place out of principle for our entire time here. Thankfully, we wandered in because we discovered the train. (Note: K thinks there is a lesson here somewhere.)
Madagascar’s passenger train service has been defunct for a while according to all the reliable sources – indeed our Bradt guide book definitively states “no trains run at the time of writing”. But Madarail has opened a very limited service to passengers with money to spend on comfortable travel. The train we took, dubbed the Micheline, runs on tires specially adapted to railroad tracks. A very soothing – if not odd – ride. While we continue to try to find the balance of authentic Malagasy life versus catering to our limited capacity for severe discomfort, we opted for the high life this weekend. The other option, the taxi brousse (bush taxi), can take a day to make the trip we made in four hours because unfortunately you have to wait for: (i) the taxi brousse to fill up; (ii) random stops along the way to pick up who knows who or what from where; (iii) break downs; and/or (iv) the risk of not finding a ride for the final 25 km of the journey from the brousse station in Moramonga (the end point of the line originating in Tana). Even if we had the time, being crammed into a 15-passenger van with 30 other people for hours, careening down curvy, rain-slicked roads somehow lost out to the luxury train, despite being 5% of the ticket price. “There is plenty of time for bush taxis,” we told ourselves. We’ll see. (K: I REALLY liked the train!!!!)
The blast-from-another-past train experience brought us to the center of Andasibe, a small village in the eastern lowlands (900 m altitude or so). We visited the smaller of two national parks (Andasibe - 800 hectares) as well as a reserve managed by a local NGO (Mitsinjo - 700 ha), leaving the 10,000 hectares of Mantadia for a trip when we have more than just a weekend. The parks are covered by rainforest criss-crossed by rough paths. Jumping off the train, we walked the 3 km to the park entrance, bought our tickets, and arranged for the mandatory local guide. We checked into a hotel with thatched-roof bungalows, grabbed some vary sy tsaramaso (rice n beans, baby!), and trekked for the next day-and-a-half.
We leave it to the photos and videos to help give you an impression of the wondrous natural richness we saw, smelled, heard, and felt (including jumping leeches and vicious mosquitoes!). (See the link to our Picasa on the right for more!) In short, we were some lucky trekkers: 6 of 10 local lemur species, 4 of 6 local chameleon species, an amazingly difficult to see leaf-tailed gecko, endemic boa, endemic birds, loads of endemic flora/mushrooms (sorry botanist and mycologist friends, K groups those all together) and an endemic spider family with reaaaaaaaally long bodies. Wicked cool. And to think, if you come visit, you too could see all of this! (Note that I can't get the videos to load, so they will be forthcoming hopefully!)
Love, Kirsten and Tom
PS Kirsten apologizes for the misspelled scientific names, miscategorizations, lack of reverence to flora and mushrooms, and any other thing at which biologists/ecologists might take offense.
Click on this to go to Picasa:
)
Leaf-tailed gecko during the night walk
Parson's Chameleon
Common brown lemur
Kirsten the Colonial
Madagascar’s passenger train service has been defunct for a while according to all the reliable sources – indeed our Bradt guide book definitively states “no trains run at the time of writing”. But Madarail has opened a very limited service to passengers with money to spend on comfortable travel. The train we took, dubbed the Micheline, runs on tires specially adapted to railroad tracks. A very soothing – if not odd – ride. While we continue to try to find the balance of authentic Malagasy life versus catering to our limited capacity for severe discomfort, we opted for the high life this weekend. The other option, the taxi brousse (bush taxi), can take a day to make the trip we made in four hours because unfortunately you have to wait for: (i) the taxi brousse to fill up; (ii) random stops along the way to pick up who knows who or what from where; (iii) break downs; and/or (iv) the risk of not finding a ride for the final 25 km of the journey from the brousse station in Moramonga (the end point of the line originating in Tana). Even if we had the time, being crammed into a 15-passenger van with 30 other people for hours, careening down curvy, rain-slicked roads somehow lost out to the luxury train, despite being 5% of the ticket price. “There is plenty of time for bush taxis,” we told ourselves. We’ll see. (K: I REALLY liked the train!!!!)
The blast-from-another-past train experience brought us to the center of Andasibe, a small village in the eastern lowlands (900 m altitude or so). We visited the smaller of two national parks (Andasibe - 800 hectares) as well as a reserve managed by a local NGO (Mitsinjo - 700 ha), leaving the 10,000 hectares of Mantadia for a trip when we have more than just a weekend. The parks are covered by rainforest criss-crossed by rough paths. Jumping off the train, we walked the 3 km to the park entrance, bought our tickets, and arranged for the mandatory local guide. We checked into a hotel with thatched-roof bungalows, grabbed some vary sy tsaramaso (rice n beans, baby!), and trekked for the next day-and-a-half.
We leave it to the photos and videos to help give you an impression of the wondrous natural richness we saw, smelled, heard, and felt (including jumping leeches and vicious mosquitoes!). (See the link to our Picasa on the right for more!) In short, we were some lucky trekkers: 6 of 10 local lemur species, 4 of 6 local chameleon species, an amazingly difficult to see leaf-tailed gecko, endemic boa, endemic birds, loads of endemic flora/mushrooms (sorry botanist and mycologist friends, K groups those all together) and an endemic spider family with reaaaaaaaally long bodies. Wicked cool. And to think, if you come visit, you too could see all of this! (Note that I can't get the videos to load, so they will be forthcoming hopefully!)
Love, Kirsten and Tom
PS Kirsten apologizes for the misspelled scientific names, miscategorizations, lack of reverence to flora and mushrooms, and any other thing at which biologists/ecologists might take offense.
Click on this to go to Picasa:
 |
| Madagascar! |
Leaf-tailed gecko during the night walk
Parson's Chameleon
Common brown lemur
Kirsten the Colonial
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