Sliky Safaka or “Charlie, he wants to thank you for bringing the equiptment”….. “WHAT!”

Six weeks into our time in Africa, we headed off to Madagascar to see Lemurs and visit the Duke Lemur Center at the SAVA Conservation Center. I apologize ahead of time for how I have no idea what little towns we were in or how to spell them.  Even if I wrote the names down, I could not spell them properly, so there you have it.!

Hiking towards the Park Entrance (Majojejyi)

--> The Bartlett adventures continued last week with a trip to Madagascar.  John and I spent a week in Madagascar and I have looked over his shoulder to see him studiously writing a mature assessment of our trip.  Mine clearly will be less mature, there you go.

We flew out of Moshi with an extra big bag so that I could carry the air mattress that I knew I would need in the park camp, and a number of other useful items that were never removed.  My back pack was loaded down with camera equipment so the big suitcase was the only option.  The trip was uneventful, even in the Nairobi airport where the new terminal has not been completed since the fire.  The biggest downside was that the toilets were packed, but nice and clean.  Our flight to Madagascar was full and I had the wonderful good fortune to be in a middle seat, John on one side and an enormous Malagasy woman on the other.  She had 4 huge bags on the floor and in her lap.  For some reason the flight attendant just looked at her and did not come to my rescue by making her put things in the overhead.  So for the duration of the flight she and I fought for my foot space and I had all manner of food items and purses falling into my lap.  (John kept saying---they will take them away..but no it did not happen). When I got up to go to the toilet I had to hold on to other people to get over the mountain of things on her seat!  As we arrived in Atanariva “Tana” her husband started arguing with the flight attendant that we were supposed to stop somewhere else and was refusing to get off the plane.  The poor flight attendant kept saying, “It is finished! The flight is over!”  Finally we were all able to get off.

Capitol City Atanarivo Airport

We entered the arrival hall and there were no admittance cards available and no one knew where they were.  So we all stood around while the business class folks collected their bags and went on their way.  I could see our bags going around and around and prayed that they would still be there when we eventually got through.  I was very glad when we finally got through and there was the lovely face of Lanto waiting for John Bartlett.   

Freshi Flowers for sale near airport

Jacaranda on the streets

Clothes drying

Great Street shot

one aspect of view of the city

Rice paddies in the middle of the city

We drove through the chaos which is Tana and arrived at our very cute hotel “Sakamanga” where we had lunch and after being mobbed by gifty sales folks took a tour of the city. 

Saka Manga Hotel

Sign for Saka Manga

I have to say that the museums were in a sad need of repair, but they did have some interesting birds, of course snakes and some lemurs.  We had hoped to see the Aye Aye, but it was inside the house.  We did see several ring tail lemurs from a distance and an amazing bird with a bright gold crown.  We also went to the Queen’s Palace where street children are "de facto" guides and  then on to shopping.  All was very interesting though tiring.   

Beautiful bird

Just look for the ring tail and you will see this Lemur

Baby Baobaob Trees

Queens Palace

Street Boy showing John postcards of the palace's better days

When we were offered the opportunity to go to another house to see the furniture of the Queen, we deferred. Sadly small children were sitting on the sides of the road with babies in their laps.  They looked to otired to even beg. The only downside of our hotel was that we had no mosquito net.  I was horrified because I knew that there is a lot of malaria in Madagascar, much more than Moshi.  Not much sleep on day 1.

The flight to Sambava on day 2 was uneventful.  But what was hysterical was the number of chickens in baskets that came accompanied folks on the plane. Fortunately none were in the aisles or overhead compartments. I loved that the airport staff that helped us off the plane and brought our bags were the same ones as those putting people and bags on the plane.  For that reason, it took quite some time for our bags to arrive and John was convinced the people trying to get their bags and chickens from this very small baggage turnstyle would squash us.  But everyone was very pleasant and helpful and soon we were out the gate and into the hands of our hosts Eric, and DGHI faculty member Charlie.  Lanto was still with us as ever, figuring things out continuously.  We were taken through the small town which is also the regional capital of the area. Our new hotel was the Orchid Beach II, again a lovely hotel with no mosquito net! 

Indian Ocean just across street from Hotel

 It was right on the ocean-front and had wonderful breezes from the ocean as well as the loud noise of the Indian Ocean throughout the night.  Clearly Eric and Charlie have favorite hangouts…not surprisingly “Chez Mimi’s” is about the only restaurant in Sambava unless you want to brave the Karaoke Bar.  

John, Charlie and Erik--at Mimi's waiting for food

 We deferred.  Malagasy food seems to be characterized by particular spices.  Like traditional Tanzanian food it is not very spicy, and mostly is in stew type mixtures, though here fish is plentiful and the Malagasy beer “Three Horses Beer” (THB) was actually delicious. 

One of the joys of this trip was getting to know the Duke Lemur Center Project Director, Erik Patel.  He is one of those people who is continuously thinking of 100 things at the same time.  While he is in charge of the research center of the park, he also is working on projects in health, reforestation, teaching English (through two public libraries he has built, a fish farm, and assisting one of the lead guides in setting up his own preserve to reforest an area by growing trees, & teach about growing nutritious yams. He seems to know everyone and everyone him.  And he and Lanto are always on the move. 

As we drove the next day to the Lemur Park in the rain forest Marojejyi, we stopped at a health center and I was able to use a wonderful “squatty potty” right on the side of the hill of the health center.  Yea.  We learned about the local health problems from the doctor at the health center.  Not surprisingly, maternal death during labor was very high, childhood pregnancy, malaria, TB, typhoid and increasingly hypertension and diabetes. We were surprised to see rapid malaria tests, and to hear that there really is a significant amount of malaria here.

At the Health Center with the Doctor (? town)

On to what we thought would be the hike to the camp, but first stops at Erik’s little village where he has established a small library, a charcoal project made from cardboard, and yams.  

Erik's charcoal rings made from cardboard

Library at first site

Inside the library...some very strange books donated but at least there

Then to lunch in a tiny town Ambohimanarina.

The Lunch Bunch--JB, Charlie and Lanto...Erik chatting

And then finally to the park.  We had a 2 kiliometer hike to the park entrance and along that route, we entered another small village where there was a famous Mbege (home brew) maker so we watched a home brew demonstration. 

Don't think we really want to know what is in this hole and how it works

Then finally the hiking began.   

Hike to park entrance

When we arrived at the entrance to the park, there were pineapples all around and chameleon’s and lizards abounding. 

Perfect pineapple

Well finally at the entrance to park

 Charlie and the guide Jackson went off to look at Charlie’s mosquito traps (his big project) and agreed to pick the trap up when he came back down the mountain.  Charlie kept talking about the Helmut Vanger, a blue billed bird found only in Madagascar and only in this area.   

Helmut Vanger

Low and behold, we found not just one but two.  Each were perched in their nests at the top of a palm tree.  One flew away and we saw the babies briefly arching up for food.  Our guides continuously showed us interesting trees and little creatures.   

Amazing chameleon

Masquerading insects

Look closely and see the lizard on the tree.  It is Nocturnal

Only when it was nearly dark did we finally see Bamboo Lemurs.  They were quite far away up in the trees and only slightly interested in our activities. 

Best pic of the Bamboo Lemur I could get

Camp 1 kitchen

Our camp was buzzing with activity.  Porters had dropped our bags and there were 3 other sets of guests.  One researcher had come down from two camps above where she was studying one of the nocturnal lemurs.  She had found several but they were very hard to reach as they take over little nests and crevices and were really hiding.  She had also seen many Silky Safaka’s (the white lemur everyone wants to see.)  Sadly, that was not to be for us as we didn’t have the time to climb up to the next camp.  The warm stew and cold beer were incredibly good.   

Our tent

The temperature dropped quickly as darkness descended and we were quickly putting on sweaters and jackets.  

 

The Shower

Toilet slanting backwards...no worries just fall back!

 The shower and toilet were a sight.  (I would take the squatty potty any day! And, the water buckets for showers were freezing cold.)  No way to do more than wash face and brush teeth (with our water bottles) and pray that you don’t have to pee in the night! Once we were tucked in our silk sheet sacks and sleeping bags we were out cold until morning.

Lovely Morning

Park Signs

Morning was magnificent.  We had a great breakfast, looked all around, saw more Bamboo Lemurs heard the exploits of Eric, Charlie and Marie after we had gone to bed.  We reluctantly packed up and headed down the mountain. 

Charlie, John me Jackson

More neat trees and creatures and off we went.  When we got back to the park, we decided to go to our guide Desereé’s town which was another hour or two away.  Off we went.  

 

Great old tractor...they were all over

This town was much bigger than the previous one and we had lunch with the man who is in charge of the fish-farming project for the district.  He appeared to be a very well known man in town though there was only one other couple eating there.  The town was fun, it was market day, and people were all around.  Erik showed us where the project house is in Andavo, and where the Duke Engage students were staying.   

We drove to Desireé’s preserve and saw the awesome work going on there with Erik’s help.  Another library stood at a corner, logs cut from eucalyptus trees were in his yard.  Proudly he described the donation of our friend Sara to help him buy a section of land that had been deforested and only these eucalyptus trees were left.  

 

You can see deforested area and then the rain forest line

Sara's Eucalyptus wood

Desiree and the wood from the forest Sara bought

But they provide very hard wood for building and we saw the guest toilets and other buildings that Sara’s wood had provided. 

Watering the little seedlings

John with Erik by the trees

We moved on to the tree farm where Erik and Desireé had over 7,000 little seedlings growing.  These would be given and planted to try to help discourage “slash and burn” farming.  Next on to the fish farm. 

The fish pond

Sunset at the Fish Pond

Erik was excited to show us the little fish and explain how much effort had gone into getting the farm started.  We heard about the ducks and how they lay plenty of eggs but they wouldn’t sit on them, so new ducks will have to be bought who will sit on them, or the chickens will have to be encouraged to sit on them!!  And at the same time on the hillside, they were planting yams and other root plants.  The sun was setting—we had a 4-hour drive ahead of us. 

I thought we would surely die on the way home, or at the least kill many children.  Our driver was just a madman on the road.  He flew, passed cars and trucks, honked and flew through the towns. I could hardly believe that we arrived back in town in one piece.  Erik completely undaunted headed with Charlie to the Karaoke bar for dinner.  John and I collapsed.

Karaoke Restaurant

In the morning, we visited an NGO that was training people in Cyclone preparedness, but also did some health work on the side.  They were pulling out at the end of December.  I was quite surprised that there are so few NGO’s in the area, where there are so many problems and needs, but I understand that the country has been without an elected government in many years and has been largely shunned by the west.  

Cyclone Preparedness

 Hopefully the new elections (which seemed very complicated with 34 candidates) will bring a good person to power and help can come in.

Government Office Building in Sambava

We had a wonderful conversation with the health director of Sambava.  He had been to Moshi, even had a little movie of Kilimanjaro. What a small world. Even on the airplane on the ride back to Tana, my seat mate was a Malagassy man who had been to Moshi and also had a little movie of Kilimanjaro. Wow!

Back to “Tana” and heading to our hotel. It is dark outside and suddenly our car stops by the side of the road.  Lanto jumps out and chats with a man and his baby.  Then he hops back in, gets a big suitcase out, hands it to the man, and hops back in.  He says the man thanks Charlie for the equipments he has brought (for this seemingly random man by the side of the road).  Charlie responds, “What are you talking about?”  Lanto and he go back and forth… “The equipment you brought”, “I didn’t bring equipment” “Yes the equipment you brought.” Finally Lanto explained that the materials that Charlie had taken to Erik were being sent back to Tana to give to this man who works on a project in another park. Hysterical.

 More delicious food at the restaurant and this time a fabulous room with a mosquito net!!! We really did sleep like logs. The Red Sox won the World Series, and all seemed pretty well with the world.  Back in Moshi almost before we could catch our breath.

Silky's we never saw