Getting around Madagascar is all part of the fun

I couldn't figure out where to start with the blog - do I write individual blogs about all the different species we saw or do I write a day by day journal of our adventures? Or just blog about the parks? The people? The environmental problems? Where to begin!? I've decided to go with the journal style, mostly because it is going to take me forever to get through all our photographs and this way I can blog about our trip as I work, in consecutive order, through our photos.

Here are some fun numbers: 4 hour flight from Vancouver to Toronto, overnight in Toronto, 8 hour flight to Paris, short layover with enough time to get a chocolate croissant, 10+ hour flight from Paris to Antananarivo ("Tana" for short), and a 1 hour cab ride to our budget hotel in the capital. Total hours in a plane with legs that are far too long for the seats? 22. We needed this vacation after all those flights!

Antananarivo ("Tana")

We are not really the type of travelers that plan our trips. What is the fun in that? We had only booked a hotel room in Tana for the night we arrived because we were arriving very late at night and needed to be able to just go straight to a room and sleep. The only other thing we knew was that our first destination was the town of Morondava and then a national park north of the town. November is the start of the rainy season and the road to the park closes once the rain begins - so Morondava had to be our first stop if we were going to make it to the national park. We had tried to book a domestic flight to Morondava from Tana back in the States, but Air Madagascar couldn't process our attempts (this is a common problem we have encountered with small airlines in other parts of the world so we were not surprised). Thus, our first day in Tana was spent wandering around the city trying to get to Morondava. The flight was fully booked, so we had to get there by car. This shouldn't be that big of a deal right? The distance between the two towns is a mere 400 miles. Well, this is Madagascar and the roads, to be blunt, suck. It ended up taking us two days to get to Morondava and that was fast! How did we get there? Well, the roads are so bad here that you can't rent cars on your own. But you can hire a car and a driver to take you places. The only other option is the public taxi-brousse (bush taxi), which is a mini-van overloaded with people, livestock, foam mattresses, bags, rice, veggies, and who knows what else. We wanted the experience of traveling by taxi-brousse, but sadly did not feel like we had the time. With a car and driver it was 14 hours of travel time but with a taxi-brousse it would have been over 24 hours. Since we only had three weeks and we wanted to visit three places, we had to pay more money to get from A to B faster so we could see that wildlife we came here for!

Here is the route we traveled to get from Tana, to Morondava, to Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. In the end, it took us almost four days of travel to get to the Tsingy, but oh boy was it worth that adventure.

The Malagasy people love their rice. Madagascar ranks #10 in the world in terms of average rice consumption per person (Brunei, a tiny country in Borneo, is number one), beating out China and Japan! We passed many interesting, gorgeous, and occasionally depressing views of the country from the road. I was fascinated with how the local housing changed as we moved from highlands, to central desert, to the coast (mud/brick huts, to wood huts, to grass huts). This photo was taken in the highlands of mud/brick homes and rice fields.

After leaving Tana, we aimed to drive for several hours to the city of Antsirabe. Our drivers (a father and son pair that spoke a tiny, tiny, bit of English) managed to get us to the city in time to check out the fascinating Sabotsy Market (the potato section is pictured here). Markets are the pulse of any country and we love to visit them to get a read on the food, clothing, and goods that people like to purchase. Plus, they are so colorful and alive - they are great fun to visit.

Our room in Antsirabe was awesome for $20 a night. In general, we stayed at budget places around this price - Africa is much more expensive than Asia! The $20 room was never a guarantee that the place was going to be good though, so we encountered the entire range of the good, the bad, and the ugly in our budget range. Looking back, this $20 room was a steal compared to some of the other spots we stayed. And I have a thing for round rooms....like yurts or the African rondavel.

The Red Island used to have a lot of forests; scientists estimate that about 90% of the original forests are gone (not that the USA does much better, only 10% of our old-growth forests remain). In a country where over 60% of the population is under the age of 24, the people and the land are suffering from growing pains. Erosion, deforestation, sedimentation problems in rivers, sewage issues, and lack of access to clean water were all problems that even a short time visitor could easily see.

 But agriculture can be beautiful...

 Joseph, our driver, and Jay stop to stretch and check out the view.

Many hot and sweaty hours later we arrived in Morondava! Joesph and his son departed and our new driver, Jack, with a 4WD vehicle introduced himself. He spoke much better English than Joseph did and we were excited to have a driver who might be able to tell us a bit more about his country as we moved north along the coast toward the Tsingy. The plan was to depart in the morning for the town of Bekopaka!
I took this photo from our hotel in Morondava, where sailing is still king because most people cannot afford motors. Morondava is actually right on the beach looking out over the Mozambique Channel, but our hotel looked out over this healthy mangrove. The next morning I took a quick look at the mangrove and spotted some cool oysters, crabs, and mudskippers - it is always fun for marine biologists to get just a little muddy.

One species that I was really excited to see was the iconic baobab tree, and the west coast is the place for big tree sightings. There are nine species of baobab trees and six of these species are endemic to Madagascar. The species in these photos is the Grandidier's baobab and I'm guessing this is the most common baobab species in the Morondava region.

Thankfully, about half of the Malagasy people adhere to their traditional beliefs, while the other half have been converted to other religions. We met a Malagasy man who explained to us how many of the people in this region worship trees - including turmeric trees and baobabs. This particular baobab tree is visited by Malagasy people when they need something such as a good crop of rice, to get pregnant, or better health. I think I'll convert to the traditional Malagasy beliefs, as I've always revered trees and I think they are far more powerful spiritually than anything else on (or off!) this planet.

 A day time view of the famous Allée des Baobabs

As we drove north with Jack we passed many areas where the dry, deciduous forest had been cleared for zebu (cattle). Basically, when the farmer burns the land small shoots of plants appear, which is easy food for their economically and culturally important livestock.

If a Malagasy person owns a boat it is most likely this, a wooden pirogue (Americans would refer to this as a dugout canoe). This man is paddling along the Tsiribihina River, which is probably red in color due to erosion, sediment overloading, and ultimately deforestation. We also had to cross this river with Jack, but we took a super high-tech ferry.

 Here is the high-tech ferry.

 Jack loading our 4WD onto the ferry - note the ramp. 

What a treat! A yellow-billed kite flew closely overhead at the ferry crossing. These are not endemic to Madagascar, but it is a new African bird for us and it was big and beautiful! I loved this ferry crossing - we were able to watch villagers doing their laundry, fishing with interesting nets, chatting with one another, playing and swimming in the water.... the ferry time gave us a little glimpse into the everyday lives of these lovely people.

 The passenger ferries are a bit more crowded, but look like a lot of fun too! 

Zebu carts are an important mode of transportation in the more remote areas (although we saw them in Antsirabe and Tana as well).

 A small village on the drive to Bekopaka

While we bumped our way up the dirt road to Bekopaka, I spotted this Madagascar kestrel from the car!

And when we stopped to pee in the bush, Jay spotted another super awesome treat!! A Madagascar night jar. There are similar species in America, but I've never seen one....so it was especially awesome that we saw an endemic night jar.

Ten hours after leaving Morondava, we arrived at the "ferry terminal" to Bekopaka. As we waited for the ferry we were surrounded by a few kids from the local village. They all wanted to stand next to me because I was so tall. Since I don't speak Malagasy, all I could do was laugh at the small line-up of kids waiting to stand next to me to compare height while they shrieked with laughter. Jack confirmed that they, indeed, were seriously entertained by my height.

After spending the night in Bekopaka we finally arrived here, at the Tsingy, on Friday the 15th - after leaving Washington on Saturday the 9th. If it had just been planes, trains, and buses on nice roads it would have been insanely boring. But getting around Madagascar is all part of the fun of traveling in this awesome country. And look at the prize! The Tsingy had been stuck in my head ever since National Geographic ran an article on them in 2008 and I can't wait to tell you all about them in my next blog.

Here is a link to the photos I've posted so far: https://picasaweb.google.com/111221596171793333099/Madagascar2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCLq91drp6pOjyAE
It seems that this link doesn't always work so please post a comment and let me know if it is working or not this time.