So we just arrived in Tana (Antananarivo), Madagascar's capital city of one million people. It is a very active big city that is very much in the european city model, except dirtier. It is pretty sweet, and quite a culture shock. What I really want to talk about is our road trip to get here.
By the time the roadtrip started I was in perfect health. It turns out that as soon as I thought I was getting sick, I took antibiotics and made a full recovery in 24 hours. I really doged a bullet on that one, go immune system!
We started out driving to Isalo. We were starting to enter the mountains. It kind of reminded me of the american southwest, but with tropical plants and Africans. We swam in some awesome natural pools and had a hike to see the cool weathered limestone.
Then we headed to Anja for two nights. These mountains are a little bit older, a little bit bigger and a little bit less tropical. It was great to see community managment of a park in action. It appeard to be working quite well. We had a long hike through a saddle. At lunch, Eric bet one of our advisers a case of Beer (only a joke, no real beer was exchanged) that he could hike this one peek from our lunch spot in 10 minutes. Being the true Irishmen that he is, Barry took the bet since the peek was pretty far away. After eating eric took off into the shrubary to ascend the mountain. After a couple of minutes I looked at him and was like, "he isnt going to make it, but he looks like he is having fun" so I took of after him. I caught up and we hiked the peek together, through the shrub covered boulder feild. It was awesome and totally worth it. We came back to the lunch spot an hour later, not quite the 20min round trip that we had hoped. We missed a seista but had tons of tun. We also did some academic work looking at how the park is managed and such. It was a nice visit.
After two days there we headed of to Andringitra, but not before stopping in the market to buy warm clothes. We hiked to our campsite at 6,000ft of elivation. It was definitely a rugged mountain environment. We saw more evidence of the values of community managment and got to live in the mountains. At night it got down to the low 30s. Not the weather I was expecting when I was packing to go live in the tropics. I had a warm sleeping bag and managed. Others werent so down with the cold.
On our second day at Andringitra we climbed Mount Boby, thats right, it is called Mount Boby. It was a solid 7 hour hike round trip and the peek was at 10,000 ft. It is the second talles peek in the country and the tallest that is accessable, the other one is surrounded by dense forest, marajuana farms, and men with guns that protect those farms. The hike was great though. I got to hike it alone since the group took rediculous breads all the time. I got to enjoy some really sweet bird songs and sweet views on the way up. Then I got 25 minutes on the peek to enjoy the quiet before the group arrived. It was really great. The peek was unreal but I have to say that I enjoyed the process of hiking and descending more then the actual peek. These mountains are really cool, they are super old and so all of the surfaces are very weathered. Look at this geo nerd spin his wheels.
Our next two days were an excellent contrast. We spent two days in the the Jungle at Ranomafana National Park. We visited hot springs, went on a hike in the forrest, and talked with villagers about the impact of the Park on their lives. On the hike we saw three species of Bamboo lemurs, a fossa, two nocturnal lemurs (one was a mouse lemur, we saw them on another night hike), some chamelions, and leaf tailed geckos. We were super luckey and got to see the greater bamboo lemur. We saw the mom and his two kids who are the only three wild specis of their kind remaining in the world. The other two are in a Zoo. It was really cool. Living in the jungle maked me excited about spending a month in the jungle for my indipendent study project (ISP). On the impact study we learned that the villagers are not recieving their promised 50% of the entrance fees because of government corruption. They still slashing and buring outside of the park instead and not much in being acomplished, except for happy european tourists and money for rich Malagalsy. It was kind of depressing. I wonder if I will find the same thing when I go to Makira for ISP.
That is all for now, I hope all is well with everyone and I will try to post again before I leave for the jungle for a month of no internet.
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6 comments:
souunds RAD! maybe they should call it RADagascar instead
Later
Nick
I thought you brought a hat! Freezing in the tropics was definitely not on your horizon when you packed. The hike to the peak sounds amazing...and yes, you do sound like a geo nerd. Love Mom
Wow! Sounds like quite the adventure. Do you mean there's only 5 of that species of lemur left in the whole world? How cool that you got to see the only wild ones!
-Hannah
Hey Jeff......I have met a person who spent 6 months in Madagascar 30 years ago. Her husband volunteered in a dental clinic. She lived there with her 4 grade school age children. She is eager to read your blog entries. I think she didn't have the adventures you are having. Keep that immune system going..........gomma
jeff that sounds awesome! hope all is well. sounds like it. the LT challenge is approaching and it's weird not having you around for a complete fall LT reunion. oh also, i'm going to new zealand in the spring, pas madagascar. butttt i look forward to reading/hearing more about your malagasy adventures!
best,
danielle
Hi Jeff
What an adventure ! I am amazed at the contrasts you are seeing, between the jungle & mountains, villages & cities… It is also cool that you are able to get a chance to relate so often with the local folks. Did you meet any of the Madagascar people that you want to stay in touch with ? Is there a way to do so ?
The hike up Mt. Boby , with time at the top of the mountain all by yourself sounded the best to me.
Things over here are pretty crazy, here is a bit of an update for you….
I presume you have heard about the financial meltdown we are going thru. I am sure we will get thru it somehow, but it is a game-changer for many aspects of our lifestyle. I am psyched that the presidential election is almost upon us. Obama seems to be leading in most of the polls, so that is encouraging. However, the best part will just be to have this whole thing behind us. There has to be a better way.
As for family news, I have a few bits for you… We are breaking ground on the Riverside project this Monday. We have done the demolition work already, taking off the kitchen, bathroom, shed and downstairs bedroom. The plan is for us to get the foundation done in November and a weather-tight shell built before Christmas. I will be going up this weekend and will send pictures around.
Alex has decided to hang out in NYC for awhile, postponing his journey to Europe. He has completed an ESL certificate (teaching English as a Second Language). He has a place to live in Queens and is hopeful that he will be able to land a job pretty soon. He is doing DJ work in the area and has just landed a gig with a club in LA. They are flying him out for it and everything….
Brian is hard at work in the Architecture program at Wentworth in Boston. He says that it is tons harder than the work he did at Savannah last year, but he really likes it. He has been sponsored by a long-boarding company, that provides him with free boards and takes him to various spots in the East to shoot videos for their web site and stills for various magazines. He was in a longboarding race thru the streets of Manhattan a few weeks ago, with hundreds of other boarders.
Lynne is doing ok, but is distracted lately by her Dad’s health issues. He has been diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s , which is a total bummer as you can imagine. She and her brother are visiting him this weekend in South Carolina.
I have been working hard at my job, but also focusing my freetime on photography. This weekend I hope to update my website with recent pictures, which will give you and idea of what I have been up to. The job is pretty stressful as we are running out of money again and will have to find some investors with cash, not an easy job in this environment.
Well Jeff, now you are up to date on the Wenham Bishops, I hope you have fun on your solo expidition. Stay safe but be sure to keep exploring….
Tom
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