The Adventure Continues

So I have been here in Tana, the big city, for the past week and a half. I am going to break this post up into two different parts... Part one features life in tana with the group and our feild trip to Andasebe. Part deux (two) features my independent study project (ISP) fiasco and the past weekend in my new homestay. There are some chronlogical non linearities so bear with me, here it is...

Part one:
We stayed in the middle of the city in a hotel called the Raphia, or hotel rif raphia as we came to call it. The water only works on the first floor, even though there are bathrooms on all the floors. Also the stairs are designed for someone who is 4 feet tall so of course they put the three tall guys on the fourth floor. Other than that, and the smell, it was not too bad. There was a deck on the roof with a nice view of the city. The staff were also really nice. Enough of my hotel review. We had some classes at a classroom not far from our hotel. We met the culture and socitey group for a malagasy dance and music experience (for lack of a better describing word). They have had a very different experience, being here and in the north. It was fun to talk to them though, there are no guys in their group so they told me, eric and James that we were the first american's our age that they had talked to, or even seen in 2 months. Luckey them. We got to show off our new malagasy dance moves, it was a good time. Other than that, not a whole lot went down before our trip to the rain forest in Andasebe.

Last sunday we got on the bus and drove 3 hours north to the forest reserve at Andasebe. On the way we stopped at this "wildlife refuge". We saw a lot of cool chamelions, gecko, frogs, toads, moths and malagasy preying Mantasus (or is it preying Manti?). Anyway it was cool to see some animals that only exist here in madagascar, there was a 1.5 foot gecko and a 1.5 inch chamelion. The preying mantus looked exactly like the aliens from the movie starship troopers. The giant red toads and 8 inch moth/buterflies were cool too. It seemed like a cool place until everyone, including the program director, learned that the "refuge" was actually buying all of the animals from poachers inside the national parks and bio reserves. We all felt pretty skammed. I didnt judge him at the time but our one eyed guide definitely fits my steriotype / mental immage of a poacher.

Anyway we continued on to Andasebe where we stayed in cabins and ate at a restaurant so it was much more cushey than our other jungle adventures. We went on a night hike to see chamelions, and nocturanal lemurs. We saw a microsebus or mouse lemur and a bunch of chamelions. We also played phoo sticks and had a speed walking competition on the way back to dinner. The next morning we went on a day hike of the park. I got some amazing pics of a bamboo lemur going to town on a bamboo stalk. We got really close to some Indri Indri Sifaka lemurs, some of the biggest lemurs. They had these adoreable twins who were practicing their jumping skills. On the way home we stopped in the town of Mora Manga for lunch. It is only of worth because Mora Manga means easy mango, which I think is a pretty sweet town name.

Somewhere in here I somehow managed to write a 10 page paper on how geologic history drives resource use and development in Madagscar. In hindsight I dont see where that fit in but somehow it happened. I even had time to do 2 drafts. Weird hunh?

The last few days in Tana (post ISP fiasco, see part deux) were also a lot of fun. I got to do some research in the internet cafe and Skype some friends (you know who you are). Supprisingly the group came together and bonded a lot the days right before we left. As people started leaving for ISP the group got smaller and thus more cohesive. We had some fun nights, going out to a nice french place and a nice Italian place. The french place was a steal, I got a goat cheese on toast and letuice salad, duck breast with mashed potatos and plum sauce, dark chocolate cake, and two glasses of nice wine for $ 16. Holloween was also fun, I met up with the Culture and Socitey group and had a fun, and very long night of dancing and getting to know them.