17 May – Down from the Mountain(s)

I never have the right lens.... (see below)

Since we were leaving today, I got up especially early to catch birds in the hotel gardens before we headed out.   There were a lot of the same ones I’d seen over the last couple of days, but it was nice seeing them again in the especially good light.  However, there was a great new one, the Madagascar Blue Vanga.  It reminded me so Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with its little body, light blue uppers, white body and yellow eye.  Whistle while you work!  Not only is this bird endemic to Madagascar, but the whole family of some 16 birds is only found here.

Walked up the side of the mountain using steps and a path the hotel had cut to a little pavilion surrounded by fruiting bananas and saw birds all along the way.  When I headed down, Solofo was ready, so we went in for a last breakfast on the SECAM Hotel terrace.  I was surprised to see Bertine at the hotel as the park is a half mile away, and Solofo said that he’d walked to the hotel to meet a couple but that the woman had gotten sick and they weren’t going to be able to do the tour.  Knowing how much they need the money here, I felt sorry for Bertine that he wouldn’t have a client that morning….and that he’d walked all the way down here for nothing.  Such must be the life of a guide.

Breakfast was very fine.  The hotel comped mine out of sheer niceness, and it was a good, hearty, omelet-based one.  I like the staff here a lot – though I spoke mostly French with them, they were very eager to try to speak English with me.  There’s not a lot of English in Madagascar, and my jaw hurts nightly from the all-day effort at French.

As we were driving out of the preserve, Solofo spotted a large, clumsy bird in a tree top, so we pulled over to check it out.  It was a big, beautiful Blue Coua, a long bird about the size of a pheasant.  They don’t fly well but tend to glide down from tree tops and climb back up the new tree, looking for fruit.  Dunno what kind of berries this one had been eating, but after it glided across the road and reassembled its dignity settling into the new tree, it fell off the branch before catching itself several branches below.  Still, it was pretty.

The drive from Ranomafana to Fianarantsoa was again through highland agriculture, with rice paddies much in evidence and the roads packed with pedestrians, some pushing carts filled with charcoal and others walking off to work in the fields or go to school.  The road is always full.

We stopped in Fianarantsoa to drop off a package with Solofo’s cousin, who is the head of Star Brewery in the region.  Star makes and distributes an excellent light ale, Three Horses, and is also the Coca-Cola bottler and distributer here in Madagascar.  We had a good visit in his cool home (temperature is definitely rising as we descend the mountains and head south) talking about the local politics and international markets.  I guess I sorta knew that the country is under a trade embargo because the current president was put in by a coup.  Apparently, no Western country recognizes the current government, and that is one of the reasons the country is hurting.  The cousin said that there were riots and disturbances before this guy came into power, so I guess I know where his sympathies lie in this political question.

We left Fianarantsoa in a couple of hours and headed to Ambalavao, which will be our base for a couple of nights.  The going was slow because we came across herd after herd of cattle.  Ambalavao is the center of a big region, and there’s a big cattle market here tomorrow.  It would be fun to get to go to that.  There was a big change in landscape, too, as the mountains turned into massive granite outcroppings like Stone Mountain on steroids.

The town is somewhat small but as crowded – mostly with young people – as have been all the rest.  We went to the Bougainville Hotel, about the only play in town, had lunch, and rested a little.

Afterwards, we made an appointment to meet a guy about a trip to Andringitra tomorrow and then headed to the Anja Reserve. This is an interesting area of steep granite mountains with a small village at the foot.  There are also Ring-Tail Lemurs, and the villagers have created a co-op here to preserve the area and their culture by leading visitors on tours.  It’s only about 15 miles from Ambalavao, so it seemed like a good way to spend the afternoon.

We drove out in the beautiful, open landscape and got a guide for an hour walk.  The guide took us through fields and caves, explaining that the lemurs shelter in the caves at night.  There are apparently four distinct troops of them.  We then went though some green, bushy undergrowth before coming on some French grad students following a troop of Ring-Tails, and we settled in with them.  The lemurs are cute, animated, curious and alert creatures who didn’t mind us being there, though they didn’t really interact with us.  They eventually wandered off with the researchers, and we continued up onto some of the rock faces, at one point having to hold on to a rope to pull ourselves up a rock face.  I had lenses, cameras, books, and binocs dangling off me like a Christmas tree, and I vowed to travel lighter tomorrow when I was planning to be a similar habitat.

On a high rock face, a big troop of lemurs came out to sit around a while and watch the sunset.  They then headed to their cave for the might, walking right by us.  These guys live on rock faces rather than in trees, so they tend to jump among the rocks like other lemurs do among the trees.  It was just great fun spending time with them, and all the while, I got the Anja story from our guide.  Apparently, the village uses the reserve money to run their local school, and they pay their municipal taxes with it.  They’ve always had a local taboo against killing the lemurs (the area is sacred and has the tombs in it), so the lemurs are cool about humans. It was a fine and memorable experience.

The day concluded with my meeting the guy about the Andringitra outing and coming to the conclusion I won’t be able to do it tomorrow.  The road is in such bad shape that you need a 4x4 to get out there, and that rental is expensive for a day.  With all the other fees added in, it’s probably better to give it a pass on this trip. 

Always ready with a backup plan, I’m thinking of checking out the cattle sale tomorrow morning and then going back to Anja for the longer tour, which would include some tomb visits.

for Carlos....