Madagascar Series: Antananarivo

Antananarivo is the capital city of Madagascar. Because this name is so long, the Malagasi people usually shorten it to Tana when they are talking, which is much easier to say. We spent two nights and one full day in Tana, and got to do many fun things. We visited the local market, which was very similar to Oweno (I have posted on that market before). The main differences from this open-air market to Oweno are the prices. Everything is incredibly cheaper, and often of better quality. The currency of Madagascar is the Ariary, and has almost the equivilant value of the Ugandan Schilling. We also explored the city in search for a good restaurant, and the one that we finally decided on was delicious. It was an owned by a very nice Indian man, and there was excellent Indian food. With regards to cuisine, Madagascar is known for Indian food and seafood. Madagascar was a French colony, so its official language is French. Because the tourism industry from the United States is Madagascar's largest income source, English is also becoming an official language of Madagascar. However, only about 25 percent of the people that we met could speak broken English or better. Therefore, everyone in the family had to use their French to get what they wanted. We all could get by with our French, but after our first word, everyone could tell that we were not French.

This picture shows the restaurant owned by the "hotel" that we stayed at.

Sorry for the major delay. School has been killer! SO MUCH WORK!!!

Madagascar Series

For the Christmas holidays, we decided to take a trip to Madagascar, which was a once in a lifetime experience. We got to see things there that could only be seen in that country, such as lemurs and chameleons.

Because our trip to Madagascar was so eventful in the two weeks that we were there, I have decided to split up the posts on the trip into several sections, which I will post in chronological order. The posts will include our trips to Antanarivo (the capital), Vakona Lodge and the rainforest, Ile Aux Nattes (the beach), and even one on the extensive traveling that we endured to get to these locations.
This trip was definitely one of the best that we've ever taken, and we didn't even see everything there is to see in Madagascar. Things that we didn't see include the spiny forest and the many large mountains.

Madagascar Series: Forest Reserve

After Tana, we made our way up the island, towards the area of Madagascar with rainforests. It was about a 6 hour long drive up to the heart of the rainforest, so we took a stop at a reserve about halfway. This reserve was amazing! It was a bit cruel to the animals that were kept there, but they had the best animals found in Madagascar, and everything could be touched and held. This included numerous species of butterflies, chameleons, insects, geckos, snakes, lizards, alligators, frogs, and lemurs. All of these animals besides the lemurs were caged, but the lemurs were free to roam around the forest. They only stayed because the reserve staff fed them. A guide allows you to see and touch all of the caged animals, and then takes you on a thirty minute hike to reach the lemurs. He calls the lemurs by making a very deep sound that you create in your throat, and holds up bananas. Then, you can hear the lemurs replying, and then there is a lot of rustling in the trees. Then, you can see a group of lemurs hopping from tree to tree, and they move faster than you can imagine. The second that they land on one tree, they've hopped to the next, and the next tree is usually quite a distance away. Once they reach you, you can hold bananas behind your back, and, in order to reach them, the lemurs will hop on your back. They have hands much like humans, except that they are padded and their thumb is abnormally large, so that they can hang on to trees. We had a blast playing with, petting, and feeding the lemurs, and were all very sad to leave when it was time to go. However, this was not going to be the last time that we saw lemurs on our trip... The only two people who did'nt exactly love the idea of lemurs jumping on to you were my mom and Jack. Afterwards, we had a delicious lunch and then continued our journey towards Vakona Lodge in the heart of the rainforest...

All of th pictures from this are in a slideshow on the side of the webpage. It is labeled Madagascar.