A few more pics

 

view from the top of the mountain

 

classic ring tail pic...

 

siesta

Community-based Ecotourism in Andrambovato

 

On Thursday-Friday, after election day euphoria, I took the train to Andrambovato, a village along the FCE, to check out their ecotourism hiking circuit for one of our success stories.  We did quite a long hike, up to the top of a cliff, and back down through the rainforest.  As far as wildlife goes, there were no lemurs, but it was an awesome circuit!  Money to enter the community managed forest is gradually going to help build a new school in the town. 

Looking up at the cliff we wound up on top of 

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on top of aforementioned cliff – they don’t do swichbacks here…just straight up the mountain!

 

this spider is really neat - the little triangle on his back is supposed to make him look frightening to predators

 

this one was just...huge...

 

also huge

 

big black milipede

 

red and black millipede - like my use of of scientific names...?

 

this chameleon looked just like the leaves he was sitting in

 

well camouflaged frog

 

not as well camouflaged

 

mongoose - normally nocturnal, but awake for some reason

 

outside the borders of the community managed forest, people are still burning...

 

post-tavy

 

rice pounding in the village of andrambovato

Miora

 

 Out of the Success Stories we’ve come up with, there is one talking about community managed ecotourism sites that have gotten started during the last few years.  The specific example one of the field agents took was a very new site that was just inaugurated in July.  Since it’s so new, there aren’t any photos, and most of the story is about how the financing was set up.  I thought that before finalizing this particular story, it might be useful for me to go test it out – sort of a tourist perspective as to whether the project is really a success.  So, it was helpful to work to get photos to add to the SS, and awesome for me to do a hike for free.  It’s a 17km circuit just outside Andringitra National Park, and climbs up through rainforest (which is not a national protected area, but is managed by the surrounding communities as part of a transfert de gestion (management transfer) process that encourages communities to conserve their forest areas), continues past a natural pool, up above the treeline, peaking just above 2000 meters before descending back down.  There’s a campsite after the descent starts, and overall it was a fantastic hike!  I saw lemurs, a chameleon, some cool bugs, cute lizards, and amazing panoramic views.  I was pretty hard though – hiking up steep terrain that goes up and down a lot carrying a 20lb pack is hard work!   My muscles were satisfyingly sore for the next day or two.  Overall, the whole ecotourism circuit is really well set up, and they’re got something very special to share with tourists and thus generate income.  However, it hasn’t been marketed, and nobody knows it’s there.  The directors of it say it’s a question of no tourists – they’re all on their way to Andringitra.  When I asked if they’ve distributed all of the brochures they have at tourism centers or anything though, they said no.  I’ve passed on the information to people here at work, and hopefully they’ll be able to help out a bit with spreading the word.  Really, I liked this circuit better than my visit to Ranomafana, and it was cheaper too!

notice the clouds…beneath me

this guy was really cool, just walking along right by the path. you could see his little 2 pronged feet and his rotating eyes - seemed weird to me he wasn't in a tree though...

these guys are so friggin' cute!

long tail!

ready to jump

not a madagascar hissing cockroack. just a giant cockroach. i tried to let him crawl on my hand, but he was scared.

someone call the po-lice! this rolly polly is on steroids!

just some perspective to show how big he was

sunset from up top

these lizards are all over the place, in varying sizes

pics of the day

details to come, but for now a couple vacation photos:

Sophie and I on our pirogue trip

this baobab is nicknamed after the kind of animal whose back it looks like i'm sitting on..

Farmer Summer (spring/winter?) Camp

Last week Thursday I took off on taxi-brousse to meet the field agents and Sidonie in the village of Ranomafana where there were conducting a 3 day farmer field training.  I got to the taxi-brousse and saw that a few peace corps volunteers I’ve met were in the same one heading to Ranomafana Natl Park for a few days.  Weird, to get places and recognize people.  The farmer field training was sort of like a 3 day summer camp for farmers in the area.  There were different groups led by a field agent, each focusing on different things.  There was a group for apiculture, pisciculture, tanety restoration, communication, and various vegetable planting.

 

construction of a traditional beehive

 I mostly got to walk around and watch what they were doing and take pictures.  None of the farmers spoke French, so I just followed Sidonie around.  Everybody ate meals together, which were cooked by farmers’ wives.  Breakfast was always a kind of rice porriage (I think with some sweetened condensed milk added) and a couple little pieces of meat to chew on, and lunch and dinner were both giant plates of rice (vary) accompanied by giant bowls of meat, broth, and vegetables (laoka).  

I was never really able to eat more than half...

Since the rice is all hand sifted/deshelled, you get a rock once in awhile.  I have to say that I’m entirely sick of rice and tough meat, but I was more than happy to have meals with everyone.  There were 8 of us from ERI, and somewhere around 20 Koloharena farmers, so there were big tables set up to accommodate everyone.  

We (the ERI crew) camped in a field.  

Camp

I was staying 2 nights, 3 days, and on the first night, we made ‘punch’ to have around the campfire.

Punch Malagasy

Toka gasy (what’s being poured out of the clear water bottle) is a very very strong rum made from sugar cane.  It was added to a mixture of melted chocolate and sweetened condensed milk.  It was pretty damned strong, so I didn’t have that much of it.

One of the stations at the training was teaching farmers how to make a sugarcane press.  The idea is to extract the pure cane juice to make sucre malgache, rather than making toka gasy out of it…then again, we drank toka gasy at campfire the first night, so I’m not sure what the pressure to avoid toka is.  (I think that by making sugar out of it instead, it means they don’t have to buy industrialized sugar, therefore helping food security?)  While they were making the press, André offered me a piece of sugarcane.  He was able to peel his with his teeth, but I wasn’t so successful…

 

I was too clumsy with me teeth to peel it...

 

 

the newly built sugarcane press

In the morning, Sidonie and I went for a long walk to get the day started, and we all bathed in the river, which wasn’t too cold.  The second day the idea was to let the farmers do mostly their own work, but to be available to them if they had any questions.  We ate a lot of bananas, and had some fresh caught freshwater shrimp whenever we had downtime before or after lunch.  

You can just pop them in your mouth and eat everything, but I peeled off their feelers and shell a bit first...

During one of our meals, Volo commented that I’m very adaptable and not scared of stuff.  He was impressed that I wasn’t scared of bathing in the river or eating shrimp (with shell, head, eyes etc).  My response was that the river was rapidly running, and therefore not dangerous (plus I didn’t go all the way in, more like wading),  and that tasting new foods was fun.  I guess a lot of vazahas that visit are scared that everything under the sun is going to make them sick because they’re in a developing country.  Just have to use a little common sense guys…

During some downtime while sitting in the shade, we saw a parrot drinking from a ravinala.  Ravinalas are called Travelor’s Palms because they store water in the sharp things near the bottom of the fronds.

The same species, this one was domesticated and hung out in front of the house where we ate. I let him play bite my finger, and his jaws are really strong even when he's playing...

After we packed up our tents and were just about ready to go, it was suggested that they should help me with the removal of my ‘puce’.  We were going to stop in the village of Ranomafana for a drink because one of them is leaving ERI next week, and they could help me when we stopped.  (we wound up just heading home.)  I figured that if we were going to get it out, I should get my first aide kit, which was in my backpack on top of the car.  So, I climbed up to get it out so that our driver wouldn’t have to get my whole pack down.  Everyone seemed to think it was absolutely hilarious that the vazaha woman was willing to climb up top like a baggage handler or something, as can be seen in this picture of them all gawking at me and laughing.  Volo got out my camera immediately to document this apparently hilarious occurrence.  

note everyone on the right watching me while laughing

I rode on one of the motorcycles till Ranomafana (only 5 or 6k), and then got in the car for the journey all the way back to Fianar.  (And driving through the preserved area on the way back we saw a couple lemurs – one right in the road who bounded into the trees as we approached)

On the way into Ranomafana

 

another little gecko friend

 

these water lilies seem to be pretty common

All together a very fun trip, as the group really likes to have fun together.  There was a lot of Malagasy that I just had to listen to and smile once in awhile to signal I wasn’t bored out of my mind, but they usually explained it to me here and there as we went along.  

Also, an update on the ‘puce’:

Gabe and I had dinner with Karen on Sunday night and her house guard got it out for me – all the Malagasys know how to do it.  He used a safety pin to cut the skin a little and tease it out.  There were in fact some eggs, which is totally gross.  I don’t know what would happen if you left it alone until they hatched…  

Now there’s a little hole in my foot, which promises to heal quickly.  I asked Karen what it really was, since due to language I couldn’t quite figure it out.  It’s a sand flea, so ‘puce’ actually does translate to the right word.  I probably picked it up somewhere between Tolongoina and Manampatrana last week – you only get them when you’re out in the bushes.

Lots of Photos!

The internet seems to be cooperating this morning, so this post contains a plethora of things I’ve described before, but not been able to actually post pictures of. Might as well post them all together while the internet is slightly faster than glacially slow.

The first group of photos were all taken during my field visit to Ambatovaky during my first real week in Fianar. They are various facilities/sites of the very active Koloharena farming movement there. (KH is a group of farmers committed to environmentally sustainable farming/conservation of biodiversity that’s been around since 1999 or so.)

Maison Koloharenaa – place where Koloharena farmers can hold trainings, have meetings, and store documents to read and share

 

The meeting we had in the Maison Koloharena.

 

Centre d’approvisionnement – Small store selling seeds, farming tools, and other needed products. This is an actual transaction happening.

 

Décortiquerie, rougly translated by me as dehusker/desheller – bought by the Koloharena on microcredit, enables them to sell rice as a value-added product.

 

Les forgerons – working making mostly farming tools, many of which are sold through various centres d’approvisionnement.

 

Farmer Field School, where Koloharena members have space to practice different techniques they learn of at the Maison Koloharena.

 

Also taken in Ambatovaky, I couldn’t help but notice how happy this child was playing with such a simple toy. A good reminder of what a shame it is that American children so often play the lead role in parent/child relationships – does each 6 year old really need 30 presents to open at Christmas containing yet another video game?

 

A traditional Malagasy house foundation/framework.

 

What they look like finished.

 

Viewpoint along the RN7 (Route Nationale 7 – road between Antananarivo and Fianarantsoa – perhaps 40k from Fianar)

 

Malagasy countryside between Fianar and Ambatovaky

 

A famous rock between Fianar and Ambatovaky. I was having a hard time listening/retaining information after the busy day in Ambatovaky, but I think it might have some ancient writings on it – perhaps describing the location of some hidden gold. Problem is, they’re too old for anyone to read. Of course, if people can’t read them, how do they know it would tell of treasure???

 

The very steep path/road leading up into la Ville Haut – the monument in the center contains plaques recognizing all of the people who have donated to the Save the Old City Project.

An attempt to capture the very pretty moon sliver with the first stars of the evening from my porch.

 

Looking up at the Old City from Lake Anosy – Zoë and I went for a long walk yesterday.

Zöe

 

One of the SKIP members helping along with a skit.  The kids are ‘microbes’ and they’re acting out something about water safety, which was one of the themes they learned about during their time with the SKIPs.

 

The very lovely dinner that Mariette invited me to on Sunday. Homemade pizza and salads, followed by her famous brownies à la mode.

 

Mariette et Richard (owners of the Snack (aka café))

 

Malalatina, one of the children that lives at the house. She was imitating something silly that Danny was doing. She likes to talk, but doesn’t speak French, so sometimes she comes up to my room to say hi and we play little kid clapping games.

 

Theresa’s dog, Aza. (like Aza fady, which means excuse me)

And now, a few pictures of crops from my Ranamofana trip. Our hike included a stroll through Tanala (Eastern forest corridor ethnicity/tribe) villages.

Banana tree

Raffia tree

so sad – i’m about to get on a soap box

We all saw the animation of a lost and drowning polar bear in An Inconvenient Truth… unfortunately that problem is not going away – this article in the Times reminded me that Al Gore’s cartoon was not a worst case scenario – it’s already happening. I encourage all who are able to make a donation to one of the organizations that are lobbying to establish more protection for polar bears threatened by climate change, or even to write to your representative. I don’t pretend to think that that fixes everything, or that there is no corruption within organizations accepting donations, or that most politicians really care that much, but lots of people doing little things will add up.
Above all, we should all be riding around on bikes, walking, and using public transportation as much as possible.

A few ideas:

The WWF
Polar Bear SOS – Leo DiCaprio got some flack for ‘wasting paper’ to save bears on this project, but I believe that most conservation organisations send too much mail – something to be worked on
Greenpeace

Ranamofana National Park

This past weekend I had every intention of camping in Ranamofana National Park for 2 nights, since Friday was a holiday. So, I packed up my camping stuff, a little bit of food, and set off to take a taxi-brousse to the park. A French couple was sitting next to me, and once we arrived at the park we began talking about logistics of visiting Malagasy national parks. They charge 25,000 ariary (between 15 and 20 dollars) a day to be in the park at all, camping is dirt cheap, but you must have a guide with you if you venture into the park. Guides are 60,000 ariary a day, or less for shorter hikes. In other words, staying for the whole weekend was not going to be a fiscally responsible thing for me to do. I left my bag at park headquarters, and the French couple (Babe, who is a doctor, and David who does I’m not sure what) invited me to join a 6 hour tour with another French couple they had just met. That saved me a lot of money, and gave me some people to talk to. They were young, though a good few years older than me. On the hike we did see lemurs (pictures posted in the previous entry). We even saw the rare golden bamboo lemur, but my picture of that one was blurry. Also highlighted were a couple of thumb sized chameleons (couldn’t get a good photo), a couple of more common lemurs, a sifaka, and a sportive lemur. The sifaka was alone, and the guide explained that his ‘wife’ of sorts and children were recently eaten by a fossa (puma-like predator, rarely seen). They’re normally social family oriented critters, so it was sad to hear that story. Although we did see cool wildlife, it felt a little Disney – guides found the animals, lots of white people gawked at them.

The trail continued out of the forest to the big cascade (also pictured in previous post), which was a beautiful place to take a break. Continuing on, we wound through a very small Tanala (ethnic group/tribe on the East side of the forrest corridor going from Ranamofana to Andringitra) village, and some farmed land. We got to see banana trees, pineapples, raffia trees, avocado trees, coffee plants, and various other fruit trees, which was actually quite interesting. Here is a particularly nice ravenala we saw on the way back.

The hike ended in the town of Ranamofana, and one of the French couples had rented a car (driver included of course), so they let me ride back to Fianar with them. One of the nice things about having a private car is stopping wherever you want, so we stopped to take a picture of this sign :

Overall, I have to admit that the whole park experience was a little underwhelming. A very nice hike to do in a day, but I was hoping to feel like I was a little more out in the wild. Good fresh air, and my legs were sore the next day, so it was still a good day. And, I did see lemurs… ☺

Ranamofana Natl Park pics!

taxi brousse (bush taxi) – how i got to the national park

gecko on a pole

one of the lemurs

sifaka

sportive lemur – nocturnal, apparantly can sleep with eyes open

cascade