Madagascar: Islands

Our lodgement.

The last places we went in Madagascar were Nosy Sakatia and Nosy Be, both of which are islands off the northern coast Madagascar. We flew in a propeller plane, it was my first time flying in a such a small plane. When we landed we were really close to the water. We got picked up by a taxi and  drove to shore. It was late so we got a special boat ride. On the water it was dark and the sky was beautiful; if we looked at the water there was bioluminescence everywhere caused by jellyfish. The next day we rented snorkeling gear and a kayak.  We saw lots of pretty fish and sea turtles, it was really cool. On the second we took a  pirogue to another beach where there were lots of little jellyfish that you could pick up and throw. While we were swimming I got cut by oysters and it hurt a lot. Finally, on the last day we swam with the turtles. They were not scared at all. I even grabbed one turtle's shell and rode on it a little. Back in Nosy Be we visited the Hellville Market. It was chaotic, very chaotic. We bought vanilla and ylang ylang oil that is used to make perfume. Later we walked down to the Hellville Bay, it was full of trash. Then we went back to Tana (the capital) before flying back to Johannesburg.

Three kids in a pirogue.

Hellvill Bay.

Madagascar: Nature reserves

Madagascar Boa

On our second week in Madagascar we got picked up in the morning by a guide named Aina. He drove us to a nature reserve where we got to feed lemurs, chameleons, and some Tenrecs which are small mammals that look like hedgehogs. We got to hold chameleons, snakes, the tenrecs, and geckos. There were also flying foxes and a crocodile.

Leaf Tailed Gecko

On our second day we went on a walk and saw two rainforest scops owls, and the biggest, loudest lemur: the indri. That day my mom got sick and we went back early. Later that day we went on a night walk. We saw tons of nocturnal animals: three different species of lemur including the mouse maki, pygmy leaf chameleons, and some spiders. Unfortunately, we did not spot any boas or foosas. On the third day we went to the primary forest. It had never been cut down and there were lots of huge, old trees. We saw a wood snake, Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, Mantadia Frogs, and got leeches on us. After that we went on another walk to a swimming hole and were "attacked" by more leeches. On that walk we saw one lemur and many frogs. When we got back to the hotel lemurs came into our yard and we fed them wild guavas. The lemurs even got into the room while my mom was sleeping and ate a banana.

Common Brown Lemur

Indris

Madagascar: Father Pedro and Fiekena Village

We stayed in a village called Fiekena. There were lots of animals like cows, chickens, turtles, dogs, geese, and a cat. We took our shower with buckets And we also flushed the toilet with buckets. the food was about the same as in the cafeteria. Our hosts were named Lalao and Céline. The cooking was done over a real fire. The milk was freshly extracted from the cow. We never knew if we were going to have electricity or not. At night to get the baby chicks in they would put the mother Chicken under a basket and all the chicks would come to her. There was a puppy named Mickey and Hugo loved to play with it, he even taught it to high five him.

Turtles.

Chickens

Father Pedro is the one in the middle with the beard

Lalao took us to see Father Pedro. Father Pedro is a christian who went on a mission to Madagascar and built lots of houses, schools and a university. Since we were foreigners and part of an organization to help Madagascar he called us out in the crowd and introduced us. The service was really cool because there was music and dancing. We also saw 184 kids get baptized.