Rural life: Zebu Cattle window shop at one of the many roadside villages.
View from the top of Tana's stadium and the city below.
Aw! This alone made my visit to the Lemur Park worthwhile! Mama and Baby Propithecus coquereli. Week 7:
Well, I believe I left off with my stay in a first-rate hotel. I will continue with a retelling of my time in the capitol of Madagascar, Antananarivo (Tana). Tuesday morning we load up the car and prepare for the ten-hour drive north. Keep in mind my journey down had been in the dark, so the next ten hours of deforested, barren hilltops made me extraordinarily depressed. I think the whole way up I was on the verge of tears.
We finally arrive as night falls and I am dropped off at my hotel, The Shanghai. It's not too shnazzy, but I feel ultra-safe, being next door to the US Embassy and surrounded by guards. I settle into my lonely room ($18/night) and fall asleep. The next day I play with the three other researchers before they head back to the States. We go to a market for souvenirs. I am shop-savvy and barter away my grubby clothes and some random stuff for scarves, carvings, and bags. Marvelous! We then all have dinner with the Vice President of the University of Antananarivo and the President of SUNY Stony Brook. It was a three-course meal that was exquisite!
This year, Tana hosted the Indian Ocean Island Games (mini-olympics), which was huge for the country. They started on Thursday night with fireworks. The cool thing about being in a city in a foreign country is that you meet people. One of the young Malagasy guys at MICET, Leon, introduced me to two Finnish girls and we went to dinner at this great hotel/restaurant. We watched fireworks from the roof and I met some French volunteers on their way home! Crazy cool.
I spent Friday morning at a Lemur Park outside of Tana, taking close-up shots of some fauna before I left the country. Then, I took a lovely walk up the highest hill in the city where the Queen's Palace stands. It was beautiful and I could see the soccer match below in the stadium. I went to my favorite restaurant for my last dinner, where I could get Legume Sautee, with bread and six different dips, all for 2000 AR (a little more than $1). And it was so good.
Saturday morning before I left...wow, I can't believe it's over. I spent the morning indulging in my favorite city pasttimes, chocolate and pastries. I stop by Chocolaterie Robert to pick up individual chocolate boxes for my family. As I am passing through the markets on my way back to the hotel, I can't help but indulge in the cheap tasty pastries that line the streets. I am simply preparing myself for the splendors that await me in Paris! Anywho, I purchase dinner and get driven to the MICET office to wait until my flight out.
Good bye Madagascar. It was a pleasure meeting you and maybe we'll get to see eachother again soon!
Veloma!
Next Week on Survivor: Can she handle the culture shock of Paris? Or will the pasrties do her in?
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