Meeting Lemurs in Madagascar

March 30, Nosy Be, Madagascar

Today we are at an island in the Northwest, off the main island of Madagascar.  We took a tour on a small boat out to another island, Nosy Komby.  This is an island where they have no electricity or cars.  The 2000 people who live there must go to the main island of Nosy Be to get supplies and for work.  The reason we came to this island is to see the famous lemurs. 

 

Madagascar broke away from the continent of Africa, around Mozambique,  65 million years ago.  It is an isolated ecosystem so it has many animals that are unique to this country. 

local girls

We walked through the village seeing lots of examples of traditional living in Madagascar and they had lots of souvenirs for sale.  The females seemed to all  have their faces painted in quite interesting fashions.  They permitted photos, especially if you asked. 

local lady





holding a male lemur

We climbed up into the forests  behind the village where our guide, Faed, showed us Lemurs.  4 or so climbed up into the tree, but 2 of them remained on low limbs.  There was a reddish brown one that was a female.  The male, was black and is the one we got up close to for photos.  There was a local there who gave you bananas to hold in your hand.  The lemur, climbed out of the tree and took it from your hand.  “C”, dad and I did this.  Mom passed after the previous experience with the monkeys.  The lemur was very soft and actually used its front paws to pull my hand toward its body to get the food.  It licked a piece off my hand and it reminded me a cat licking.  Research in “C”s books shows that lemurs are believed to remote relatives of our earliest human ancestors.  They are primates with many features like humans. 

male chameleon

We also were fortunate enough to see male and female chameleons.  They male is green and large, while the female was smaller and pink.  We also saw a boa constrictor  that dad put around his neck and “C” and I touched it. It was less leathery than I expected.  They told us there are no poisonous snakes in Madagascar- of course a boa could kill you if it wanted to.  They also had giant tortoises they brought from the Seychelles and turtles unique to Madagascar. 



 

 



    

local lady separating rice from husk





 

 

 

 

 

local hut with fishing nets drying

We were then lead back through the village to do some shopping and then have some light snacks.  I tried the local papaya, pineapple and coconut.  Their coconut is actually orange inside and was dried in the sun where it sugar crystallized. It was very good.  I also tried a local donut.  It was good but a bit sweet. 





local ferry wtg to dock



ducks from the ferry

When we returned to the port where our tender was docking, we had to wait for the local boat traffic jam to subside.  In addition to all the tour boats, the tenders and 2 ferries where all trying to offload at the same time.  The ferries unloaded a caravan as well basket cages of ducks.  I even saw a woman carrying a bundle of ducks that were being carried like you would carry a stringer of fish.  They were alive and quacking up a storm. 



traditional sailboat

The other highlight of the bay sailing was seeing all the local boat transports.  They were amazing examples of sails made from cloths and wooden boats.  I hope they preserve this part of their culture.  This has mostly  been eliminated in much of Asia. 

All in all Madagascar was a wonderful surprise.  The people we saw looked healthy and well fed. The village was very clean and did not seem at all like I would have anticipated in a developing country. 

sunset over Madagascar



Oky birthday party

In the evening, we had a birthday celebration for our head waiter, Oky.  He was so surprised.  When he saw the Asst Maitre D’, Endrian, carrying a cake, he looked like he was worried he forgot someone’s birthday.  Then when we started singing, he still didn’t get it, until Endrian pull out the chair and tell him to sit down.  Then he was so happy and embarrassed all at once.  We gave him a remote control car like one “C” had found in Hong Kong- we found it on the last day at the market.