Neuvième Semaine

Leaving Tulear was bittersweet since it was so exciting and we were there for such a short time. But this entire week has been camping in three different beautiful places! First stop was Isalo. Huge gorgeous cliffs and rock faces stand in the middle of open land and hidden between them is an amazing rainforest National Park. We parked the bus and carried all of our things about an hour into the forest to our campsite. There were ringtail lemurs greeting us when we got there! After setting up camp, they took us for a scenic hike through the park that led to two natural pools that looked just like postcards. I actually think one of my postcards was a picture of one of these pools. The water was really cold but it was still fun. I spent most of my time looking at the different colorful layers of rocks in the cliffs and huge hanging roots coming down into the canyons. It was like the places Rainforest Café and the Tropical themed Disney Hotel try to mimic. We were only there for one short night, but it was probably most of our favorite spots.
The next day we went up to Anja, another large standing rock face in open land. These rocks were granite which almost made it feel like we were back in the US, besides the tropical plants and more lemurs jumping around. The night we got there, it poured buckets. There was a little roofed table where we ate dinner but the rain fell right through it and we scarfed our food, huddling over it with our rain jackets and ran to our tents way earlier than we had hoped to go to bed. The tent Anne and I were sharing was not waterproof on the bottom. Water soaked right through and soaked my sleeping bag and the clothes I was wearing so the whole night was spent cold and wet and miserable. In the morning everything dried quickly though. Our stuff was all on the bus and stayed totally dry also. While we left out our wet things in the sun, we spent the morning hiking around the rocks and climbing on/over/under them into some caves and forests. There was a tomb in one of the caves where somebody was buried behind a wall of bricks in between huge rocks and marked with a zebu skull. It was a little creepy but fascinating. When we came around at the end, there was a woman’s house where she had handmade thread and woven cloths and she showed us quickly how it was all done. I really wanted to buy one but hadn’t taken my money with me on this hike.
That day we moved on to Andringitra, stopping in a town to buy some wine and icecream and some warm clothing for the trip. That was a nice treat to prepare us for what we were not prepared for. Although we had been hiking pretty intensively every day, they were getting more and more difficult. Arriving at Andringitra that afternoon, we had to carry everything we needed for two nights (including tents and food, our bulky cold weather clothing, etc.) up the mountain for two and a half hours. When I said back in the beginning that Peak St. Louis was the hardest thing I’ve ever done… that is no longer true. But when we got to the top, it was much colder so it was easy to cool down and I was actually feeling really great. It was really really cold up there though! Everyone was walking around the campsite in multiple layers, sweatshirts with hoods and fuzzy hats, thick socks and boots. It felt just like Fall back at home. The mountaintops around us looked like scenery from a fantasy movie. The next day was the epic hike of the semester, Peak Boby (pronounced “booby” btw) which is the highest accessible peak, (second highest overall) in Madagascar. It looked exactly like we were hiking to Mordor in Lord of the Rings. It took us over three hours and it was very steep and strenuous, but luckily it wasn’t hot so personally, I found it to be easier than the last couple hikes. Once we reached the top, we were essentially in a cloud. You couldn’t really see any scenery because of it… just fog and the other nearest peaks around you. My camera batteries decided to call it quits too so don’t worry about missing out on pictures. We had a quick snack and started our descent immediately. As we are trucking back down, the thunder storm starts rolling in. We were walking down steep, slippery rock in pouring rain… it was very scary. I had one of the most memorable moments of my life and got full use out of my Timberland boots, which now look like they have been used with the purpose for which they were made. After a long, uncomfortable hike back to camp, we ate a nice big lunch and I took a long well deserved nap. That was quite a day for several reasons.
After the second night in Andringitra, we had run out of rice and toilet paper which meant it was time to move on. The hike back down with all of our stuff was almost as difficult as the hike up with such slippery packed down mud on the paths. But we made it down for another 5 hour ride in the Tata bus to Fianaratsoa. We stopped for lunch on the way and part of the meal was rumored to be Zebu tongue? It seemed just like any other meat to me… definitely not the consistency you would think to be tongue so I think someone was lying. Anyway, Fianaratsoa is a city nothing like Fort Dauphin or Tulear or even Tana. It seems more populated and less developed but so far we’ve had good Chinese food and the people are very nice. The internet place is a tiny hole in the wall that you would never find without being directed to it, but it’s basically like sitting in this man’s office while he has three computers running next to each other. It reminds me of something my dad would be running at home if he could. We’re basically just here for a couple days to get back on track with communication and do some work for our research and preparation for ISP which is coming all too soon!! After this short stay in civilization, we’ll be moving on to the humid rainforest in Ranomafana for two nights and then a whole week in the big city to really prepare for ISP right before it starts.