So I have not fallen
off the face of the earth. After we finished up our final projects and tests,
we’ve been traveling a lot again to finish up the semester! Unfortunately I was
hit with the sick one last time before leaving Fort Dauphin which stopped me
from going out with a bang, but everything still went very well in terms of
finishing up academic stuff.
We left Fort Dauphin
by plane into Tana and crashed at our beloved Raphia hotel for a few short
hours before loading onto the Tata bus again at 5am the next day. We spent two
whole days on that Tata traveling up north, stopping in Port Berge and some
other place that I don’t remember on the way to rest. As we made our way up the
island and down the plateau, the weather got a lot hotter and so did the food.
We have eaten very well in the North since the food tastes so much better!! The
growing conditions for things from vegetables to unique spices are much better
up there than anywhere else on the island. Part of these successful crops is Khat, which is a mild drug plant. It's a very mild upper, like less powerful than caffeine, that people chew to help concentration, stay awake, or suppress appetite. So, ofcourse, when we got to the north, we all had to try it. Basically, it was the grossest thing ever. You chew on the leaves which are bitter and dry out your mouth and make you drool at the same time while turning your mouth green! You put in a whole branch full and keep it in there for 3-5 hours!! It was disgusting and needless to say, it did nothing. I actually fell asleep while chewing it which is the complete opposite effect you'd expect. I would have had the same experience chewing on any other random plant. But it did make for some really fun times while we were laughing at eachother's commiseration.
One of the stops we
made on our way up was to the tsingy!! There we saw the fattest gecko ever… don’t know what they’re eating but it’s
working. The tsingy was one of the main sites I had been looking forward to
this entire trip, right after lemurs and giraffe weevils. So it was really
exciting to go and walk across them and learn about them. “Tsingy” comes from
the Malagasy word “mitsingy” which means to walk on tiptoes! They are limestone
that was once under the ocean and over millions of years weathered down to a
spiky gray field of rock. Pretty awesome.
Amber Mountain was our
last major stop before the city. This was a pretty chilly place in a unique
forest where essentially French colonists decided to plant various things from
the other side of the equator “to see how they grew here” so the forest is so
bizarre with strange evolved forms of pine trees and vines and all sorts of
crazy stuff. It actually very much reminded me of the movie Avatar, if all the plants
were glowing and there was a huge tree in which all the people lived. It was
there that we found and held the smallest chameleon species on the mainland of
Madagascar!! The second smallest in the world! They were almost too small to be
real. They moved like little stick figure dinosaurs across your finger. That
was really just amazing to see. I wish I could have slipped one in my pocket
and safely carried it home. We also so the coolest tree gecko which basically
becomes part of the tree and is INCREDIBLY camouflaged. It was pretty amazing.
The city of
Diego-Suarez is very touristy! When we got there, it was Sunday, and apparently
on Sundays the entire city just SHUTS DOWN. It was really creepy to see a huge
city with NO ONE around. I felt like we were going to be attacked by zombies.
The next day we went out very early and took small boats out to this island
beach in the Emerald Sea. The water was the most beautiful teal blue color,
absolutely crystal clear. The sun was out and there were no gray clouds in the
sky. It was hot enough to swim but not too hot to run around. Literally the
perfect day. We spent a little time snorkeling, when I stalked this one parrot
fish for half an hour until I swallowed a bunch of sea water and got sick. But
once we got to shore, I was fine. We were called for lunch where we were served
coconut rum punch, French fries, salad, etc. Then we see the other boat bring
in this GIGANTIC fish from the ocean and within 25 minutes, it was on our
plate. Perfectly spicy… followed by grilled chocolate bananas for dessert.
Easily the best meal in this country. The rest of the day was spent playing in
the gorgeous water and laying in the sun on the soft sand then sailing back to
the mainland in the afternoon. It was a wonderful way to say goodbye to the Indian
Ocean.
In the city we found
way too many places to get good snacks, pastries, and icecream! But we were
only there for a short time. Things were also pretty expensive in most places
since it was a much more “vazah” inhabited area. So we didn’t go too crazy
before leaving. But our time there still felt much too short. We flew back to Tana
and got last minute shopping done. One person lost a bag along the way which
was very stressful. Everyone is preparing to leave or has already left now.
Allie, Maddie, and
myself are on the same flight from Tana to Paris on the day that was supposed to
be my birthday but as it turns out after many hours of investigation that
everything is delayed 24 hours. And so, my 21st birthday will not in
fact be 32 hours long, just a normal 24 hours, spent entirely in Tana. It could
be worse, I suppose. One extra day in this city isn’t too bad. Just another
excuse for me to eat too much icecream and pastries and gain a few more pounds
before coming home. :)
