Bring On the Baobab Trees!

Up bright and early after another glorious sleep by the ocean.  My bags packed for returning to Toliara, and I gave my keys to the staff so they could schlep my bags to the boat for me.  When I got my medication, I learned that they had frozen the Ozempic.  The guy thought he was doing me such a favor when he told me he kept it extra cold.  I told him I hope it will be okay.  I hated breaking his heart, but he needed to know that freezing is not better than refrigerating when it comes to medications!  I tried to be gentle, though.  He was only trying to help, and he was generally a really helpful and friendly guy.  Plus, there is nothing that can be done about it now.  I secure messaged my doctor to see how to proceed next, ate my breakfast, and caught the ferry back to Toliara.  Same process, and this time we still got the tractor instead of the zebu carts!

Joushia was there to pick us up and take us to Reniala Ecoreserve, a 60 hectare (about 150 acre) park in the baobab forest of Southwestern Madagascar.  No need to see an avenue of these trees when you can visit a whole forest!  There are eight species of baobab trees, with six of them being endemic to Madagascar.  Our local guide walked us through the park and explained the various things we saw.  We learned that the baobab tree isn't a tree at all, but is, instead, a succulent.  It has no wood, but is filled with fibers that transport water throughout the plant.  

Day Gecko

A very prickly, semi-cactus tree called an octopus tree

The Madagascar three-eyed lizard, so named because of the third eye on top of its head.  This is truly an eye, though it only processes changes in light, helping it notice when predators pass overhead.

Baobab fruit.  While in Anakao, we had baobab juice with breakfast one morning.  It was very good!

One of the baobab trees in the forest

Madagascar collared lizard

Another large baobab tree

This baobab tree shows how they do grow back after being cut down.  You can see where this tree was cut at the stump and then grew back.

This one shows how someone (long before the park was formed) cut footholds into the trunk of the tree, a common way of climbing them to reach the fruits.

Another baobab tree - twinsies!

A trio of baobabs 

A very wide baobab tree.  There is a theory that the width of the tree is determined by the wetness of the earliest years of the tree's life.

This baobab was cut down and had two growths from the stump!

Another baobab tree

The oldest baobab in the forest.  I don't remember, but I think he said it was somewhere around 1200 years old.

Many of the trees were given names based on their shapes.  This one was named the Rhinoceros Baobab.

There is a "fake baobab" seen here, also called the farafatsy.  They can be differntiated because a true baobab has a flat trunk, that just goes straight into the ground and turns into a long, deep tap root that holds the tree stable even in strong cyclones.  The farafatsy is an actual tree, but it is mostly hollow.  The wood that surrounds the trunk is incredibly light, similar to balsa wood, so this tree is commonly used for making canoes by the Malagasy.  The trunk, however, does not go straight into the ground, instead having root systems that branch out, giving it a "chicken feet" appearance.

This tree is commonly called the "vazaha tree" or "tourist tree" because it peels like a tourist with a sunburn!  They named a tree after me!  How thoughtful!

Coua

After learning about the baobab trees, we headed to a restaurant on the beach and hung out there for the rest of the afternoon until time to go to the airport and return to the capital city, Antananarivo.  We arrived late at night and just went straight to our hotel, the same one we started at.

The following morning, we got up and met a new guide for the day.  We went shopping for some souvenirs Susan wanted then headed to a pharmacy to see about getting me a new Ozempic pen.  After a lot of pictures and failures in communication, someone who appeared to be the head pharmacist came out and took my phone with the pictures of what I was looking for to the back with her.  She came back and let me know that Ozempic had not yet been approved for distribution in Madagascar, so I was not going to be able to replace it until I left the country.  I'll be in Zimbabwe when the next dose is due, so I posted on some expat groups in Zimbabwe to see if anybody knew if I could get it there.

We still had some time before needing to take Susan to the airport, so we decided to stroll through a street market that had set up for their weekly event.  They sold everything here from baby chicks to chickens ready to kill and prepare for dinner, to kittens for pets, to grains and vegetables, to meats, to second-hand clothes!

With so many varieties of rice and beans, you could go at least a year without having the same combination making a different one every day!  I guess that's a good thing since the Malagasy eat rice three times every day!

We came across several patisseries, and I got a creme horn that was soooo rich and delicious!  Almost like a huge canoli, but with a flakier crust!  So delicious, but I couldn't eat it all at once!

Heading to the airport, we passed by this section of farmland just outside of the city.  Each plot of land, separated by the irrigation canals dug from the river, is a different field and they are either owned or rented individually.

After dropping Susan at the airport, we headed back toward the hotel.  There was a hearing going on in the city center because the current President apparently holds dual citizenship with France, which is apparently against the Madagascar Constitution.  Therefore, certain roads have been closed.  The driver dropped us off about a block away from the hotel and the guide walked me the rest of the way there.  He also warned me to stay in the hotel grounds because there could be protests after the hearing is complete.  I was tired, and I couldn't go to the city center anyway, so I decided to heed his advice, and finished up some laundry instead of going to the park across the street.

When the next new guide/driver (all in one this time) picked me up to go to the airport in the morning, there were police and gendarmes everywhere, armed with batons and other non-lethal weapons.  I didn't see any lethal weapons, but I'm sure there were some.  There were some busses unloading protesters.  Apparently, the President was not removed from office, and many people were very angry.  It kind of felt like a good time to be leaving Madagascar.  The only violence I heard of, though, was in Toliara.  There were conflicting accounts about whether it was overzealous policing into peaceful protests or whether the protestors were violent.  There were, however, no reports of rioting or looting, only injured protestors.  Granted, my Madagascar news sources are few.  But, after arguing with Ethiopian Airlines about whether my medical equipment counts against my carry-on allowance (again), I was on my way to the next destination in this journey!  

For those who may be interested in doing this, I would probably change my itinerary now that I know more about the country.  I would probably fly from Tana north to Masoala National Park (on the northeast coast) for a couple of days and skipped Manakara.  The round-trip flight would have added cost, but I feel like I would have enjoyed Masoala more than Manakara.  Don't get me wrong!  I enjoyed Manakara immensely!  But, Masoala has both lemurs and beach!  Then, I would have stayed in Toliara instead of going to Anakao, as the reef extends all the way up the bay, and they say it's better snorkeling closer to Toliara than Anakao.