Welcome to Madagascar - Meet the Reptiles!

Ah, the first full day in Madagascar.  A long car ride was in store.  Actually every day was a long car ride because Madagascar doesn't have a lot of roads, so there is also a lot of backtracking.  But, I digress.  After breakfast, we met Joushia, the guide that would actually be traveling with us, employed by the tour company.  So, we loaded up and headed over hill and over dale to our first stop, Mandrake Park, where we were introduced to the common local reptiles.  

On the way, we talked about the culture and countryside of Madagascar (actually called Madagasikara in Malagasy).  We learned that approximately 80% of the Malagasy people are farmers and the primary crop is rice, which was evidenced by all the rice paddies we passed.  However, they do not export rice, instead needing to import because they are unable to grow enough to meet the needs of the people on the island.  Apparently, the Malagasy people eat rice with every meal.  Over the years, I have grown to love rice, but that might be a little much even for me!  In the dry season, many of the rice paddies are used for growing beans and other vegetables.  If a field starts having difficulty producing, they harvest the top layers of soil (often with a high clay content) and make bricks from them, similar to the way bricks are made in Uganda.  

While small towns do have their own markets, the big markets tend to travel from town to town on a weekly basis.  They may buy some things from local farmers while making their rounds, but mostly the farmers ship to the larger cities and sell there, and the traveling markets puchase from the holders in the larger cities for the secondary markets.

When we got there and Niko parked the car, it looked like it was going to be a hike, but it turned out to just be a small walk kind of uphill to some enclosures where we met the reptiles to be expected on the island of Madagascar.

The golden mantella (mantella means frog in Malagasy, the most common native language on the island)

Madagascan mantella

Parson's Chameleon (think Pascal from Tangled, except the males have horns on their faces, so Pascal was female!)

elephant-eared chameleon

Another Parson's chameleon.  The horns on his nose show him to be male.

Google images says this is a smooth-helmeted iguana, but I don't think it is.  I don't remember and don't have any notes of any iguanas in this park, and the smooth-helmeted iguana doesn't live in Madagascar.  My best guess is that this is a small oustalet chameleon, maybe a female.

Panther chameleon

Another Parson's chameleon

Parson's chameleon eating a cricket

The park has a pen with one crocodile in it.  I didn't ask what kind it was.

Tomato frog

Madagascar ground boa

Madagascar tree boa

Flat- or leaf-tailed gecko (Google image couldn't find him.  Can you?)

I didn't take this guy's name in my notes, and Google can't find him on the leaf.  Awesome camouflage!

Another type of leaf-tailed gecko

Leaf-tailed gecko on a tree.  I ran it through Google images just to see if it could find it, and believe it or not, it saw this one but not the two above!  I think this guy was much better hidden than the others!

Google images could only give me this guy's scientific name.  According to my notes, it's commonly called a stick snake.  The head is very distinctive as snakes go and looks very much like the end of a stick!

After the reptile park, we headed to the village of Andisibe where we had lunch before resting for the afternooon in our hotel.  For lunch, I had ravitoto sy henakisoa.  This is a local dish made of pork and crushed cassava leaves and spices.  It was quite good!

After a rest and some laundry, we headed out to the Analamazaitra Nantadia National Park, where we would be taking a night hike.  So, with my trusty little flashlight and wearing my bug shirt, having learned a little bit about night photography on my Lumix camera while resting (Thank you Google and T-Mobile!), I hoped I could stay upright in the dark.  Joushia assured me it was a relatively smooth hike, so I was very hopeful.  He was mostly right.  We weren't going over any big brush areas, and he and the guide helped me whenever they felt I might be a little off balance.  It was the start of a helpful and needy relationship!  The night walk was wonderful!  Our goal was the mouse lemur.  Think Mort in the movie, Madagascar.

 We found the leaf-tailed gecko

Parson's chameleon

This beautiful moth that I don't think we got the name

We also saw the dog-headed spider and multiple insects, most of which I didn't get a clear picture.  But, we didn't spot our target animal while walking through the forest.  So, our guide had us stay by the sign while he searched along the road.  He finally found one and called us over.  Our guide and the other guides around made so much noise, I'm sure the little guy was scared to death.  He kept trying to run away, but flashlights kept finding him.  Mort is certainly a fast little fella, and this was the best I could do for a picture before we convinced our guide to just leave him alone and let him settle down.

On the way back to the car, we saw some other insects, like this stick insect.

When we went to dinner, I was still pretty full from lunch, so I just had a fruit plate.  Pineapples and bananas rather artfully arranged.  But it satisfied me.  I tried to order a diet cola, but when I asked for anything other than water that was "sans sucre" (without sugar), they looked at me like I had three heads!  We looked at some other little shops close by, but apparently, sugar is king here!  Oh well, I think I can survive two weeks without a soda pop!  They'll have them on the plane when I leave!

Uganda to Ethiopia to Madagascar

We made our flight from Entebbe on time, which is good in part because I had already gotten a nasty text from the girl in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, who I had contracted to do a cooking class for us during our layover.  Apparently, she thought we were going to be getting there this morning and that we stood her up.  I'm kinda confused why she thought I told her we were getting in late at night, asking if she could do the class and coffee ceremony that late at night.  But, oh well.  One thing I have learned is that putting "am" and "pm" doesn't really mean anything to many non-English or Latin-based language speakers.  I'll know better next time.  There was also question about whether the transit visa the airline would purchase for us included the ability to go into town, so I had made sure we could be picked up from the hotel instead of the airport.  But, once I responded and let her know we would be there tonight, she was better and said her husband would be there to pick us up when we arrived.  It turns out that our visa only allowed transit between the airport and the hotel.  But, the hotel didn't care and helped me communicate with the provider about where to find us.  The Ethiopian Airlines Skyline Hotel has multiple towers, but it is a nice hotel for an overnight layover, especially since the airline arranges the transit visa and the hotel room.

For those who are curious, yes, I'm aware going to a foreign country and being picked up by a stranger to be taken to a private home can be dangerous.  But, life can be dangerous.  Some things you can do to make these types of activities safer is to book them through the national resellers, like Viator/Trip Advisor.  Those resellers don't vet the tour providers or do background checks, but reviews will clue you about whether the providers are legitimate or shady.  While I didn't book through the national reseller, that is where I found them.  And they had good reviews.  Also, when I'm travelling, my family has a detailed itinerary and knows when I'm doing something a little less safe and they can track my movements if I don't check in when expected.

However, a cooking class and coffee ceremony late at night turned out not to be a great idea, especially when the provider didn't understand it was late at night instead of the morning.  The woman who was supposed to be giving the class wasn't able to do it, as she had to be up early in the morning.  So, she had a friend provide the class, and this friend didn't speak English.  The provider's husband was there and he spoke English, but he wasn't really all that familiar with all the things the lady cooking was doing.  We know some of the spices she used on the dishes that were cooking on the stove, but mostly we got oil, onions, chili powder, cumin, salt, and whatever else you want to put in it (like chickpea sauce, lentils, potatoes, chicken, or whatever).

We did get to try our hand at Injera, Ethiopian tortillas.  I kind of expected to learn how to make the batter, too, but it was already mixed up.  He was very vague about what was in it, so I'm assuming it was a box mix or something similar.  It looks pretty simple.  Just pour the batter in a spiral without leaving holes...

After it cooks for a while, lift an edge, slide the large trivet under it, and pick it up.  Easy right?

On mine, you can see where I had to pour extra batter to fill in the holes I left.  Also, you can see where it broke when I tried to slide the trivet under it.  She had to take it up for me!

When dinner was cooked, it was amazing!  And they gave us some spices, which were not mentioned during the class, so I hope I can figure out what to do with them.  I've already used berbere spice in my lentil stew, but I'm not sure what to do with the one that I apparently lost the sticker for (so I don't even know what it is), or the mitmita.  Suggestions are welcome.  Ethipian food is delicious, though!

The coffee was also delicious, but the ceremony was lacking.  I would assume the whole ceremony would be done if we had our class at an earlier hour.  The layout was beautiful.

We started with raw, green coffee beans over a charcoal fire.

They were roasted until very, very dark.  The house was uncomfortably smoky by then, even with the front and back doors open.

Then steeped in an urn of water

until ready to be poured into cups.  It was very, very good!

After our coffee, the provider got us back to our hotel sometime a little after midnight or so.  This left very little time to sleep, and my bag with my night stuff was checked through.  So, I just swiped the toiletries, slept in the buff, and got up the next morning putting my same clothes on.  The offered toiletries were only soap, shampoo, and conditioner and didn't include toothpaste or toothbrush, so my breath just had to stink.  

The breakfast buffet was interesting.  I think it was leftovers from the night before and bread.  The french fries were so hard I couldn't bite through some of them!  But, the bus got us back to the airport and we made our flight to Madagascar.

When we got to Antananarivo, Madagascar, the capital city, we were met by our tour guide.  Since we had some time, we decided to visit the Queen's Palace before going to our hotel.  It is a lovely place and grounds, but pictures are not allowed inside.  I recommend seeing the Queen's Palace early in your trip to Madagascar, as it gives you a background of the historically significant happenings that impacted the culture.  It also helps describe some of the more important things in each part of the country.  

Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, but only if you consider Australia to be a continent and not an island.  In size, it ranks behind Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo.  There is evidence that Madagascar wasn't visited or inhabited by humans until much later than most other places, with some evidence suggesting that human settlement didn't begin on the island until just 1,300 years ago.  This is one major reason there is so much diversity in the island's indemic animal and plant life.  Also, because the first inhabitants were from Indonesia and Malasia, the Malagasy people don't consider themselves true Africans, but identify more with the Indo-Pacific peoples.  The delayed arrival of humans also explains why even the oral history doesn't show the first monarch to have arrived until the 1300s, supposedly sent down by God, himself, and quite possibly the model for King Julien.  The Queen's Palace covers the history of the known and verified history of the Merina monarchy, from the uniting of all the tribes of Madagascar until the French Protectorate was forced in 1896.  I'm still not sure why the French needed to protect the island from any country other than the French.  The only other significant wars I can find at the time was between Britain and Zanzibar.

Here are some pictures of the exterior and surroundings for you to enjoy.

These canons were purchased from the British at a cost of 50 slaves each

These white buildings cover the remains of the queens

This historical teachings go from the earliest settlers from Malaysia and Indonesia to the immigration of people from the African continent and trade and hostile engagements.  It includes the attempts to repel the French and the issues with the French Protectorate status that dissolved the monarchy.  It's definitely an interesting tour.  

After touring the castle, we stopped at an ATM so I could get local cash (Ariary) and then went to the hotel for the evening, where I was finally able to shower and brush my teeth!

Luwombo, Matooke, and a Shoebill Stork

We were back in Entebbe, in the hotel I first started in.  And we got to really sleep in.  We didn't expect Kalema until about 10:00 or so, and we were staying another night here, so we didn't even have to pack up!  After a relaxing breakfast on the balcony, we headed out to Kampala for a cooking class.  Kalema and Rukia (one of the school teachers) was going to teach us how to make fish luwombo and matooke, national dishes of Uganda.  And they taught us the traditional way!

We first cut our banana and plantain leaves.  Then Susan and Rukia walked up the hill to the market while Kalema and I peeled the green bananas and steamed and prepped the leaves.  Once they got back with vegetables, groundnut paste, and smoked perch, we got started prepping the meal.

First, we mixed the groundnut paste with water.  Then we chopped the vegetables.  Tomatoes, carrots, and onions.  I tried dicing the onions, and I was told I was doing it wrong.  Bruce, do you think I might need some extra kevlar gloves?

After getting the groundnut paste, water, and vegetables to a nice, soupy consistency, we added salt and curry powder.  Then, we cleaned, skinned, and boned the smoked Nile perch.  Basically, just broke it up so we had just the meat.  Then came the fun part - making the bundles!  Soup in banana leaves.  How hard could it be?  Rukia made it look easy!

I, however, failed miserably, and Rukia had to fix my bundle for me.  Then, we made another, bigger bundle for the bananas.  The bundles were all put in pans of water which were set over fires so they could steam.  Some of the luwombo was just put in a pot and cooked like a normal soup.  I think that's probably how I will make it when I get home.  I don't think I have the patience to make the banana leaf bundles!  I'll need to think hard to try to decide what substitution to use for making the matooke bundle.  That stuff's also delicious, and I really need to have both of these on my rotation for regular food!

After everything cooked, we took the bundle of bananas out of the pan and kneeded it - or rather Rukia did, periodically dipping her hands in lukewarm water to cool them from the heat.  That's some hot stuff, and it has to be kneeded while it's hot.  I think I'll need to get some smaller silicone gloves for that.  The ones I have are massive and are used just for grabbing dishes out of the oven.  Everything was worth it as we opened all of the bundles and ate the fruits of our labors!  It was sooo delicious.  My list of things - learn to make or find groundnut paste and find banana leaves or find a substitute for them so I can make matooke in my big steamer that so far only makes crab/lobster boil and tamales!  We got flatware, but the traditional way of eating this is to pick up a piece of matooke and run it through the Luwombo, eating with your fingers!  Mm-mm great! - Better than Campbell's soup!

Between cutting our own banana leaves to cooking over small charcoal fires and considering it was teaching (and we students had no idea what we were doing), this took all afternoon, but it was sooo delicious!

The next morning, we packed everything up and got ready for our last activity before heading to the airport.  I still hadn't seen the shoebilled stork, so Kalema put together one last activity to try to make that happen.  It was raining, but we headed out to the Mabamba Swamp anyway!  We took a motorized canoe from the shore of Lake Victoria to the swamp.  Then we changed from that boat to a smaller one.  We saw lots of birds.

Weaver

Purple Heron

Reed Cormorant

African Jacana

Yellow-billed Duck

Squacco Heron

We went up and down through the different channels, some so thin and across some areas where they had to push the boat with the paddels.  As we were getting worried about the time because we had a plane to catch, we finally found a shoebill stork!  It was extremely shy.  Every time we would get close enough to barely see it, it would take flight and go somewhere else.  As I have said before, a bad picture is better than no picture!  You can barely see it in the standing picture, and the flight picture isn't the clearest in the world, but you can definitely tell it's a shoebill stork!

And we got back and to the airport with plenty of time to catch our flight!

Zebras and Local Culture

Today was an easy day.  We slept in for an 8:00 am departure time.  We stopped to see some birds along the way, then drove through part of the Lake Mburo park.  We only skirted the edge of the park because we made some modifications to our schedule and wanted to get back to town.  We even got out after a little while and walked through a field where we saw lots of zebra grazing with some farmer's cows!  The farmers aren't allowed to mess with the zebra in their fields!  Pretty wild.  We also saw some other animals.  There are eland in this park, but they're apparently very shy and hard to find.

Wooly-necked stork

more pied kingfisher

Wahlberg's eagle

On the way out of Lake Mburo, we started having a little car trouble.  After stopping at a garage for a few minutes to try to fix it, the cure still wasn't in and Gody determined that it wasn't safe to continue.  Kalema handled it like the professional she is.  Without missing a beat, she arranged another driver.  We transferred only the things we needed for the rest of that day to the new car and driver, and were on our way with hardly a hiccup!

With our new driver, we made it to Kayabwe, the town where they celebrate being on the equator, kind of like Mitad del Mundo in Ecuador, but a whole town instead of a park in town.  We stopped at a local restaurant and ordered, then went to the "tourist" spot and took pictures.  I now have photos of myself with one foot in the Northern and one foot in the Southern Hemispheres in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres!  Kind of neat if you think about it!

The tourism people frown on exposing tourists to local foods before the trekking is complete because of the possibility of traveler's diarrhea.  Our treks are all complete, so I ordered the equivalent of the sampler plate with groundnut sauce.  OMG!  It was all soooo good!  Rice, matooke (mashed steamed bananas), sweet potato, irish potato, ugali (steamed maize cake), and cassava (yucca).  There was also an avocado.  And you can't forget the groundnut sauce in the bowl!  Yes, lots of starch, but...

We then made our way to the school.  The Lungala Education Center serves children from ages 3-12 (ish), running classes that are basically kindergarten and elementary school equivalents.  

They have seven teachers (with two current openings) and 128 students, some of whom walk up to 10 km (5-ish miles) each way.  Kalema and Nicholas founded the school on some property donated by the community and with the help of some donated labor, but donations only go so far.  Kalema also supports the school with proceeds from her tourism business.  They do a wonderful job.  You can see that the children get a very good, basic education, even though there is a shortage of books and student consumables.  

They have a mostly-functional well for water, a rudimentary kitchen, and primitive toilets.  

They try to grow food, and they feed the children meals (which is sometimes the only healthy meal the children have).  

They have one piece of playground equipment that is loved by all the children. 

They have many needs, including that they would like to have another building so they can take more children as well as more teaching and student use materials.  This school is in Mpigi, a small village outside Kampala.  It is the only school in the community, a community that has fallen through the cracks and is not well served (or even served at all) by the public education system.  If anyone would be interested in donating to help support this school, please let me know.

By the time we finished touring the school and playing with the children, Gody was back to take us to our hotel.