Ivoloina Parc Zoologique (also known as The Lemur Park)

As is typical of most weekends here, Sundays are a day to gather with friends and go and do something cool. I have wanted to go to the Lemur Park since I was here in January and was happy to find out that several of our friends have not been before, and were interested in checking it out.

After our usual Sunday morning pancakes, complemented by the homemade cinnamon buns that I got out of bed at 5:00 a.m. to make, we loaded up in a couple cars and got on our way. It was about a half hour drive or so to the park, and after turning off the main road, the road deteriorated drastically. I couldn't believe we were able to drive on it in the car we had, and likely would not even consider it if it was raining.

After we all arrived at the park, we headed on our way - first stop, lemurs! There were several cages with lemurs, tortoise and lizard/chameleon things, as well as a snake. We didn't see the chameleons, they were hiding very well.  The lemurs were very cute - they make noises that sound a lot like pigs. There were also lemurs outside of the cages, that roamed free, but had collars with name tags. They started to feed those lemurs who came from all over the place. It was really neat. A friend had been eating cookies at the start of the zoo, and the lemurs were extremely interested in him. He ended up with two lemurs on his shoulder that were trying to find the cookies that they were sure were in his back pack.

Two lemurs cuddling in their house

 

A group of Tortoises (Tortie?)

 

"You has cookies?!"

 

Very interested in the bananas that were just put out for him.

 

 

Uwe and his lemur friend

 

These guys make hilarious sounds

 

"Why you won't give me cookies?!"

 

This guy finally gave up and went to town munching on a branch

 

Look at those eyes! Beautiful!

After I had giggled like a child for the required amount of time at the antics of all the lemurs, we started on the hike. It is a 7km hike on a mountain, and it was ridiculously hot and humid. It was absolutely beautiful. There were a lot of rather steep climbs, but the views were incredible and we happened across salamanders, day geckos and any number of other interesting things. Once we reached the top - well, lets be honest, once everyone else reached the top and had a nice relaxing wait while I huffed and puffed up the very large hills - we took a group photo and decided that we did indeed want to continue on to see the waterfall. Petite Cascade waterfall, is quite tiny, but has a lovely little pond underneath it that was cool and refreshing to wade in. Apparently somewhere along the hike there is Grand Cascade waterfall, but we didn't find that. After resting and enjoying the waterfall we continued on our way, mercifully mostly downhill, back to the zoo. All in all, it took us about 2.5 hours to complete the hike, and everyone was very good about my being so slow. Let this be a lesson to you kids - don't let yourself get overweight and out of shape - especially if you want to climb mountains to see lemurs in Madagascar :)

A view of the lake that we circled

 

Matt crossing one of the  many sketchy "bridges"

 

 

The view from about halfway to the top

 

 

Me crossing the bridge to the waterfall

 

Rhonda and I relaxing in the cool pond under the waterfall

 

Cascade waterfall

 

 

 

Luckily, some of the up bits on the hike had stairs

 

About to cross one of the least scary bridges

 

Pretty purple flower things

 

Sweaty and tired after 3/4 of the hike

 

The group shot at the peak

Being a sucker for gift shops, upon our arrival at the main entrance, I of course begged Matt to purchase a few items, and ended up with a woven lemur that now sits proudly on our shelf in our little living room.

It was a beautiful way to spend a Sunday, followed by the F1 race, then dinner at the Tiki bar with friends. Next weekend promises to be just as fantastic - a bon fire on Saturday night and whale watching on Sunday. I am sure I will write another post about it :)

A Sunday ride to the point

Last Sunday Lisa and I along with our friend Nolan took a trip South down the beach on the bikes and quad. We rode East a few hundred meters from our house and hit the beach, turned South and rode for about ~20 minutes until the beach runs out. The sand drops away where the mighty Ivondro river meets the Indian ocean and you're left with a stunning point where the Ocean smashes against the sand on the left and the relative calm of the Ivondro gently flows into the storm on the right.

There were a few people out plying the waters for fish in their canoes, pulling nets, or simply walking around taking it all in. Below are a few shots I snagged.

Nolan's bike at the point (Ivondro side)

Relative calm - fishing from their pirogues.

More calm and a resting canoe.

What the hell is this vazahy doing?

Out for a stroll on the Indian ocean side - angry surf.

Pulling in an empty net.

Enjoying the sunny Sunday.

A weekend of firsts - Lisagascar

This past weekend was a weekend of firsts for me (and us) in many ways. Saturday saw Matt take his first Saturday off since working in Madagascar. As a residential employee he is supposed to have weekends off, but such is the life of an expat - always so much to do. We slept in until 9:30, which was awesome! A quiet morning with reading, and me interviewing Matt for a school assignment followed until we decided it was time to take the quad and the motorcycle for gas.

For the first time, I drove my quad on the road, where there was traffic. I didn't die, which was positive. After getting gas, Matt told me we were going to off road to get back to camp. This seemed pretty harmless, and then it happened. Cruising along behind Matt, something flew up from the tire and hit me in the leg, then the arm, and then stuck to the side of my quad. A very brief freakout ensued once it was determined that I was, in fact, smudged with people poo. Matt being Matt decided that there was a lesson in this, and I feel that it is likely to relay the information to you. We are now living in a very impoverished country. Most of the population does not have, nor have likely ever seen, a toilet. When you gotta go you gotta go, and it's likely easier to go on a cleared path then climb into the untrimmed and prickly bush. At the time, this did not make me any more understanding about the fact that I now was covered in people poo.

Regardless, we continued on our way, and it only got better when Matt insisted that I was able to drive over ditches with the quad. Some serious pouting and flat out refusal followed this request, until Matt hopped on the quad and drove over the ditch forwards and backwards several times. I did eventually do it, but not calmly or gracefully. I was getting more comfortable and then we came across these bridges, that are basically holes a bit too large to just simply jump over, and sticks placed across them to act as a bridge. Another bout of refusal and then some locals started cheering me on, and I had to do it. I made it across with no issue, and then we finally made it back to a paved road and in to camp to get ready to go to town. I don't think it's possible to have a shower hot enough to feel like you have done adequate scrubbing to remove human fecal matter off your skin, but such is life.

Our driver arrived at two and we were off to town. We went to the grocery store, but then we went shopping to the only "shopping mall" in Tamatave. The highlight of that was watching people use an escalator. It is the only one in the city, and most people have never seen or used one before. I probably could have sat and watched for hours, it makes me happy to see people experience something for the first time, even something as seemingly common as an escalator. I also found it amusing that they only had an up escalator, not a down one (Matt - equally amazing was watching her nearly fall down the downsclator).

The shopping mall was interesting, and I am actually kind of impressed with the kinds of things available. Most notably a sun bleached pair of Minion slippers! No, I didn't buy them, but I was definitely tempted. I did find nail polish remover, which is much more of a feat than it seems. We also stopped at a store called Nova, and I found a sewing machine and a ton of fabric. I wasn't able to bring my sewing machine because of voltage issues, so I look forward to getting one here. Then it was back to the house to get ready for a night on the town with friends.

As it was the first game of the season for my brother Jacob's football team, The Edmonton Wildcats, I represented by wearing my Wildcats jersey out for dinner. I had a rough time missing the game, football being such a huge part of our family. I look forward to the regular season games that will be live streamed so I can attempt to watch if our internet connection will allow it. Matt and I and a couple of friends went to a restaurant called L'Affiche. Nothing spectacular, but the pizza was good and the company better. Then we went to New York New York, which is a new club here in town with a roof top balcony and Shisha, or hookah. It was lovely on the patio until it started to rain, at which point we moved inside. The boys had some double apple and tropical cocktail hookah while I enjoyed some tasty pina coladas. A long day ended and we headed home to get some sleep for an even bigger day on Sunday.

Sunday morning started bright and early with pancakes, and then we headed off about 60km's north to Foule Point. Not only was I excited for a beach day, but I finally got to see more of Madagascar. It is seriously a beautiful country. The 60km took about an hour and 15 minutes to drive, and the road is a little sketchy, but mostly beautiful. I took a lot of pictures, but I can't wait to get out with my actual camera and not my phone and try to capture more of the way of life here.

On the way there, we passed 7 groups of police, and got stopped by two. Our driver handled everything, though he had to give up his cold drink, which made me so very angry. Again, another lesson in the way of life here followed and it turns out that the police and army are paid very little, and most often they are looking for money or food from passing cars. I still didn't think it was right, but they weren't mean, and were smiling the entire time. When we arrived at Foule Point I was a little frazzled from the police and then we were instantly bombarded with locals trying to sell us things. Matt guided me to a chair and sat me towards the middle of the group, as I was obviously shell shocked and not able to function correctly at that point in time. I finally got settled and was able to calm down and enjoy myself. I see now that it is going to take me a while longer than I thought to get used to things here.

It started to rain, but we stuck it out under our umbrellas while drinking pina colada's and beer. I had heard that we could get beach massages for $10.00, and Matt convinced me to give it a go. It was wonderful! Not the best massage I have ever had, but certainly the best $10 beach massage I have ever had. We ordered lunch to our table - lobster - and nothing could have prepared me for what was to come. Between 6 people we ordered 6 kilos of lobster. They went in to the ocean and caught the lobster, killed it and charcoal grilled it. Typically they grill it at your chair, but because of the rain they couldn't do that. They set us a nice little table, and brought out French fries, sticky rice, a vegetable stir fry thing and then a tray of the most beautifully cooked lobster I have ever had. It was so very delicious. Part of our group had negotiated dessert with our meal, which we had to kindly remind them about, and then a small bunch of bananas arrived on our table :)

Although we only had about 20 minutes of sun the entire day, it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday. Matt bought me a ridiculously floppy purple sun hat and two necklaces from "vendors" wandering the beach, and on the way back we stopped at a little stand and bought a hand woven beach bag and a woven laundry basket for taking the laundry out to the line. We made it home just as the rain hit, and spent a quiet evening watching a movie.

Absolutely lovely weekend, and looking forward to many more like it.

Lisattagascar? Misagascar? Mlisagacar. Matsagascar! Or in other words, our first two weeks at "home".

As we sit out here on the porch and I force Lisa to listen to the Sugo Collection Volume 1 (thank you Singapore Shell Gas Station in 1997), I enjoy a cigar and think, "Gee, Lisa hasn't written a blog post yet. I should challenge her to do so about her experiences thus far.". The grievous error was when my brain to mouth filter failed and I immediately followed that thought up by blurting out, "You should write a blog post about our experience so far, and I will write one from my side and we will post it as one.", I am truly a silly, silly man.

So, what to say? It's been a blessedly uneventful two weeks since Lisa has been here. That's not to say there hasn't been fun, changes, and learning - but just that there have been no further $30 root canals, trips to the clinic for pain killers (for either of us) or any other significant speed bumps on the road to making our new home. Quite the opposite thankfully, more a testament to Lisa's spirit of adventure and willingness to put up with me than anything I've done persay.

Speaking of that adventure, let's start off with her getting on the plane in Edmonton. "What do you mean you're not going to pick me up in Tana?", she says with just a hint of I'm-going-to-kill-you. "Well dear, you see - you get off the Air France flight at 11PM and then the Ambatovy meet and greet service picks you up and takes you to the hotel. Then you get on the charter at 6AM, and since you've done it before it doesn't make sense to burn two of my limited vacation days and come meet you - as nice as it would be.", I gently try to explain. Had I not been texting at the time I would've ducked the inevitable flying object. :)

"Well, I suppose that makes sense.", queue large sigh of relief. A few short days later, I met a very tired (but surprisingly peppy) Lisa at the Ops Camp main office as she got off the charter bus from the airstrip. Our new driver Bien Aime (well loved - yea... poor fella), was way too enthusiastic about helping Lisa with her bags until the poor 5'4" 100lb fellow picked up her 72lb bag. Nearly had to get another new driver. Hah.

A few minutes later and we were on our way to the Management Housing Village (henceforth called the MHV) to villa 421 where I'd been living since moving in a week prior. When we arrived Lisa's cheeriness continued as she put on a brave, smiling face about what must seem like a bit of a strange place to live. You see, the villa itself is actually quite nice but compared to the typical lumber and vinyl constructions at home a rectangular concrete box with two rooms, a bathroom, and a large kitchen/living area with tile throughout seems a little odd. But it is home.

Unfortunately, I only had time for a quick tour and then promptly left her alone to go back to work. A few hours later and I was off work and on the way home to find that not only had she unpacked most of her stuff, but she'd yet to pass out from the jet lag. What world traveller!

The next few days were full of "second firsts" as I proceeded to reintroduce her over and over again to people, places, and things that she'd seen in February that I had completely forgotten about. A trip to the grocery store, an adventure over getting her a badge and having camp security ask me to have her removed (to where I still don't know?), and a couple of midday naps in her attempt to recover from the beating her internal clock took on the trip over.

By the time Saturday rolled around she was ready to head off camp to grab some dinner with some of our friends. The idea was that we would all hit a place in town called The Green Lizard that we'd heard from a few expats does decent fast food. Simple, right? Ugh. So it started with Bien not having a clue where we were headed and us sort of pointing him in the vague direction of the place we had to go, no google maps here folks, nor addresses really. You get a neighbourhood, and a block, but then its mostly up to you.

We eventually did find it after Ian made a few calls to another expat while the five of us sat in a dark alley, at night, in Tamatave. I have to say I appreciate that Lisa didn't kill me, the whole time we're setting there getting odd looks from passing Malagasy's I was thinking "oh great, her first night on the town and we're going to spend it getting lost in a rainstorm." Hah! The directions came through and we managed to find the place, only to find that it was closed.

As things here start on a more "French" clock for dinner that meant that the hour and a bit we'd spent being lost put us at 830. Everyone was fed up and hungry so we set off to a local French place called Oceans 501 where we enjoyed a decent meal and incredibly terribly slow service. Still, dinner with your wife on a Saturday night NOT on rotation beats the hell out of dinner without.

Sunday was a slow one, pancakes were made, guests were had over, too much food was eaten, and lots of relaxing was done.

Originally I had intended on teaching Lisa to ride a motorcycle so that we could all go adventuring with the guys in the bush, but recently I went on a ride with some friends who had quads and discovered that they also have benefits (like being able to tow your broken chinese motorcycle), so the hunt for a Quad was on. The work week brought lots of OT for me and lots of trying to find some normal for Lisa. Quite the trooper, she put her head down and got the household sorted, a maid sorted out, a gardener sorted out, and her school situation organized. Very impressive.

By Saturday I had made a deal on a quad with a guy in IT who is leaving soon and on Saturday afternoon Lisa and I took possession of our nearly new Can-Am DS250! How odd that in Madagascar we end up with a Canadian machine! Some mild tweaking of the carb and I had it running like a champ (hah! FU EFI!) and on Saturday we were able to go for a quick test ride to try to get Lisa comfortable with the ins and outs of quading again. A trip to the beach and some hooning around on dunes and she was thoroughly confused as to why she let her idiot husband convince her this was a good idea, but a smile was the result so all is well.

Sunday brought another set of pancakes and a casual trip to the nearby sandpit to practice riding skills. A couple hours of bombing around and a mini-driving school consisting of pylons (sticks) set on the pavement (sand) and running the slalom and Lisa was riding like a champ. She even went so far as to say she enjoyed herself! Woohoo! Sunday evening brought our first BBQ with a guest (Ian) and some excellent chicken was the result - though that is attributed mostly to luck more than my BBQ skills.

That brings us to this work week, where more school, home making, and adapting to a very different new environment has been a challenge that Lisa approaches in her patient, smiling fashion. A lucky man I am indeed.

This weekend will bring a trip to the nearby lemur park and a hike through the foothills on Saturday, not sure about Sunday. I promise (yah, right, like you'll fall for that again) that we'll do our best to blog about it.

Without further adieu - Lisa's perspective!

First of all, we need to come up with a new name, or add (and Lisa) after Mattagascar.

When I told everyone that I was moving to Madagascar to be with Matt, a lot of you said, "so is the blog going to be more up to date then?" Well here we are two weeks in and I haven't done a post yet. I don't even have an excuse that it's been busy, as my days have been blissfully quiet and relaxing.  So, as promised, I am now writing a post. I have decided to start off with a post about where we are living and then go from there. If you want to know something, post it in the blog comments and Matt or I will do a post about it. I think my next one is going to be about the grocery shopping here - aren't you lucky.

So Matt and I are the new residents of Villa 421 in the Management Housing Village.

The village is quite nice - a little chunk of suburbia. When you walk down the street there are nice little duplexes, or houses, with gardens and patios and cars in the driveway.

Down the street from us is the International School, a pool and gym, tennis courts, a little bar and ice cream shop that I have yet to see open, and  a little doctors office. Right now it is very quiet, as everyone is out on their summer visits to home. I have seen kids out riding their bikes, and people out walking dogs, but generally it's very quiet. I'm told it will pick up once everyone starts making their way back in the next couple of weeks.

So, back to Villa 421. The duplexes are really quite nice. I am very impressed actually. The pictures don't really do it justice.

When you walk in the front door you walk into a large open concept kitchen/dining/living room. everything is shiny and new and came furnished.

The kitchen isn't quite "fully stocked", especially compared to my absurd amount of kitchen gadgets and appliances at home, but I've been able to make due for the last two weeks.

The furniture all reclines and is moderately comfortable, and the tv is nice - we actually have movie channels, Discovery, Disney and National Geographic! I was pleased to see that.

We also have a nice guest room, complete with desk and such.

The bathroom is surprisingly large, with a nice sized tub - which is great for me as I love my bubble baths! In the bathroom is also the laundry room, with sliding doors so we can close out the mess. The washing machine sings to you when it's done, quite a nice little ditty.

Our bedroom is also quite large, though the closet space leaves something to be desired. Each of us gets one half of a wardrobe type deal. My first day was spent reorganizing the closet - Matt is such a boy and made a big mess of it. Though when he came home from work and saw what I had done he said "oh no, you've messed up my system." I still can't see what sort of system there was, but I won and the closet stayed. The bed is large but remarkably uncomfortable. I am glad I took the advice of one of Matt's friends and shipped a mattress topper and a bed in a bag set. I look forward to the arrival of that.

The patio is quite nice, and comes complete with the same patio set we have at home, and a BBQ. We have BBQ'd several times and it's quite nice. It's a covered patio so we are able to sit outside when it's raining, which is frequent in the months of July and August I have discovered. We've even entertained out here once or twice and it's been quite lovely.

I look forward to the arrival of our shipment (we were told it would be in Antananarivo on August 9th), so we can make it feel a bit more like home, but I am rapidly feeling like that stuff isn't needed to make it feel like home. Just being here with Matt, and finally being able to spend time together, eating breakfast and dinner together every day, watching movies and spending lazy Sundays doing school work and reading, that's what makes it home. I miss the dogs like mad, and of course family and friends as well, but this was definitely the right decision.

I will post more photos of the house once we get it all set up.

As for how the first two weeks have gone.......adventure will definitely be the right word for all of this :) Like I said before, my days are wonderfully quiet. After seeing Matt off to work I sit and read for a bit, then tidy and get ready for the day. Sometimes I will get our driver and go to the store for some groceries, other times I won't. Most afternoons are spent on the patio doing school work or reading, and then I make supper. Matt and I have been frequenting the gym, which has been lovely as that was something I really wanted to get in the habit of here. Once or twice a week I meet Matt and his friends for lunch at the cafeteria in the Ops camp, which gets me a visit with people and a nice walk.

The weekends are my favorite though. Matt goes in to work on Saturday mornings for a couple of hours and I just putter. This past Saturday our gardener started and thank fully cleaned up a lot of the mess that was left in the gardens. I have big plans for the gardens! I got my quad this weekend as well so we spent a lot of time ripping around and getting me comfortable on it. Its been a really long time since I rode/drove a quad. We also get to spend a lot of time with friends on the weekend, and since I don't really see anyone during the week I love it! Going out for lunch or dinner, seeing parts of Tamatave that I hadn't seen before, and just generally being able to hang out with Matt is fantastic.

Matt keeps asking me if I'm going crazy yet, but it's too soon to tell I figure. Some days it still feels like I'm just on vacation; other days when I think about going to back to work I remember that I am now an unemployed bum that is in fact not going to be back in Canada until December and I'm blown away by how weird that is. It's going to take a lot of adjustment, but I think that's more about where we are than anything else. Buying groceries and coming up with meals is a challenge, and understanding how things work. I am quite lucky in that Matt has been here for two years and knows the ropes, and is really helping me out.

The other day I was coming back from town with the driver, and witnessed someone run over a dog (who seem to all run wild here), and no one stopped. No cars, no pedestrians, nothing. No one moved it or seemed to even care. I of course had a silent breakdown freakout in the back seat of the car, but apparently I need to get used to that sort of thing. This morning on my way in to town I saw two big pigs on a pus pus and thought to myself how cute it was that those pigs were taking a nap in a little taxi thing......those pigs were indeed someone's dinner.

I find most of the way of life here quite fascinating. I am definitely seeing it through different eyes than those that were here in January. Perhaps because then it was just two weeks and I was leaving. Now this is my home, and I want to explore and learn about it.

It is also painfully obvious that I need to learn French. The gardener speaks no English and I only speak enough French to tell him I don't speak French. Luckily I was chatting with a friend that is fluent in French on What's App, told her what I needed to say and she recorded herself saying it in French. I played it for the gardener and he smiled and got to work! Technology is amazing.

I think I am rambling now and have lost the point of this post, so I am going to call it done. As I said above, if you want to know about something, write it in the comments and we will get it done. We plan on doing all sorts of exploring and I am sure there will be many adventures to share.