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 :)