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Where is Madagascar?
I was surprised to hear this question a lot when I started talking about my trip.
- Madagascar is in the Indian Ocean approximately 400km off the coast of Africa and is often referred to as the 'red island' due to the brilliant color of it's soil.
- It is the 4th largest island on earth.
Madagascar Basics
- The capital city is Antananarivo (or "Tana")
- It covers an area of about the size of Texas or France (587 040 sq km / 226,658 sq miles)
- Population: 17,500,000
- Ethnic groups consist of 18 separate tribal groups of Malayo-Indonesian, mixed African and Malayo-Indonesian, and Arab ancestry, French, Indian, Creole, Comoran.
- Malagasy (of Malayo-Polynesian origin) and French are both official languages and widely spoken. English is also around, mostly in the tourist areas. Literacy: 70%
- There are two forms of currency: Ariary and Malagasy Franc (FMG).
What is a Lemur?
Right after 'where is Madagascar?' was the question of, 'what is a lemur?'
In my opinion the most commonly recognized lemur is the ring-tailed lemur:
Most people seem to recognize this guy.
These pictures were taken at the San Francisco Zoo, almost a year before this trip.
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Unfortunately, I didn't see any ring-tailed lemurs. They hang out in the drier southern areas and I was in the eastern side of the country, in the rainforest.
Trip Detail
- For the detailed Earthwatch version of my trip see their 'Expedition Briefing'. (pdf file approx 350kb)
- The shortest possible summary:
- It all started with a horrendously long journey from San Francisco to Antananarivo.
- Overnight in 'Tana' at Sakamanga (translates to "blue cat"). Highly recommend the hotel.
- 10 hour minibus ride south to Ranomafana NP, with 6 other tourist/researchers.
- 13 days of field research, mixed in with two weekends to explore the local villages and town of Ranomafana.
- 10 hour big bus ride back to Tana and to the Sakamanga
- Next and last day in Madagascar:
- 3 hours drive in private car to Andasibe to see and hear the famous Indri Lemurs.
- Afternoon in the park with an outstanding guide.
- 4 hour drive back to hotel to check out change into travel clothes.
- Started journey home (approx 36 hours in planes and airports)
- If you are looking for daily and detailed account see my journal here. It will probably be very boring reading for most. I is not very formatted and covers for the most part only the Earthwatch revelant details. I only post it because when I was considering going on the Earthwatch trip, I looked around the web for something like this from someone to see what daily life would be like to help me decide if I would like it or not.
Since it is for information only, this is the censored version of what I actually wrote on a daily basis while on my trip. For the sake of privacy and having no desire or intention of hurting anyone, I've removed any overly personal or critical comments.
Map of Madagascar
By car or bus Ranomafana NP and research center is approx 10 hours south of Antananarivo and 2 hours north of Fianarantsoa.
