chillaxing with lemurs

Well here we are folks, the moment we've been waiting for...

We're hanging out with lemurs in Andasibe (and we have been told the proper way to say this is "an-DAS-ee-beh"), about a three hour drive + traffic east of Tana.

We're staying at the lovely Vakona Forest Lodge which is great; the lodge encompasses several walking tours as well as the very cool Lemur Island, which is a refuge for many different species of lemur.

Nearby is Analamazoatra Reserve, the part of Andasibe-Mantadia NP that is home to the indri-indri, Madagascar's largest lemur. Here you can see lemurs in the wild.

The National Park itself is a haven for lemurs, which have suffered due to land clearing. The National Park is now a protected area where the lemurs can hopefully thrive again. There are 10 different species in the Analamazoatra Reserve (four diurnal and six nocturnal) and each species lives in groups/families, but they live in harmony with each other as they have slightly different diets and are active at different times.

I think the most amazing part for us, both in Analamazoatra Reserve and over on Lemur Island, was hearing the lemurs call to each other. The indri-indri have an incredible call (similar to a Siamang I guess, if you've ever heard one) and the ring-tail lemurs have several, easily distinguishable calls for different situations. Their "alarm" call is amazing: high-pitched from air danger, e.g a hawk, and low-pitched for ground danger, such as a snake. They stand up on their hind legs to make the call and we were blown away by how loud it is for such a small animal!

Just a note: All lemurs we saw are are endemic to Andasibe, with the exception of the ring-tail lemurs, which are endemic to the South of Madagasar only. We were luckily enough to see them because there is a large family on Lemur Island, which is home to Lemurs that have been rescued from various fates.

Ring-tail Lemur

indri-indri

Baby lemurs hitch a ride on mum's back

Ruffed lemur having a snooze

Bamboo lemur, one of the smallest diurnal lemurs

a lesson in choosing tour operators wisely

We had some setbacks today... and were reminded of some valuable travel lessons!

We left the hotel at 6.15am to head out on a cruise to swim with the dolphins - something I have wanted to do for as long as I remember. Even as a really little girl I was in awe of dolphins so words can’t really describe my excitement levels as we left the hotel and made the 90 minute drive to the boat.

The view was stunning as we set out to find the dolphins. I would really love to post a photo for you but hotel wifi is telling me NO... I will post a picture blog when we get home.

There was a group of about 15 boats about 300m offshore. We saw them and thought we would just sail straight past them, but instead we joined the,. At this point we figured the drivers would just have a quick word to each other, perhaps trade a couple of tips and co-ordinate their movements so we weren't all in the same area, but it turned out they had spotted a dolphin and so we joined the chase too. Next thing we knew we had 16 boats (that's approximately 160 people) chasing this one lone dolphin, trying to corner it so it wouldn't escape.

I was disgusted and when our driver saw that I was visibly upset, he laughed in my face.

I tried to get in the water even though I didn't want to be near the dolphin as I didn't want to add to the problem, but I had been given faulty snorkelling gear. By the time it was fixed, the driver told me I was too slow and was no longer allowed to get in. ('Yelled at' is more appropriate than 'told', to be honest.)

Eventually the dolphin managed to escape and Logan and I cheered for him. The poor thing was probably already in a pickle because his pod were nowhere to be found, and here were 160+ humans with loud boats chasing him, jumping on him, yelling, splashing and trying to disorient him.

So all in all we paid a very large amount of money to feel disappointed, upset, belittled, exhausted and ripped off, not to mention how cruel we were to the dolphin.

Every cloud has a silver lining though… We made two lovely South African friends. We will attempt the dolphin swim again but this time, with a lot more research behind us. Lesson learnt!

Tomorrow we are sailing a catamaran to Ile aux Cerfs; hopefully we have better luck.

around the world with cute baby animals

Life has been rough lately... but there's no better way to cheer up than with cute baby animals!