Leapin’ Lemurs!

It took three months, but I’ve seen lemurs here on the fourth largest island in the world. Well, on an island off the island, to be more specific.

 

Blessed with my very first non-Foreign Service visitor, I went to Mantasoa, which is the closest “road trip” from home. It’s only 60-70 kilometers, but the drive was over two hours. It was definitely almost two, or maybe a solid two, when we turned off the main road, after which the last stretch lasted an hour but only around 15 kilometers. Yes, our roads are awful. We wound up hiring a car and a driver since my car hasn’t arrived and I was very thankful for that. Those roads would have ripped Cassian to shreds, and I don’t think I would have wanted to drive. “Awful” really doesn’t begin to describe how bad the roads are.

 

We stayed at the lodge there, which has a little “barge” that takes passengers on a 20-minute ride to a little island, where ringtail lemurs immediately welcome new arrivals. After a lovely dinner, that’s what we did on Thursday morning.

 

My friend and I were the only visitors at the time so we got a personal tour, a kilometer walk around the island, where we saw four of the five different types of lemurs living there. (We didn’t see the little nocturnal one.) Oh my, they were so very cute. There were lots of babies hitching riding piggyback on moms, and as I was taking pictures, I suddenly felt one jump on my head. It rode, parrot-style, with its little hands on my hat.

 

They’re just so cute. One species gave us a spectacular demonstration of movement – those things are on springs, it seems. Their leaps and bounds cover amazing ground; it was quite incredible to watch. (And even harder to capture on film, I learned.) Their paws are also incredible; there’s a large space between the thumb and the rest of the fingers/toes, so they can really get a grip. I could have watched them for hours.

 

But there was more to see on the little island, including colorful frogs, snakes and Nile crocodiles. It really was incredible.

 

The next day, we stopped at a reptile park, which was on the bottom of a very windy mountain road that pretty much had me queasy upon arrival, but I shook it off to again see lemurs. This time, we saw mostly brown common lemurs, which were super inquisitive and hungry – the guides bring bananas so we were able to feed them. Let’s just say I took lots of pictures.

That park was mostly a reptile park, so they also had frogs, geckos, snakes plus a host of chameleons, which were really amazing. The critters are kept in what could be called greenhouses; they’re super large cages that give lots of roaming room. There are plants and bushes everywhere and guests follow a guide to find them and see the varieties. And oh, my, the camouflage works. They are incredibly hard to spot, and then when you do, it’s a shock to realize how close you got without realizing they were looking at you the whole time. Once, I looked up and realized I’d been about to walk into one.

 

It was a lot of fun. I’d really waffled over which of three road trips to choose and that one won out because it was the closest. I’d really expected to have my car and figured that’d be an easier first excursion, as I fully expected to drive. It didn’t work out that way and I wondered if, since I hired a car and driver, I should have opted for a further-away place instead, but I’m glad that’s the one we did. It was really a lovely getaway.

 

Now it’s time to dig in. My car should be arriving soon, I guess, but there’s no hurry. The roads pretty much freaked me out and I don’t anticipate a lot of driving, but at least that will be an option. But a lot of the stuff to see – the baobab trees, Nosy Be, Saint Marie island – are all flights away, not road trips. I’m still trying to pace myself.

 

Right now, I’m not thinking beyond next week anyway because I have a DC-based class to do after work. It’s only Monday through Thursday, but it runs to midnight and unfortunately, there’s stuff I have to do in the office each day, so I can’t just work from home. Monday and Tuesday shouldn’t be too bad but ugh for the rest of the week. I thought I’d try to work from home on Friday since it’s a short day, but that’s the day of our office Christmas party, so I can’t skip it. But this time next week I should have recovered and be ready for Christmas.