|
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27
|
Day 20. Mananara
The next morning we say goodbye to Suluf - he finds a Taxi Brousse
back to Maroantsetra. Oliver the cook will stay with us because
he's a trainee. He will accompany us all the way to Soanierana
Ivongo from where we'll get the boat to Ile ste Marie. But first
we have 2 more days in Mananara.
Today we move to Aye Aye Hotel and mr Roger - owner of the hotel
with the same name - appears to be in a bad mood. Despite that
we agree to visit his island tonight. We will come to his hotel
at 5.
In Aye Aye Hotel we have fun the entire day with the ravaging lemurs
- one hug crazy, squinting brown lemur, a shy brown lemur and 2
bold Bamboo Lemurs who run over the tables, steal food and swing
through the trees.
Straight in front our hotel is Mananara's airport where today
a delegation of high placed visitors arrives. The whole village
comes to welcome the minister. The people wave flags and are dressed
in the well known T-shirts. After that a convoy of bicycles and
motorbikes goes on a triumphant ride through the village. No
doubt this president will be re-elected!
In the afternoon we walk to Chez Roger and it turns out our assumptions
were true; mr Roger is not amused at all about the fact that we
moved out of his hotel. He refuses us to drive us to his island.
Quite sad, because Aye Aye island was one of the main reasons to
come to Mananara: the only possibility to see the Aye Aye in the
wild, but mr Roger's personal vendetta with Aye Aye Hotel threatens
to spoil it all.
It turns out that Mr Roger wrongfully assumed that we would
spend 4 nights in his hotel and another night camping on Aye
Aye Island. Another problem for us is that in this area vanilla
and cloves trade - and on a lesser scale quartz trade, which can
be found scattered on the roads everywhere - makes much more profits
than tourism. Hence, the people are completely uninterested in
Vazaha's. It also explains why Michel, according to himself,
made a lot of effort to arrange our transport to Mahambo.
Meanwhile, everyone seems to be aware of mr Roger's discomfort.
A woman named Marie Louise visits us (the first female guide we
ever meet in Madagascar) but she too has no luck convincing mr
Roger otherwise. Under normal circumstances i wouldn't care about
mr Roger and his claims, but we came such a long way so we simply
have to see the Aye Aye.
Our desire gets strengthened when we see a documentary in Aye Aye
Hotel (displayed on huge screen through a beamer), recently shot
with actress Miranda Richardson: Final Chance
to Safe the Aye-Aye.
It's a beautiful film of Madagascar and it's problems in general,
and the Aye Aye specifically. We see the places come by that we
visited last year and even the American researcher whom we met
in person. We see the images of Aye Aye Island and the obscure
animal, so I request a tête-a-tête with Roger
for a final attempt, tomorrow at 5.
But all that will be after my tour to Nosy Antafana, which is booked
today. I'll be going alone since my wife doesn't dare to get in
a boat anymore (see the 2004 travelogue). Nosy Antafana (a.k.a.
Nosy Atafana but pronounced as Nosy Antafa) is an atoll of 3 small
coral islands in a protected marine park. Touristically it's virtually
unknown, so i have to make an appeal on ANGAP, who bring occasional
researchers to the island with their boat. The fact that i know
of this island is because we flew over it last year. I shot some
pictures of it that served as a wallpaper on my office's desktop.
I stared often at this beautiful, unknown bounty island that doesn't
even appear on the maps, and i promised myself, i would set foot
there one day..
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
25 |
26 |
27
|
|
|
previous