October 17th

Leisurely awoke because we won't head out till 08. 0715 We went to breakfast. We were served half of a sliced and toasted baguette and two rolled-up crepes with butter and jam. Then I had fried eggs, Jeff an omelette. Then we had a banana each. Drinks were tea and apple juice. Finished we found George and headed out. We did not get very far and realized my phone was not with us – due to miscommunication. George had to find a place to turn around and Jeff retreived my phone. This delayed us 10 minutes -our fault.

Anyway, today we visit two places – Analamazotra National Park and after lunch Mantadia National Park. We arrived at Analamazotra N.P., George checked us in while we were able to visit a room of information about Lemurs and the forest. We finished and George had our tickets in hand, with our guide – Agate, she has been a guide for over twenty years. She does not seem to be old enough to have been guiding that long! Anyway, we started and right off we saw a Leaf Gecko – I don't know how they find this critters – they blend in so well. My phone would not focus on it! Then lemur sightings! I'm just going to list them. There are four daytime lemurs (we were blessed to see them all): the Grey Bamboo Lemurs; the Brown Lemurs; the Indri Indri; and the Diademed Sifaka. We also saw a lone caterpillar and then a group of a different kind of caterpillars. Agate also pointed out a couple of little frogs; a very small Praying Mantis; the smallest chameleon- a Pig-snouted Chameleon; and so many orchids and various plants. It was a very good experience and we finished around noon.

We met up with George and went to a Tourist hotel/restaurant for lunch. I had a Youzou and vegetable fried rice, with a surprise egg on top. Jeff had a small THB, beef samosas, and natural fruit plate. Of course we had a liter of water. It has been coolish, but very humid. George gave us til 130 – about one hour and 20 minutes. This is to long for lunch!!
Finally, we loaded up and to other – Mantadia National Park. This is a primary N.P. Agate is our guide again, yeah! We saw two Lemurs in this park. First the Indri Indri, which I was privledged to feed some leaves. This lemur is one that has a very significant call. It is kind of like a whale call, but also reminds Jeff and I a bit of Howler Monkeys. When you are close by them it is very loud, indeed! The other one we saw this afternoon was the Diademed Sifaka. The lemurs are just great to watch especially when they decide to move on. They are so fast and graceful, moving from tree to tree, branch to branch. I did think about being afraid of hieghts – this would not bode well for lemurs. Agate pointed out more orchids here as well; some birds- the Crested Jungle, the Blue Vanga, Paradise fly-catcher, Red-fronted Koa, and the brillant colored Kingfisher. Then she found the largest chamelon, Parson Chameleon. She also pointed out a few beetles – one was very small and bright red, another was larger and white, and lastly she found a Giraffe Neck Beetle! This beetle is the craziest beetle, and it was so high up in a tree – that she even saw it is amazing. This ended our second N.P. today – it was great way to end. We met up with George and parted ways with Agate. We have been blessed with our guides, but Agate I think was my favorite.

Anyway, we loaded up and headed back to our hotel. Glorious day and our last real day of trekking in Madagascar's National Parks! We showered and readied for dinner. Still no internet so I blogged to word pad. Supper was at 630 pm!! Starters (we had the same): deviled eggs on bed of finely grated carrots and green onions. This is so good! Mains: I had local river fish served Malagasy style (a tomato broth and diced tomatoes) and French fries; Jeff had Zebu steak (it was actually ground Zebu formed into patties) and sauteed veggies. Dessert: I had pineapple natural; Jeff had bananas caramelized.

It started raining about 515ish this evening and is (off and on) still going. Thankfully, we were done hiking before it started! Tomorrow we head back to the capital -this may be interesting!!! But today was an amazing day!! Our Mad Tour is really winding down now.