August 31, 2008
· Filed under Crime, South Africa, Travel
After 60 hours of air travel, stumbling out of the Santiago airport and into a clear blue sky and the snow-capped peaks of the Andes was quite literally a breath of fresh air. A quick van ride later and I was in the heart of the Maipa Valley—Chile’s wine country. When I unpacked by suitcase, I realized my brand new camera had disappeared. Now, bad things happen all over the world, and it’s conceivable that the camera could have jumped out of the suitcase during layovers in Paris, DC, or Atlanta. But, I doubt the camera ever left Johannesburg. First, Johannesburg airport is notorious for theft: see here and here. Second, on other travels through JNB I have personally experienced extortion (“give me something to make sure your luggage arrives”) and a set up for a robbery (Me: “could you tell me how to get to the domestic terminal?” Him: “follow me up these stairs.” Stairs: “Proceed beyond this point at your own risk.”) And third, one current scare story of crime and corruption in South Africa is of customs officials coordinating with local gangs to tail and attack arriving passengers who declare large amounts of currency (I dodged a bullet by comparison).
So I learned a lesson today: don’t pack small valuable items in your checked baggage. Especially in Johannesburg. I don’t miss the camera as such. I just would have liked to have been able to upload my hundreds of Madagascar photos.
August 31, 2008
· Filed under South Africa, Travel
The South West Townships
During my twelve hour layover in Johannesburg, I took a tour of Soweto. Johannesburg’s sprawling South West Townships are home to mile after mile of squatter settlements, interspersed with bleak former all-male mine workers’ hostels from which families were forbidden, new government-constructed houses, and the occasional middle class neighborhood. We visited one neighborhood with shabby tin-roofed shacks stretching along a dusty one lane road as far as the eye could see. In the road a dead rat was covered in flies. The guide showed us inside one of the one-room shacks. The tiny space contained a stove, a countertop, a dresser, a bed, and enough floor space for a small mattress. The woman of the house said she shared the house with her four grand daughters. She said she had been living in the house for thirteen years. Every year the government tells her she will be able to move into one of the millions of new government houses being built, and every year she continues to wait.
August 25, 2008
· Filed under History, Madagascar, Nature, New Zealand
The weka: Nature's dumbest?
New Zealand
and Madagascar are similar in many respects. Both are large island nations in the southern hemisphere. Both split off from their respective mainlands tens of millions of years ago, and are populated with a fascinating variety of plants and animals found nowhere else on earth. In both places, the survival of these native plants and animals is threatened by species introduced by humans, who arrived only within the last two thousand years. And both islands are far colder during the winter months than any civilized place has a right to be. But there is an intriguing difference between New Zealand and Madagascar—in New Zealand, the birds became mammals, while in Madagascar, the mammals became birds.
In New Zealand, with the exception of two bats, there were never any land mammals. The role of grazing and ground foraging was taken over by birds. Because these birds were not troubled by predators, many became flightless and dimwitted, like the weka. In Madagascar on the other hand, though there are plenty of birds, the task of dispersing the seeds of rainforest plants has largely been taken over by lemurs! And since lemurs are far more hesitant than birds to stray far from their rainforest surroundings, this means that a patch of land in Madagascar must be very near existing rainforest to regenerate rainforest “naturally.”
August 23, 2008
· Filed under Chile, Madagascar, Travel
Three days from now, I leave Antananarivo, Madagascar, for Santiago Chile, via Johannesburg, Paris, Washington, DC, and Atlanta. From aiport to airport, I’ll be travelling for 60 hours. This is the time it takes to fly from New York City to Tokyo and back again, twice. I’ll have been both north and south of the equator, and both east and west of the prime meridian, in less than three days.
Indiana Jones Map
August 22, 2008
· Filed under Humor, Madagascar · Tagged Humor, Madagascar
My hotel has grown on me over the last six weeks. Sure the lighting is dim, the carpet and drapes are The Shining red and the plumbing is off-and-on, but the staff are friendly, I occasionally get set up in the penthouse suite at no extra cost, and there is free wireless. But the best thing about my hotel is the menu:
10. Velvety of French beau [green beans]
9. Shrimp jumped in the vegetables [I eat this one regularly]
8. Duck breast wipes in sweet wine of the country
7. Flackes of zebu
6. Pavement of chocolate in vanilla perfume [fudge in chantilly]
5. Duet of shrimp and squid oyster wipes
4. Has supper half moon [yeah, no idea]
3. Crudeness of garden
2. Toffly [for dessert]
and…
1. Chicken breast wipes/forestiere/basque woman
August 22, 2008
· Filed under Madagascar, Nature · Tagged Madagascar, Nature
Verreaux Sifaka, mother and child
I love observing animals in the wild. And for a wild animal lover, Madagascar is tops:
Final tally of lemurs observed in the wild
Common brown lemur
Indri
Ring-tailed lemur
Verreaux’s sifaka
Red-fronted brown lemur
Grey mouse lemur
White-footed sportive lemur
Pale fork-marked lemur
Red-tailed sportive lemur
Noteworthy non-lemur wildlife observed in the wild
Chameleons large and small
A frog with translucent skin and blue bones
A snake which jumped fully off the ground
Madagascar hissing cockroach
Bird of paradise
Narrow-striped mongoose
Fossa
Whales (humpbacks or southern rights) jumping clear out of the water
Sea hares
Noteworthy wildlife observed in captivity
A mouse lemur named after my boss: Microcebus mittermeieri
A Nile crocodile covered in bird poop
A (reputedly) 200-year old Aldabra tortoise
Radiated tortoise
August 22, 2008
· Filed under Madagascar, Nature · Tagged Madagascar, Nature
The fossa is an animal with the body of a cat and the face of a dog. Its nearest relative is in fact the mongoose. It is generally an elusive forest predator. At Kirindy Forest, in western Madagascar, there is a fossa who predates on the camp chickens, the camp tuna fish, and so forth. This fossa is not elusive. He put on a good show, skulking about camp while I photographed. Steve, a Brit I met at Kirindy, found fossa pawprints on his bed and his cell phone missing. Could the fossa have predated the cell phone?
Fact: According to my guidebook, the fossa has the largest penis bone in relation to its size of any mammal, and can copulate for six hours straight.
August 22, 2008
· Filed under Madagascar, Nature · Tagged Madagascar, Nature
Ring-tailed lemur in cactus
In the old colonial days, brothers Henri and Alain de Heaulme acquired one hundred square miles of southern Madagascar. Ninety nine of these square miles were turned into a profitable sisal plantation. One square mile of the original forest was preserved, and remains preserved to this day. Strolling through Berenty Private Reserve is a unique wildlife experience. Because the lemurs of Berenty were never hunted or harassed, they are not afraid of humans as in the national parks. Because the tourists were until recently encouraged to feed bananas to the lemurs, the curious ring-tailed lemurs approach within petting distance. Teddy bear-like Verreaux’s sifakas bounce by as if on pogo sticks. On a night walk through the spiny forest, we spot the glowing red eyes of mouse lemurs and sportive lemurs. The most delightful thing about lemurs is that they seem to have pleasant personalities, unlike their snarling, aggressive monkey cousins.
August 22, 2008
· Filed under Madagascar · Tagged Madagascar
I haven’t gotten to exercise much in Madagascar. The outdoor swimming pool I can see from my hotel window is closed for the winter and its water is emerald green. My greatest cardiovascular activity has been climbing the five flights of steps to my hotel room, which, as Tana is a mile above sea level, usually gets my breathing going. So when my co-workers invited me to play basketball I was delighted. We played on the court at the Ministry of Sport, losing narrowly to a team from the California Technical Institute (No relation to the Cal Tech in Pasadena). I was, it pains me to admit, no credit to either our team or to my Hoosier roots. But I did manage to sink one picture-perfect three point shot (the basket from downtown), earning a line in the office newsletter later that week.
August 22, 2008
· Filed under History, Madagascar · Tagged History, Madagascar
According to most accounts, the island of Madagascar was first settled by seafaring folk from southeast Asia, and by mainland Africans. But according to my Ambohimanga tour guide, the southeast Asians who settled the interior high plateau found the country originally inhabited by a race of little people, about four feet tall. The cliff-dwelling Dogon in Mali tell stories of little people too, and flying little people at that. And in Flores, we’ve found their little hobbit bones. Where did all these little people come from? Where did they go? Very strange, very mysterious.
