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| Fishing villageon Nosy Komba Island, Madagascar |
Now admit it. Readers
of this blog have probably always ranked visiting the island nation of
Madagascar high on their list of “must sees”.
No? Well, admittedly we hadn’t
either but now that we have completed our one day visit, we come away with a
much different and much more favorable impression.
We really didn’t know what to expect as we arrived in this
rather new tourist destination. In fact
our next door neighbors on the ship, Bob and Brenda, are members of the
Travelers Century Club for those who have visited over 100 countries. They had made four previous attempts to set
foot on Madagascar to no avail – until now.
The major reason in the past had been political upheaval but that has
died down and it is considered safe for visitors to make at least the kind of
visit we made.
Madagascar is located about about 210 miles off the east
coast of Africa and is estimated to have drifted away from Africa a mere 160
million years ago but that has had a profound impact on the development of
Madagascar. We visited the island of
Nosy Be which means “large island” and it’s only about 5 miles off the
northwest coast of the main island of Madagascar. It’s the biggest island of the country other
than Madagascar itself. At 13 degrees
South latitude, Madagascar has a tropical climate and we visited in their
so-called rainy season which runs from November to April, but we experienced
nothing but blue skies and warm (make that HOT) sunshine.
Because of its isolation, Madagascar has had the opportunity
to develop a mix of different animals and vegetation. In fact it has been called by some ecologists
the “Eighth Continent” because it is so unique.
Although Madagascar occupies less than one percent of Earth’s surface,
it has about 150,000 endemic species meaning that there are that many species
found in their natural habitats only on Madagascar! Our current Explorations lecturer, George
Sranko, who sailed with us last year on a segment near Australia, described
some of the unique species of animals and indicated that new species are being
identified on a very frequent basis. He
cited the aye-aye as the largest nocturnal primate though it looks more like a
rodent and initially was cited as such.
The size of a large cat, it is one of the types of lemurs. Needless to say we saw no aye-aye as our
visit was during the day. For us,
nocturnal animals are difficult to see and though we have visited New Zealand
twice and have tried, we have never seen a kiwi even in a zoo.
Madagascar is home to a unique tree which we would love to
have observed, but our short stay didn’t take us to a location where they
thrived. The Baobab tree looks like an
inverted tree with a very thick trunk that goes straight up and then has spindly
branches at the very top that resemble roots more than branches. Though we saw neither aye-aye nor baobab
trees, we selected an excursion that took us to see the lemurs.
Because we weren’t scheduled to anchor off the main town on
Nosy Be, Hell-Ville (named as such by a French mariner, Admiral de Hell) aka
Andoany until about 9 AM, we had several daylight hours to watch the islands
pass our window and to see the old fishing boats some with square sails in the
water. The tiny islands we passed to
arrive at Nosy Be were primarily lush and green and contrasted with the bright
blue sky were made all the more picturesque by the many one or two man boats we
were passing. By the time the anchor was
dropped, small outriggers with several people on each were near the hull of the
ship with wares to sell. Some in the
boats below were just calling up and saying “money, money” wanting people to
drop money to them as they would probably jump in the water to retrieve
anything dropped close to them. We saw
no one actually throwing money in the water.
Our tour, Nosy Komba: Isle of Lemurs was obviously a popular
one. Cruise Director Bruce had informed
us that there would be about 550 on tour for the day and that the need to
tender would require an all out effort to get everyone ashore as quickly as possible
to get the tours out. We then found that
280 people were doing our tour, probably more than any other single tour we had
done this entire cruise. Friends Sally
and Ange as well as Bob and Nancy and Carol and Calvin were in our boat. We transferred quickly from the tender at the
port in Hell-Ville to our small motorboat.
Fortunately it was a covered boat with a center aisle and bench seats
that faced each other. Apparently some
of the other boats on our tour were uncovered and one had to crawl over seats. Barb overheard a rather interesting comment
by one guest on the boat and we surmised the full extent of the
conversation. The sound of the motor
required that the guide come around and tell each small group what he wanted to
convey. Apparently the guide had made
the error of asking one group if they were all Americans. Barb and I both overheard a lady scream a
blood curdling and emphatic “Nooooooooooooooooo! I’m Canadian!!!!” When she heard the “no”, Barb thought the
lady had been hurt but then figured out the context. She commented that it reminded her of the
“Ugly American” tourist but this time it was a Canadian. Like Americans, Canadians are proud of their
country and we are grateful for our true Canadian friends like our dinner
companions, Leida and Herman from an area a couple hours east of Vancouver, as well as Carole and Conrad,
friends from Ottawa who had originally planned to share this cruise with us but
had to cancel their voyage. Fortunately
we know that most Canadians don’t act like the woman on our tour today.
Unlike our two hour boat ride to Praslin Islands in the
Seychelles, this was a more manageable 10 minute boat ride. Thanks to Sally who had read the ticket
carefully, we had been aware that we would have a “wet landing” meaning that we
would transfer from the boat to dry land, but rather we would have to wade a
short distance through water that was up to knee deep for me – more for shorter
people. Last summer, while in a Bass Pro
Shop in Bolingbrook, I noticed some water shoes and purchased them. I had gone
the entire trip until the Seychelles without using them and certainly wanted
them for our wet landing on Nosy Komba Island.
I had used the shoes on the beach in Praslin to avoid getting a lot of sand
in my shoes. After later hearing of a
man at one of the beaches who stepped barefoot on a sea urchin and was stung, I
was glad I had worn the water shoes. For
our Madagascar experience, Barb put on a pair of crocs but as late as breakfast
the day of the tour, we told some friends about the wet landing. They actually considered not doing the tour
but found someone who had a pair of water shoes that they didn’t need in
Madagascar that would fit.
Since our boat was the lead boat and left as soon as it was
filled, we were the first on shore on Nosy Komba. Nosy Komba appropriately means “Isle of
Lemurs.” We waded ashore and then had to
walk over some very uneven rocks to the sandy beach. Once we were all ready, our guide Ernest
began walking us across the beach through the picturesque (to us) village. Lots of boats were in the water and a few
appeared to be rotting and not able to be used any more. We walked near homes and it was obvious there
were paths to other homes like side streets for us, but there were no motorized
vehicles other than boats that I observed and not even any bicycles. Ernest told us that Nosy Komba had a
population of about 4,500 inhabitants.
Some homes were also shops. Some
had placed embroidered objects on the sand for display. Other larger items like
tablecloths were hanging on clotheslines and clearly for sale. Designs of flowers and turtles seem to be
favored. Others were selling craft
products like wooden masks, wood animals, and much more including the required
tee shirts. Ernest pointed out the
school which was not in session and wouldn’t have been anyway since it was a
Saturday. Then after most of us had taken several pictures, Ernest told us that
it was not considered appropriate to take pictures of people without their
permission and if granted, typically they would be given $1 US for allowing the
picture to be taken. Because at a dollar
a picture, it would get rather expensive, we missed taking a lot of wonderful
pictures that would be totally unique for Americans.
Our guide took us to the area where several lemurs were
swinging in the trees and came down to visit their curious guests. Between Ernest and George Sranko, our ship
Explorations speaker, we learned much more about the lemurs. Lemurs derive their name from the Latin,
“ghost” or “spirit” as a result of the sounds they emit. They are definitely a primate and found only
in Madagascar and most particularly on this island (Nosy Komba). At one time lemurs thrived on the African
continent, but more aggressive predator monkeys wiped lemurs off the
continent. Without the same predator on
Madagascar, lemurs survived. About 65
species of lemurs are known to exist but 39 new species were identified just
since 2000. The most common are the ones
we saw. Their gender is easy to identify though their colors – black for males
and reddish brown for females. They have
distinctive eyes that are quite large and give the appearance of staring. Their long tails let them swing in trees like
the monkeys. And like other primates,
they have opposable thumbs and nails rather than claws. We were told that lemurs are quite friendly
and harmless unless one interferes with the tails. Don’t touch the tail, we were warned! Several including Barb allowed the lemurs to
jump on their shoulders and sit on their heads.
We had been told some could actually fit in a teacup but the ones we saw
were more the size of squirrels.
A short distance later, we had a chance to see another quite
different animal, the boa constrictor which is native to Madagascar. Normally not in an attack situation, the boa
constrictor will wrap placidly around a person’s neck. Barb allowed the snake to wrap around her
shoulders before we moved once again to see yet another animal common in Nosy
Komba, the chameleon. Very brightly
colored, Barb and others let two friendly chameleons get on her arm and
head. The guide again walked us back to
the waterfront through the village. This
time though he told us we were welcome to stop and browse the shops and make
souvenir purchases if we wished. We didn’t worry about getting lost as it was a
small village and we were always aware of the coast even if we couldn’t
physically see it. Someone stopped and
asked the price of tee shirts and the $30 US tag discouraged purchases there. The guide let the vendor know that people
woudn’t pay that price. I later picked
one up for $10. I didn’t even try to
bargain. I had felt so guilty over
haggling over a $1 magnet in Vietnam last year, that when she said the shirt
price was $10, I just paid it knowing I
probably could have gotten it for $7 or $8 or even less.
After a bit of local refreshments and some native dancing by
some young people, we waded through the water again back to our boat and to the
pier. Barb and I decided to hop on the
shuttle bus and go to Hell-Ville to browse the shops. It was less than a ten minute ride and we
spent only about 20 minutes looking in the shops. It was more curiosity as to what the village
looked like than a serious shopping venture, so twenty minutes later we were on
the return shuttle.
When we arrived at the pier, it was in a near chaos. Two ferries were unloading supplies including
an old pickup truck. These were being backed up the rough and pitted ramp. Crates of live chickens and probably other
interesting items were also being brought off the ferries. At the same time, a tender was at the dock
loading and small boats were arriving to drop off those who had been on
tour. We were motioned on through to
board the tender. Literally, as they got
to Barb, she was stopped and told the tender was full despite the fact that we
could seen about six available seats including 4 on fold down seats just as one
stepped on to the ferry. A tender would arrive soon we were told and they moved
us back up the ramp into a more shaded area where we could observe the
seemingly frantic desire to get all the other tour boats with their bows
pointed toward the pier and people getting off the boats all at once. Then they had to climb the ramp and move to
the back of the line. Had the boat
operators kept people on tours seated, they would have been shaded and would
have avoided standing in the line on a hot day.
It would have allowed the tenders to get to the pier, load and move away
before tour boats unloaded and got people onto tenders. Our tablemate Leida told us they were on the
boat that caused the problem. Their boat
operator was angry and shouted in a language she couldn’t understand and he
seemed to be determined to get his people off FIRST! That caused other drivers to get competitive
and thus the chaos at the pier! Back on
the ship, we were ready to set sail for the African continent but only after we
had developed a new more personal appreciation for what had previously been
just a name on a map, Madagascar.
As our tour guide noted, tomorrow would be Easter and he
wished us all a Happy Easter. We join him with the same joyous “Happy Easter”. This year on Easter we participated with our Protestant and Catholic
friends in attending a beautiful 6 AM outdoor sunrise service on the outdoor
aft deck over the Mozambique Channel
between Madagascar and Mozambique as the sun rose over the horizon. Happy Easter to all our family and friends!
CT
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