MicheleSmith
Established Member
I just got back from Madagascar yesterday morning and just wanted to share some pics from the trip.
My mom, sister, and I took the redeye from Paris to Antananarivo, then headed to the Vakôna lodge in Andasibe for 3 days. We spent most of the time hiking through the national parks and rainforests, and I was surprised (more like dissapointed...) to see very little wildlife in such beautiful and lush forests. Only by our hotel, in the potted plants were there chameleons (go figure). Despite that, there were Lemurs and Treefrogs galore, and a little "Lemur Island" you could go to right by our hotel where lemurs had become accustomed to humans. I'd much rather see them completely wild, but I wanted them to jump on me, so I went anyway LOL. We did a few night treks and there were leaftails and treefrogs everywhere! Sleeping chameleons were plentiful and easy to find, and we even saw a Parsons (it was sleeping, but it still counts).
After that we flew to Nosy Be and stayed at the Amarina Hotel. I wasn't expecting Nosy be to be anything spectacular, but I was really shocked when we arrived at our hotel. The entire Island itself was gorgeous, with most of its forests intact, and there was flora and fauna like you wouldn't believe. We went hiking right behind our hotel and there were Panthers everywhere. Not to say they were all screamers, but I was still delightfully surpised to see so many wild chameleons thriving, and not seeing a species devastated by the pet trade industry. Even right outside our hotel room there were Panthers and big Day Geckos in numbers. We spent our last few days there diving and hopping around to different islands.
Overall, it was a pretty amazing experience. It's really sad to see how ill-educated the Malagasi are about the environment and how they burn the forests down regularly for planting crops. Madagascar is still a good 20+ years behind Africa, industrial-wise, but it would be nice to see an incentive provided to the natives to stop excessive deforesting. Alright, enought of my ranting and on to the pics:
Big female on our way to Andasibe.
Giant Oustaleti
Close up on a leaftail
Comet Moth
C. brevicornis? AKA Elephant-ear chameleon
White Ruffed Lemur
A Common Brown Lemur on me (it only liked me for my carrots); my sister in the background at Lemur Island
Ohmygosh. This little Bamboo Lemur was so adorable, I just wanted to smash it
One of the many Leaftails, spotted at night
Sleeping Parsons
The huge-@$$ spider that was in our hotel room. After I took this picture, I looked back up and it was gone. I stayed out of the room the rest of the day.
My mom, sister, and I took the redeye from Paris to Antananarivo, then headed to the Vakôna lodge in Andasibe for 3 days. We spent most of the time hiking through the national parks and rainforests, and I was surprised (more like dissapointed...) to see very little wildlife in such beautiful and lush forests. Only by our hotel, in the potted plants were there chameleons (go figure). Despite that, there were Lemurs and Treefrogs galore, and a little "Lemur Island" you could go to right by our hotel where lemurs had become accustomed to humans. I'd much rather see them completely wild, but I wanted them to jump on me, so I went anyway LOL. We did a few night treks and there were leaftails and treefrogs everywhere! Sleeping chameleons were plentiful and easy to find, and we even saw a Parsons (it was sleeping, but it still counts).
After that we flew to Nosy Be and stayed at the Amarina Hotel. I wasn't expecting Nosy be to be anything spectacular, but I was really shocked when we arrived at our hotel. The entire Island itself was gorgeous, with most of its forests intact, and there was flora and fauna like you wouldn't believe. We went hiking right behind our hotel and there were Panthers everywhere. Not to say they were all screamers, but I was still delightfully surpised to see so many wild chameleons thriving, and not seeing a species devastated by the pet trade industry. Even right outside our hotel room there were Panthers and big Day Geckos in numbers. We spent our last few days there diving and hopping around to different islands.
Overall, it was a pretty amazing experience. It's really sad to see how ill-educated the Malagasi are about the environment and how they burn the forests down regularly for planting crops. Madagascar is still a good 20+ years behind Africa, industrial-wise, but it would be nice to see an incentive provided to the natives to stop excessive deforesting. Alright, enought of my ranting and on to the pics:
Big female on our way to Andasibe.
Giant Oustaleti
Close up on a leaftail
Comet Moth
C. brevicornis? AKA Elephant-ear chameleon
White Ruffed Lemur
A Common Brown Lemur on me (it only liked me for my carrots); my sister in the background at Lemur Island
Ohmygosh. This little Bamboo Lemur was so adorable, I just wanted to smash it
One of the many Leaftails, spotted at night
Sleeping Parsons
The huge-@$$ spider that was in our hotel room. After I took this picture, I looked back up and it was gone. I stayed out of the room the rest of the day.
