9/18 Back in Tana after an amazing week driving to the East coast of the island! Last Tuesday we made half to the journey and stopped in Andasibe for the night. In the morning we stopped at a memorial and got to visit a police museum. The museum was in memory of a massacre that the French committed on March 29th, 1947. They rounded up a lot of people, I do not remember the amount, who were believed to be rebels against the French and placed them on a train. When the train got to Andasibe/Moromanga, it was gunned down and the people were killed; their remains were not returned to any families and so they were unable to be buried in family tombs, which is terrible in traditional Malagasy culture. So a big tomb and memorial was constructed there.
Afterwards we went to a museum at the Police Academy and got to learn a little more about the history of Madagascar as well as see some of the training tools and confiscated materials. That night we stayed in Andasibe, which is a tiny town that shuts down by about 8:00 PM. Our hotel was made of three buildings that were not connected in any way nor did they look similar. The restaurant/offices were down the block and the two building that housed people were across a lot from one another. In general the Malagasy people go to sleep and wake up quite early but here particularly, the town passed out quickly. We went on a night hike in hopes of seeing some nocturnal animals but only saw a couple tiny lizards and it started raining pretty hard.
On Wednesday, we got to go to a national park and see wild lemurs for the first time! We walked through the rainforest that housed 11 kinds of lemurs, lots of reptiles, bugs, plants and so on for a few hours in the morning with a guide who was able to take us off trail a bit. We saw some cool bugs, chameleons, snakes and 3 types of lemurs (2 of which I got pictures of) and all types of plants. Pretty crazy that so many animals that live on Madagascar are ONLY found here. The most common lemur there is the Indry Indry, which is black and white, pretty big and very loud. I recorded a video as I was walking just so you guys could hear what those things sound like! Got some pictures I will post too.
After lunch we got back in the bus to finish our trek to the coast.
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