Tomorrow at 5:30am we are leaving for a 10 day trip across Madagascar. We’re going to the dry forests, the desert, and we are spending 5 nights at a hotel on the beach. That will be on the west coast of Madagascar so it’s on the Mozambique Channel, the body of water between Madagascar and mainland Africa.

This is going to be sort of a like a vacation for us during our 10 week stay here. The weather has been great and mostly dry here, even in the rainforest. We are going to some much dryer places where it will probably be hot for a few days. Earlier this week we spent 2 nights camping in the rainforest.

That trip took us deep into the forest.  We made it to the campsite which was 7 kilometers away, and it was about 2 and a half to 3 hours on foot into the park.   On the way there it was raining and there were some leeches out.  When we made it to the camp, it was very small and on a hill.  We were able to see the black and white ruffed lemur and Edward’s sifakas which are very cool to come across in the wild. We also were able to see a fossa late at night.  They look sort of like cats and they prey on lemurs. It was trying to sneak into the camp to scavenge through our food.

When I get back from this 10-day trip I will definitely have a lot of stories and pictures to share. This past week hasn’t included much outdoor activity other than our quick camping trip. Centre ValBio has been a great place to stay for the past 3 weeks but this trip should be an enjoyable break from the humidity and repetitive meals that are served here. I have started walking to a nearby restaurant more often because they have some really amazing food and they make very good sauces to go along with it. I’ve eaten zebu (cow), eel, crayfish, shrimp, and an American breakfast plate at a small place about 5 minutes off of our campus. It has a great view into the national park and none of the food is very expensive at all. I’m going to buy some of their homemade hot sauce to bring back home before I leave.

I probably will not have any internet access for the coming 10 day trip so when I get back I will have plenty of new information and experiences to relay here. I have heard from a few people and it seems like things are mostly going well there. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone and talking about all of the amazing things that are going on here.