Hi All!
It has been an incredibly long time. I am now in Madagascar and it is absolutely amazing. I have been here since the 29th of August and the first thing I did after I landed was take a 20 hour "taxi brousse" to the place where I had to catch a boat to Hell-ville. The capital of Nosy Be, the largest offshore island on Madagascar. Quite a way to get over culture shock, just get all the hits at once. The taxi/vans are incredibly cramped, especially if you're over 6 feet. A painful ordeal but at least i saved about $300 by not taking a flight. Even French is not spoken here much, so I didn't understand what people were saying. I got by okay though and it was good to get the shock out of the way.
I stayed two nights in a hotel in town and got taken to my camp for the next few months. On the boat that has to be taken to the village next to camp, I passed by Lokobe Strict Reserve, the last remaining protected area of Sambirano rainforest. Beautiful pristine forest with crystal clear water. Camp is simple and doesn't have many luxuries, but the showers are quite nice. Then the rice and beans everyday since then started and I have to say that it does get quite tiring to eat the same thing everyday for that long. Snacks come by occasionally (from the village) to help out with that.
We (the forest team of the project) go into the forest every day to do various surveys on wildlife. We have 9 transects for reptile surveys (200 M), and 4 bird/butterfly transects (400 M). I loved being out in the forest since I firs got here and slowly my standards have gone up from seeing so much, but I still enjoy seeing all the animals. On the reptile surveys we walk very slowly along the transect trying to look for any reptiles (or amphibians). Usually we end up finding the usual species, but occasionally we find something really rare and it's all exciting again. On the bird surveys we stop 5 times along the way for five minutes each and record what we hear or see. A lot of birds here are quite similar to India so learning them was not too hard. Many birds are migratory so it's been interesting seeing species come and go.
The wet season is slowly arriving and the reptiles are loving it. So am I, rain is wonderful. It's hot, humid, and nice now. Pretty soon I'm going to never have dry clothes and all that fun, the best thing is that the hut i'm staying in does not leak.
I am in town right now, but usually I only come in every few weeks to restock on snacks and use internet. Usually time is tight, which explains my invisibility. I wish I could upload some photos but I honestly don't have time, I hope you all are having a great winter and christmas season. I have you all on my mind and I shall try my hardest to get some photos on next time.
Seasons greetings from the tropics,
Arjun
It has been an incredibly long time. I am now in Madagascar and it is absolutely amazing. I have been here since the 29th of August and the first thing I did after I landed was take a 20 hour "taxi brousse" to the place where I had to catch a boat to Hell-ville. The capital of Nosy Be, the largest offshore island on Madagascar. Quite a way to get over culture shock, just get all the hits at once. The taxi/vans are incredibly cramped, especially if you're over 6 feet. A painful ordeal but at least i saved about $300 by not taking a flight. Even French is not spoken here much, so I didn't understand what people were saying. I got by okay though and it was good to get the shock out of the way.
I stayed two nights in a hotel in town and got taken to my camp for the next few months. On the boat that has to be taken to the village next to camp, I passed by Lokobe Strict Reserve, the last remaining protected area of Sambirano rainforest. Beautiful pristine forest with crystal clear water. Camp is simple and doesn't have many luxuries, but the showers are quite nice. Then the rice and beans everyday since then started and I have to say that it does get quite tiring to eat the same thing everyday for that long. Snacks come by occasionally (from the village) to help out with that.
We (the forest team of the project) go into the forest every day to do various surveys on wildlife. We have 9 transects for reptile surveys (200 M), and 4 bird/butterfly transects (400 M). I loved being out in the forest since I firs got here and slowly my standards have gone up from seeing so much, but I still enjoy seeing all the animals. On the reptile surveys we walk very slowly along the transect trying to look for any reptiles (or amphibians). Usually we end up finding the usual species, but occasionally we find something really rare and it's all exciting again. On the bird surveys we stop 5 times along the way for five minutes each and record what we hear or see. A lot of birds here are quite similar to India so learning them was not too hard. Many birds are migratory so it's been interesting seeing species come and go.
The wet season is slowly arriving and the reptiles are loving it. So am I, rain is wonderful. It's hot, humid, and nice now. Pretty soon I'm going to never have dry clothes and all that fun, the best thing is that the hut i'm staying in does not leak.
I am in town right now, but usually I only come in every few weeks to restock on snacks and use internet. Usually time is tight, which explains my invisibility. I wish I could upload some photos but I honestly don't have time, I hope you all are having a great winter and christmas season. I have you all on my mind and I shall try my hardest to get some photos on next time.
Seasons greetings from the tropics,
Arjun
