Day 61 of 111 (3/23/19) Day 1 of 2 at sea on the way from Madagascar to Mauritius


Day 60 – Nosy Be, Madagascar - As near as I could tell by the way that our guide said it, Nosy Be is pronounced "noocy bay". A short boat ride took us from Nosy Be, (Big Island) to Nosy Komba (Lemur Island).  After wading ashore in water that was more like a hot tub than bath water, we were taken through the village to the National Park, which was more like an animal exhibition path. From the path, the Lemurs came down from the trees to accept the bananas that the guides provided.  This allowed us to take all kinds of nice pictures, as the gentle Lemurs would jump on your shoulders to get to the bananas that you were holding. The Lemur that jumped on Ingrid’s shoulders was a little more aggressive and quickly snatched the whole banana that I was holding and sprung for the safety of the trees! We also saw green geckos, tortoises, chameleons, and the boa constrictor that Ingrid agreed to “hold”! Yikes!


One of the highlights of the trip was our lovely tour guide Solange. She sat with us at lunch and told us about her college education and some of the struggles she has in Madagascar. Her fiancé lives on Madagascar proper and works as an engineer. She lives in Nosy Be and works as a tour guide in the tourist industry since it pays better than working for the airlines. They can’t be together since there is not much tourism in Madagascar, except for Nosy Be, and there are no engineering jobs in Nosy Be. She can’t really travel abroad, she said, because of the corruption in the country. How fortunate we felt while listening to her struggles.
















Our tour guide was into her nails!

Fishermen returning with the catch.





Next stop, Port Louis, Mauritius.

Comments

  1. IngridMarch 22, 2019 at 10:19 PM

    In the first picture Leo tempted the lemur with a banana and he immediately jumped on me in the 2nd picture. Pretty crazy!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 24, 2019 at 10:40 AM

    Ingrid - somewhere I have another picture of you with a snake around your neck - it was on Okinawa, but I can't remember where. --Kay

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. IngridMarch 25, 2019 at 12:37 AM

      I remember that picture. It has a bigger snake in the picture. I don’t have it but I’ve seen your picture.

      Delete
  3. KatherineMarch 25, 2019 at 2:07 PM

    You guys are getting pretty adventurous!! Love all the animal pictures! Now just don't get any ideas of how you should interact with the animals on the safari... Glad you are having such an amazing time. Miss you and love you!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. KatherineMarch 25, 2019 at 2:08 PM

    Also, that sunset picture is amazing!!! I bet you guys see a lot of amazing sunsets and stars!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
Day 6 – I’m not sure we are ready to face our first non-sea day tomorrow.   We are having a wonderful time on the sea days.   We have fallen into a lovely routine of waking late, working out, walking on the deck in beautiful 70 degree weather then meeting Jan and George for the Elite club snacks at 6:00 PM, going to the show at 6:30 PM and then going to the late dinner with our outstanding waiter Victor from Mexico.   Victor has been a great waiter and really helps make the dinners fun. Today Ingrid and I also fit in wine tasting and trivia.   Hey – we got 16 out of 20, but the winning team got 20/20.   Can’t beat that.   Tomorrow we have a tour in Honolulu and then the rest of the day to explore and buy things we still need. The picture is from our first formal night.   There are 17 formal nights out of the 111 days and it is really fun to see everyone all dressed up. 7 flies tied to date.   I’m getting pretty good a...
Read more

Day 45 of 111 – Arrived in Port Kelang at 7:00 AM and spent the day around Kuala Lumpur

Image
Wow – what an amazing day in Kuala Lumpur. Took a 2 hour ride from our ship with 14 of our cruise friends in a privately-hired van to the Batu Caves north of Kuala Lumpur (KL).   At the top of 272 steps beside a GIANT Golden Statue you will find a monstrous cave that has been turned into a Buddhist monastery. Worth the climb to see inside this beautiful and unique monastery.   There were monks worshiping and you had to take your shoes off to walk into the holy parts and just hope the numerous monkeys that scampered freely in and out of the caves didn’t run off with your shoes.   Our guide, a green-card holding Malaysian with 3 kids, one brain surgeon in LA and two airline pilots, said he had already lost two hats to the monkeys. I hope I get a chance to post some pics. Then it was on to KL and the Petronas Twin Towers. The tour up the towers took you to the crossing bridge at the 43rd floor and you could gaze both up and down while walking between the towers.  ...
Read more