Tsimbazaza

This is the first weekday we've seen since we got here. The stores were mostly open, traffic (cars and foot) was much heavier than the past two days, and the schools were in session as plainly evidenced by the school children in lines and clusters on the streets around the city.

Today we visited the city zoo, Tsimbazaza, a place of pride for the residents of the capital city. It's built at an old sacred site, the name apparently translating to "children are not allowed," but we can assure you that there were plenty of children enjoying the animals there. Also on the site are the botanical gardens which feature many species of trees particularly, as well as flowers and scenic ponds with ducks, herons, and other beautiful wildlife. We had plenty of time and space to enjoy the animals including caged birds (which always makes me a little sad) reptiles, crocs, some mammals like the fossa shown below (a kind of wild cat), and even non-natives like camels and ostriches. The lemurs, however, were mostly left to populate small wooded islands in the middle of green ponds. We took so many pictures of them-- more than our scant internet access allows us to upload-- but I shared a few of them below.

What was really special about our trip there was the chance to be taken aside behind some of the enclosures (for a nominal tip/fee as we've started to expect when people, even employees, want to draw your attention to something or show you something special) to feed honey to lemurs. I knew that lemurs were very curious of people and actually quite willing to peacefully interact with them in the wild, but that it wasn't advisable to try due to the rabies threat. So, when I had the opportunity to do this in a safe setting (for us and the lemurs) I was very excited. I was surprised by how gentle they were despite being very eager to get the sweet treat we offered them by finger. We documented our snack with the lemurs pretty well, so when we get home we can show you a wider variety of species we got to interact with.

After the zoo we headed back to our hotel, I went down the street to get more bottled water (something we regularly do since the tap water isn't safe), then retuned only to fall to the lingering effects of jet lag. A little later we went looking for an Italian restaurant down the street that I must have completely imagined-- we didn't find it--, before returning to the hotel and trying the food in their restaurant. We were actually surprised at how good the food was there, my curry chicken and Camellia's traditional Malagasy chicken dish.

Tomorrow we'll be researching tours through Ranomafana National Park where we'll get to see critters like those in the zoo in their natural habitat, and hopefully in greater variety and abundance. Particularly, I'm looking forward to seeing the insects of the forests there