Salama!

I am now back in Sambava. Our last visit to town was short, but pretty eventful. We spent a total of three days down here, five if you count travel days to and from Marojejy. Although most of that time was spent learning how to work the vocalization equipment, we also got some time to ourselves.

The vocalization equipment isn't too hard to master, but it does require some practice. We spent about four hours testing our skills on the seven new puppies at Erik's hotel on the beach. They were only one day old and the first sounds of life are fascinating. We downloaded them onto the computer and looked at all kinds of audio-techno-mumbo-jumbo.

The new puppies at Erik's hotel

 We also saw a herd of about fifty zebu, basically Malagasy cattle, crossing the river to the town. Erik came running into the Internet place here one afternoon and all he said to us was, "Come quick, I've been waiting for this moment for three years!" We promptly paid our bill and hopped into a waiting cab. It was an amazing site as we pulled up to the beach. A handful of men in canoes were responsible for driving all the zebu across the water. We took plenty of pictures, especially since Erik told us the BBC crew had spent weeks trying to get the shot, and never did.

Zebu crossing

We also went out with Bob and Jean, the older Peace Corps volunteers living in Sambava. Although hitting the town with an older couple may not seem like a party, Bob and Jean can certainly keep up. In fact, I was the one trying to keep up with them. We went out for pizza as well, a decrepit old building with little more than "Pizzeria" written on the side. However, I kid you not when I say this  was some of the best pizza I have ever had. I'm not sure if this is because it was actually tasty or if I'm so deprived of American staples that anything even resembling pizza is heavenly. I suspect the latter though.

Since I'm writing about food anyway, Emily and I have fallen in love with the ice cream at our hotel. As I mentioned before, our hotel has one of the best restaurants in town. This ice cream though is just out of this world. Again, I'm not sure if its really good or I just haven't had ice cream in over two months. One thing is for sure, I'll be getting that caramel flavor tonight. One more story about food though before I get to the forest. We spent our last night in Sambava devouring the ripest, sweetest, and most delicious pineapple. We didn't have a good knife, but we stood on Emily's porch cutting it with a little pocket knife I packed just in case. I think it tasted better because we had to work so hard to eat it. The juice was everywhere though. We even invited the watchman at the hotel to come join us. He did, along with another hotel employee. Winning friends with pineapple. I'm done writing about food now.

Back to the forest. It took us a couple extra hours to get back up to Marojejy this time around. Saed, the same goat entrepreneur from last week's post, brought us to the park office where we normally start our seven mile hike. Unfortunately, his taxi broke down a few miles outside of Sambava. He fixed it himself in about fifteen minutes, only to get a flat tire about ten miles down the road. Rough start. We finally reached the park office, paid porters, and started our hike around ten in the morning. Turns out, it is hard on your body to hike down only to come back up three days later. Let's just say we took our time. We also visited Babazy's family as we walked through Mandena, the last village before the park entrance. Babazy is doing well, he has a new job building a sustainable charcoal factory next to the public library. When I say factory though, I mean its a small shack where they will teach villagers to use resources more efficiently. He told us that it only took two weeks to build. He walked with us for the first couple miles, catching up a bit. He was delighted to learn the new vocabulary words "duck," "goose," and "puppy" as we walked along the now familiar trek.

Babazy and me

Nothing new to report from the forest though. We've really expanded our project, and spent all four days GPS-ing intergroup encounter locations, continuing our scent marking research, recording vocalizations, and collecting fecals. While up there though, I started having the weirdest hallucinations in the early morning from the malaria medication. I might have to switch medications pretty soon, I'll miss the vivid dreams though. But these hallucinations are bad news bears. One morning I woke up at four only to see a mongoose eating my toothpaste. I woke up Emily and she said that there was no mongoose there. I've also seen giant cricket/spiders that glow in the dark, and was confused one morning when I watched the duct tape on my wall turn into a TV screen. Woah. I'm sure I'll keep you updated on this too.

Anyway, I was excited to find two packages from my family waiting for me in my hotel room. It was like Christmas over here. Emily and I were so excited as we carefully opened each package. We now have enough spices to last us a lifetime. Bring on the beans and rice! The cards and pictures were especially endearing. Thank you!

We will be in Sambava until tomorrow, when we get on a plane to fly to Tana. In Tana we will meet Manitra, a master's student at the University of Antananarivo. He will be joining us for the remainder of our time here. We will then spend two days in Andasibe to see the indri (probably my favorite lemur/animal/organism ever, if you get a chance, youtube their "songs"). Then its back to Tana, Mauritius for four days, and back to Sambava on September 30th. I will hopefully get a chance to update you when we return here then. Veloma!