Manwana Tuuko from Madagascar

Well, it has been over a week with Karen , Noro, Jean Claude, the dogs:, Lola, Calu, Moka, Spike and the tortoise, Fred, by the way , he follows me around like a puppy!

 We just returned from the Longs lake cabin in Montesua a lovely, quiet place, very much like a lake cabin in MN! We swam in the lake to wash etc, , when we returned from The weekend I noticed my 'slave' bracelet I bought 5 years ago here in Antananarivo was missing. The maid, Noro said that the lake claimed  it for the crocodiles when we were in Montesua. The people although Christian, are very superstitious. I really was fond of that bangle..

The driving is treacherous, but Karen is fearless, passing huge  trucks on curves etc, while other trucks are coming at us in our lane and we go off the shoulder but fortunately when we were doing that, there was a shoulder. The landscape here is like no other; huge boulders in the hills with all of the red earth homes and roofs of thatch. People walking everywhere in the streets, everything for sale, but what is good is that people are 'not in your face' all the time hawking their stuff like in so many other 3rd world countries.

 The beautiful green rice fields are such a contrast to the red hills, the blue, blue sky with amazing cloud formations. We had 2 exciting thunder storms, lightening so close, so much rain, no electricity but candles are wonderful. As the cabin has a gas stove we still could have our morning coffee. 

We then drove to Vicuna. It is a beautiful animal preserve with its own lemur island. It is so exciting to have bamboo, brown and white, diadem sifacas and makis: the ring tail lemurs jumping on your shoulder and all so soft. On one of the islands there is a sign " Be careful: We bite". 

They were the first primates that never evolved as all of the primates have done  in Africa, as there are no predators to have caused the changes in the lemurs. But so much of there habitat is being lost to poverty. So much of the primeval forests have been cut down because the people are so poor they burn it all for charcoal.

 It is a cautious time here, with the last coup de ta(s)  and the new pres in place. We have to be careful when we go downtown.

We are together for one more week. This Thursday Karen and I fly to Ile St Marie to snorkel, enjoy the sun and sea, and maybe spot a whale. We hopefully will not encounter a cyclone or more rain storms or sharks..

john has been in London, no woff to Boston to see Steve and KAte , ski a day with them, then on to Iowa. for hiring. Oh, right now, the nuns are singing again. Every morning at 5 am I wake to their singing. Quite lovely. The convent is next to the Long's home. More later, blessings, alice