It is about 2:00 pm here right now in Maroantsetra, and we just walked across village in a tropical rainstorm to get to the WCS office for wireless access. All of the roads except for a small patch of main road through the village are sandy roads, so my shoes are wet and sandy, but I better get used to it as it will be raining a lot over the next couple of weeks! Yesterday Joe and I went through all of the gear that was left in the house from Zach's prior research; we were upset to discover that rodents chewed through 4 of the 5 tents Zach had stashed for the guides. Thankfully, most of the holes were small and we attempted to repair them with duct tape. We'll see how well that holds in the forest! Everything else seems to be in order, and our most recent plan for the next couple of weeks is to stay in Maroantsetra until Tuesday morning (as Sunday and Monday are regional holidays called "Pentecost"...apparently it has something to do with Jesus having spent 40 days and 40 nights with God after ascending to heaven...yeah, none of us had ever heard of it either!!) and then begin our two-day journey to the field sites. We will take a WCS boat from Maroantsetra to a village relatively close to the sites, and then hike the rest of the way into the forest. Joe and I will not be back to Maroantsetra until at least 2 weeks from next Tuesday, so I will try to update once more before then. Madagascar is an amazing, diverse place, and I can't wait to tell you more about it!
~Chelsea
Chelsea what a treat to hear from you as I thought you would be gone already. Thank you for that surprise and for our anniversary too. Glad you are having a great time. Take care of yourself. -Mom
ReplyDeleteI am late getting here (lost the blog address, go figgur), but am now following your progress geographically. I assume your rodent villain was Rattus rattus, but I hope that the Zack-attack was carried out by native rodents. They could be raising there babies in wads of synthetic fibers.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, there are a lot of good photos of Maroantsetra on google earth. What a beautiful little town!! Thanks for posting your locations and addresses.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mom :). Yes Don, I assume it was Rattus rattus...but it would be cooler if it had been an endemic rodent haha. Maroantsetra really is quite nice; the surrounding landscape is gorgeous! We are going to be doing rodent trapping in Mangabe over the next few weeks; I know Joe is very excited!
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