Madagascar 3, The River Runs Through it

OUR FIRST COLD ONE IN A WEEK

WITH WHAT LOOKED LIKE A HALF STERILIZED NEEDLE, Max our guide, with a twisted smile on his face said, "oh I forgot to tell you we need to check for sand fleas"!! What the hell does that mean?.. John was first, all banged up from the trek with his cut up scratchy legs, knew this was going to be ugly..... continued at the bottom.
After completing our 4 day trek through the rain forest we hiked along the railroad tracts for several miles to the village of Andekaileka, for the last portion of our East coast adventure in Madagascar. We hung out at the train station and had a nice cold one before jumping on a train to the river launch site.

KIDS HAVING FUN W/OUT
VIDEO GAMES

Reggie in the meantime had wondered off and was deciding if she should use the toilet on our train ride or suffer through another "long drop" stink hole.  We sat around and watched the local kids play an in-genius game of gear rolling using sticks. At one point Max devised a fun obstacle course for them to enjoy.

JOHN AND JAY TAKING IN
THE SIGHTS ON THE TRAIN

REGGIE ENJOYING THE
FIRST CLASS TRAIN RIDE

THE TRAIN RIDE:  We finally saw our beat up cargo train pull up carrying loads of charcoal and we could see Max talking to the train master, next thing we know we are climbing on to the last carriage of the train for our air conditioned ride, Ah.... nothing like the wind in your face, unimpeded views of the forest, and of course no toilet!
RIVER RAFTING: After being dropped off after our unique train ride we launched our raft for the 3 days of floating down the Sahatandra and Vohitra river.

BREAKING THROUGH THE RAPIDS

The two rivers are class 2/3 for the most part, with one or two class four level drops. Probably should be classified as a river float since we did paddle for most of the 60 KM (24 miles).

KIDS RACING INTO THE RIVER

REGGIE SHOWING THE
KIDS THEIR PICTURES

SOME OF THE BEST
SMILES I HAVE EVER
SEEN

KIDS ALWAYS PLAYING

THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE RAFT TRIP: was seeing the Malagasy people along the way. At one lunch stop, the kids were wildly racing down the face of the river bank and into the river, then they would turn around and do it again. Whenever we stopped we would draw a crowd of curious, friendly people. Not too many white people come this way! when we took their picture they loved to see their faces on the camera.

PANNING FOR GOLD 

DUGOUT CANOES HAULED
PEOPLE AND BANANAS

THE RIVER: After seeing the devastation of the rain forest the float along the river was heaven sent, although no primary forest existed along the way. This is where the lucky rural Malagasy people live and seem to enjoy their lives. Even though they didn't have much by western standards, they had the river, it provided them with food crops: like bananas along the shore, shrimp, fish, a place to mine gold, and of course somewhere to wash their pig. You couldn't help but be endeared by these gentle people and fill their connection with the river.  We didn't see any bamboo lemurs along our float, as a matter of fact for the 8 days on the East coast we only saw 1 lemur and he was surrounded by fire and deforestation. But seeing the cheerful Malagasy people along the river was still a bright spot on the adventure.

PIG WASHING WAS A
RIOT TO WATCH

RIVER FLOAT FOR SEVERAL
MILES DOWN THE RIVER

RICA HAD A MAJOR
CUTE FACTOR

RICA THE CUTE LITTLE
RINGTAIL LEMUR

MAHAMBO: Our last stop on the trip was supposedly a new surfing spot in Madagascar. I saw nothing that resembled good surf, mostly wind blown chop, maybe the swell was down, but we did have a couple highlights. Rica the pet Ring Tailed Lemur was the star around the dinning area. At one point he jumped on my shoulder (and yes they are soft as they look) and on our table where he proceeded to stick his head in Jay's beer glass and drink it. So that is why they have such narrow skulls!
WITH A GRIMACED FACE, CONTINUED FROM ABOVE:

REGGIE'S TURN

SAND FLEA EGG

John volunteered to go first, that means we had to watch. Max calmly picked up his leg and rested his foot on his knee, and with a slight glee, proceeded to poke and prod John's foot, then he stopped... does that hurt? John said, "well a little," and then Max proceeded to dig and dig, and finally said, "I got it. "And out popped a giant sand flea egg, "good thing we got that one," said Max, "in couple of weeks you would have been in trouble". The worst part was we were next.... but luckily John was the only one that had a giant egg pulled out of his foot.
THE WORLD HUMAN POPULATION is expected to grow from our current 7.28 billion to 9 billion by the year 2050,  and according to E.O. Wilson the famous Harvard Biologist, this will be the carrying capacity for humans on this planet. And AFRICA IS EXPECTED TO ADD 1.3 BILLION OF THE 2.6 BILLION INCREASE. YIPES!.  So needless to say Africa has some serious issues ahead of them, we must remember, population increase is the underpinning problem to all other major environmental issues, including social issues such as poverty.
MADAGASCAR CAN IT BE FIXED:  

JIM CAREY-MAKING A
DIFFERENCE

Being the 4th poorest country in the world is a tough one, but there are many NGOs already helping out, and there are 2 that stand above the others, (these are the ones I am going to support) and there is one.... that is leading the way and is sponsored by the actor Jim Carey, a group called:
1.  "Better U Foundation" where they are funding projects using the Cornell method of planting rice called the SRI. They plant the rice further apart, teach the people to use compost, and have developed a hybrid rice by Cornell University that yields between 2 to 4 times the current crops of rice. When the fire starters in the rainforest are educated with these agriculture methods this should make a big difference.
Website:http://www.betterufoundation.org/
2. BLUE VENTURES: A tremendous grass root marine conservation organization working in Southern Madagascar. They rebuild fishing villages, and are working directly with the communities helping them with family planning and empowering women. You can also do a dive trip and be trained by scientist to do research and even volunteer in the communities.
http://blueventures.org/about/
THE INSIDE INFO...
When to go: In the fall that is their dry months
What part to visit: Western Madagascar is a must, much drier, and has the Baobab trees and the amazing Big Tsingy geological formation. And then a trek/white water on the north eastern side.
Travel agency: Pioneer Expedition, this is an English based travel agency, did a good job setting up the trip, although they were unaware of the deforestation in the eastern portion.... so ask them questions:http://pioneerexpeditions.com/
Difficulty: 3+ for trekking: 1+ for river rafting
Cost: You could get a Lonely Planet book and deal directly with local groups (less expensive) like "Madamax"http://paddleblogs.com/madamax/tag/madagascar/--they run great river rafting trips too. the cost with Pioneer was between $4-5,000. that was for almost 3 weeks, and included a rafting            trip, trekking on the East coast and a week on the West Coast.
Best Hotel: Without a doubt the "Le Soleil de Tsingy" with their infinity pool overlooking the forest gets my vote: