Driving to Isalo

Weeding the rice paddy.

The trolley carts. Check out the steering wheel and hand brake.

One in use.

Sitting on the corner watching life go by....

More rice paddies.

The zebu market.

Making beautiful cards from hand made paper.

A razor back chameleon.

A change in landscape.

Smoke from the fire in Isalo Park.

Wednesday, November 8^th.

We were off early this morning as we had a very long driving day ahead of us. We were to another national park in the southern park of the island. We drove back through the rainforest area and stopped briefly near the park entrance to see Cascade Namorona. Then we continued on before stopping in an area so Patrick could explain the brick making process. Then we stopped for a bit to watch a group of people weeding a rice paddy.

Shortly after that we stopped in Fianarantsoa, Patrick's hometown, where some people exchange funds and then we stopped at a grocery store to buy water and a few supplies. While we were there I saw a couple of the the carts that people use for moving items around. I checked them out. They are a four wheeled wooden vehicle with a raised car steering wheel and a wooden hand brake. They push it up hill and sometimes ride it like a go-cart down hill.

We drove for another couple of hours into an area that was much drier, with less vegetation and old rounded mountains. It was a very interesting looking area. Then we came to the city of Ambalavao where we pulled up to a restaurant to pre-order our lunch. Then we got back into the van and drove to the zebu market. This place was amazing. It is the second largest cattle market in the country. It is held every Wednesday and people come from miles around to buy and sell zebu. We parked on the outside of the market and Patrick told us to just walk in, watch out of the animals as they are unpredictable and get to a small brick wall. He said if we climb up that we could get a really good 360 degree view. It was amazing and chaotic. I took a mini movie and a few photos and then made my way back through the crowd.

When we all got back we visited a paper making cooperative. The women showed us how they take the inner bark from certain type of tree, cook it, rinse it, and pound it to a pulp before spreading it out and drying it. Then they add decorations of flowers, or other things and cover that with a type of paste before drying it again. They make cards and pictures from it. There were lots of very attractive pieces but they would not travel well. Then we headed back to the restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we had another five hours of driving to get to our accommodation for the night. We left the city and drove through another mountainous area before driving out to the plateau which was flatter, much drier and had no trees anywhere. The views of the landscape today was beautiful. Patrick informed us that there is a large forest fire in the park we are to visit tomorrow and as we got closer we could see the smoke over the mountains.

Finally we arrived at Les Tioles de L'salo camp. We are housed in little cottages and there is a pool here too. Patrick had invited the local guide to come and talk to us about the possible changes to our hike because of the fire. He outlined a different itinerary in a area removed from the fire. We are all pleased with the change.

We had dinner in the restaurant in the camp (we are the only ones here). After dinner Florien, Geoffrey, Gillian and I hung around and talked to Patrick for another hour. He is a great guy who likes to talk to tourists to improve his English. He told us about going to university for two years to get a law degree and when he learned that the justice system is the most corrupt department in the government he decided to change and go into tourism. That worked out well for him and he is enjoying it very much. At nine we all packed it in for the night.