Ringtailed lemurs from Berenty Reserve in Madagascar - soon to be best friends 

We're Cookin Now!

Even though I didn't go to Hawaii, a lot of good things happened. First, Sue and Walter, great friends from my Arco days in Los Angeles (in the 80s) came for a visit. So good to see them. Sue has traveled to 60+ countries and was a great help in firming up reservations for Madagascar. Lemurs, here I come! After 2 weeks of work I finally have reservations for one of THE cottages at the Berenty Reserve in southern Madagascar. It actually took longer for this reservation than for any of the other countries. All of this work for a tiny cottage with no air conditioning, electricity turned off at 11 each night, and lemurs raiding your place for food.....Can't wait! Now it's time to start putting things together to obtain visas. For 8 of the 10 countries I'm visiting, I'm using a special service that obtains visas for a fee at the various Embassies. The process is so bureaucratic and time consuming that it is sensless to try to do it myself. For example, it would cost 3 times as much for me to obtain the visa for China rather than going through the service. Also, it's time for one of my favorite trip preparation chores - shopping for clothes!! For now, I'm spending a lot of time searching the net for Buzz Off - clothes with built in mosquito repellent - highly recommended by a number of the tour books. There is actually quite a selection in feminine styles without the camouflage leafy covering. Signing off for now after a thank you to Sandy and Adrian for torturing me with a call from Hawaii, letting me know what a paradise it is there. Happy Trails, Marion

My Biker Chick Phase (last month) 

Hawaii and Madagascar

Good friends Adrian and Sandy are leaving for Hawaii on Sunday and have invited me to go with. I've never been to Hawaii and it would be a hoot traveling with them but there is a certain amount of guilt in going there in addition to the world trip. What is that about? I still have 24+ hours to decide.
This week has been focused on the planning for the Madagascar portion of the trip. I'd like to think I've started a trend. Carmen Diaz recently went there for MTV and a new cartoon movie called Madagascar was recently released. For such a small island it's getting a lot of well-deserved plublicity.
My main goal in going there is to see the lemurs. This is the only place where they exist in the wild. It's amazing that 80% of the animal and plant species in Madagascar, exist only in Madagascar. It's as if the entire island was dropped here from Mars. After going through several tour books, I decided that Berenty Reserve on the south end of the island is the place to stay. The ringtailed lemurs are so tame that they climb on the tourists and try to sneak into their cottages. Also, the Reserve has the greatest variety of lemurs in one place and, most important, there was no mention of leeches in the text of the Berenty description.
I'm waiting to receive a response to my FAX requesting a cottage and now I'm beginning to worry that they are booked for the year (only 15 cottages). I'll start telephoning them Sunday night. The 12 hour time difference and my terrible French will make it a challenge . Happy Trails, Marion