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
