Vakona Park, Madagascar

Our weekend at Andasibe Hotel.  This is a 4 hour car ride to Vakona Park.  The roads are very windy and steep.  There is lots to see along the way.  Villages, people and many, many beautiful trees and shrubs.



Outside our hotel room at Andasibe Hotel - www.andasibehotel.com
A view from our door looking into the room.  Very, very nice place.  Behind Rick is the shower and toilet area.
This picture was taken from our hotel room door.  It looks onto the rice patties and mountain area in the back.  The temperature here was around 25.  (cooler and no humidity compared to Tamatave)  We noticed that there were no palm tress in this area.
From our room towards the swimming pool.  Again, beautiful place.  Highly recommend it.
A hedge of flowers.  These remind me of the Halloween corn candy.
Picture of the shower and toilet area.  
Our hotel room.
A closer view of the pool.
Rick went to put our valuables in the safe, and it moved.  So he carried the safe back to the front desk.  The safe is locked, but could easily be carried away!

Ricks very tasty pork dinner.  Food was very good and good presentation.  The servers were first class!
We had breakfast on Sunday morning on the terrace overlooking the pond.
We took 3 canoes to the Lemur Island.  It's a short paddle away, about 15 minutes.  We got an extra tour.    The guide took us to another little island, and this is where the ring tailed lemurs were.  We had to take canoes, as Lemurs don't cross water.  I guess that is why they are exclusive to Madagascar.
Dancing Lemur
This lemur "dances" when it walks.  It's kind of like a skip and hop.  Very soft hands.  You place a piece of banana on your flattened hand.  First they grab your hand, then they take the banana.  
Clint with the Bamboo Lemur.  They are smaller in size and brown.  These guys just take the banana right out of your hand.
Bamboo Lemur
This lemur was interested in Rick's pen.  
Joan with a bamboo lemur.
This picture shows the 3 different kind of lemurs we saw on this island.  The Dancing lemur, the bamboo lemur and the Black and White Ruffled Lemur.
The American breakfast.  Coffee, fresh squeezed pineapple juice, bread rolls, crescents, sausage, pickles, olive, cheeses, crepes with chocolate sauce, passion fruit, mango, papaya, pineapple, apple and cornflakes.  Then the omelette came!  A breakfast for a king.  15,000 airey  airey = $7.50 cdn.
Beautiful purple flower in the lily pad right underneath the terrace.

View from the parking lot to our villa
Another view
This is the solar panel to warm the water for showers.  We had nice warm showers, Joan and Clint, and Denis and Joyce did not.  
The plumbing
A short canoe ride to Lemur Island.
Dancing Lemur
Bamboo Lemur


The male lemurs have scent glands in their armpits and their forearms.  They rub their tail on the glands until it is smelly and then they wave the tail at the other lemur.  This is a nice way of fighting without the lemurs getting hurt.  This is called a stink fight. Female lemurs are dominant to the male lemurs.  Lemurs stay in groups of 7 to 10 lemurs.  They use the sense of smell to communicate with each other.  Lemurs tails help them to balance when they jump from tree to tree.  Most of the lemurs stay up in trees and bushes. 



Baby lemurs stay with their mom for two years.  Half of all lemurs born each year die.









Lemurs eat leaves, fruit, insects, and sometimes little animals.


Lemurs and humans are both primates.  Primates are the animal order that includes prosimians, monkeys, apes, and humans.  Primate means first.  All primates have hands with fingers that move.  Fingers and toes also have nails.  Nails help primates to climb trees.  Lemurs were the first primates to evolve.  This makes them very important to the study of man’s evolution.  Evolution is the way living things change and adapt to their environment.
There are two groups of primates, anthropoids and prosimians.  Humans are anthropoids.  Anthropoids are “man-like.”  They have good vision and large brains.  Monkeys and apes are also anthropoids.


Lemurs are a special kind of primate called prosimians.  Prosimians are the oldest primate group.  Prosimian means “before the monkeys.”  The eyes of prosimians are close to the front of their faces.  This allows them to see better and control things. Lemurs that hunt only at night have big eyes that allow them to see better when it is dark.  They also have large ears and special scent glands to help them get along at night.












Ducks, they somehow seemed out of place!


                                      
Black and White Ruffled Lemur
Rick and his buddy


Denis and his buddies...
Row, Row, Row your boat...
Our guide, waiting for the rest of us to come to the next Island.
Loved the way this guy was sitting.
Another one of Rick's buddy's
RingTailed Lemur
These lemurs have 14 black and 14 whites rings on their tails.
This guy liked pulling my hair, and was covering my eyes with this hands.
The white slime on the leaf are frog eggs.  They lay them on the leaves, then it drops into the water below and tadpoles are hatched.
This is a Fossa.  It is the only natural predator to the Lemurs (other than humans).  They look like a cat, but are part of the Fox family.  To me its face is similar to a Lemur.  
At the Gator park.  You can see a gator behind the sign.
Rick with his buddies, Clint and Denis
One of the waiters at the hotel.  Absolutely amazing service and very good food.

More servers.  Us and another group of 3 were the only ones at the hotel, the service was excellent.
Another fantastic view
All the villas line up and have the same view.  7 double villas in all, enough for 14 rooms.  Nice and quaint.


Bye hotel.  We will be back!

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