To Tulear and beyond...

July 1, 2011

After an early morning flight to Tulear, we stopped for breakfast under a tree and then went to a marine museum with specimens from the local coral reef. Oddly, several of the fish were dried. There are five coelocanth (dead - and not so well preserved some of them!) there, which are large fish that date back to the time of the dinosaurs and were thought until fairly recently to be extinct. After a tour of some of the local markets, we arrived at our hotel, Le Paridisier in the town of Ifaty. The hotel is located right on a sand dune overlooking the ocean.

We are currently located in the southwest and the environment is desert like and very different from the lush rainforest that we just left. We took a late afternoon walk in the spiny forest, which fits its name in that it features several plants with sharp thorns. This is one of the most endangered biomes on the planet with less than 10% of the original forest remaining. After a night walk, where we did not see much, we had a nice dinner and then went to bed.