Quick refresher: I promised I'd talk about my week in Antananarivo (the capital city of Madagascar) in my last RESEARCH-themed blog post. I've posted my timeline here for you so you don't have to go clicking all over the place just to get a sense of things :)
Planes are not my favorite, mostly due to this weird combination of a decent fear of heights and some awful motion sickness memories from my childhood. The most flying I'd ever done before was within the continental United States, maybe a maximum of ~6 hours. So when my advisor told me that we'd booked our tickets, and that our total travel time (including layovers) would round out to ~25 hours, I think I just sort of blanched and laughed a bit because really what else was I supposed to do.
My worldly travels largely consist of those Caribbean islands that East coast cruise ships tend to travel to, and one week-long trip to the United Kingdom in high school. Technically I can now say that I've been to France, but all I'd be able to say about the country was that they have a very nice airport (below left). By the time we arrived in Madagascar, I believe it was 2AM MT (Malagasy time, 8 hours ahead of EST time). We waited another three hours for our group's luggage, and finally got to our hotel at 5:30AM MT. I blame the blurriness of the Antananarivo's airport (below right) on my sheer exhaustion at that moment in time.
My worldly travels largely consist of those Caribbean islands that East coast cruise ships tend to travel to, and one week-long trip to the United Kingdom in high school. Technically I can now say that I've been to France, but all I'd be able to say about the country was that they have a very nice airport (below left). By the time we arrived in Madagascar, I believe it was 2AM MT (Malagasy time, 8 hours ahead of EST time). We waited another three hours for our group's luggage, and finally got to our hotel at 5:30AM MT. I blame the blurriness of the Antananarivo's airport (below right) on my sheer exhaustion at that moment in time.
La Maison du Pyla felt like home from the moment we walked in. My advisor pretty much refuses to stay anywhere else, and for good reason. The hostess treats her guests like family; she went shopping every morning for the freshest ingredients available. The food was amazing, and shared with all the other guests family-style. Every morning we woke up to the smell of freshly baked bread, to go with yogurt, fruits, vanilla honey, and freshly pressed juice (a different one every day). Every evening we were treated to several courses of delicious Malagasy dishes paired with foods to remind you of home, and absolutely fantastic desserts. Our rooms and bathrooms were comfortable and clean, with nice, cozy beds that made you feel snug when the temperature dropped at night and safe from the mosquitoes. We also were privileged enough to be staying at La Maison at the same time as a research colleague, Cortni Borgerson, and her family. One of the other grad students in my lab is working with Cortni in the Masoala peninsula in Northern Madagascar, where she's lived with her family for years at a time. Her husband, Joel, certainly takes advantage of it: Madagascar is an absolutely awesome place for a talented wildlife artist.
But I digress. If you ever have the chance to go to Madagascar, I highly recommend you stay with La Maison, especially if you will be going to the University a lot (it's just a short walk up the street!). Oh, and definitely try out Malagasy pizza - I've included a menu in the photos below so you can decide on your order before you even get to Tana :)
But I digress. If you ever have the chance to go to Madagascar, I highly recommend you stay with La Maison, especially if you will be going to the University a lot (it's just a short walk up the street!). Oh, and definitely try out Malagasy pizza - I've included a menu in the photos below so you can decide on your order before you even get to Tana :)
As you can see in my timeline, I spent the majority of my time in Tana acquiring 3D scans of their subfossil osteological collection. To scan everything would've taken months instead of weeks, so we concentrated our efforts on skulls and really cool, unique specimens. Below are a bunch of pictures taken throughout the week of some of my favorites. My time in Tana really opened my eyes to how much there is left in the world to be discovered. Seeing all of these extinct lemur bones can only make one's imagination go wild. What did they look like? How did they move? What did they do all day? Hopefully one day we'll have a better idea through ancient DNA and isotopic studies, but in the meantime the mystery is absurdly appealing.
So click through the pictures, and let your mind wander a bit - imagine what life was like in Madagascar ~2000 years ago when these giants roamed around. And scroll all the way down to check out a gif of a 3D rendering I made of one of the skulls with the Space Spider. As always, feel free to ask any questions or share any experiences in a comment. Enjoy!
So click through the pictures, and let your mind wander a bit - imagine what life was like in Madagascar ~2000 years ago when these giants roamed around. And scroll all the way down to check out a gif of a 3D rendering I made of one of the skulls with the Space Spider. As always, feel free to ask any questions or share any experiences in a comment. Enjoy!