I was lucky enough to travel around Madagascar for three weeks last summer. I wrote my first draft of this post as I was sitting on my second of three flights back to State College, 36000 feet in the air somewhere north of Quebec. PJ and I then experienced the very rapid transition from the misery of a cancelled flight to the joy of being bumped up to one 5 hours sooner than we had planned.
I remember being really excited to be almost home, but simultaneously wishing I had spent months in Madagascar instead of weeks. I hope that you’ll get where I’m coming from after reading the next few posts, but the long and short of it is that Madagascar is so incredibly different from anything I’ve ever experienced before, that by the time I was truly understanding what was happening around me, we were flying away...
I remember being really excited to be almost home, but simultaneously wishing I had spent months in Madagascar instead of weeks. I hope that you’ll get where I’m coming from after reading the next few posts, but the long and short of it is that Madagascar is so incredibly different from anything I’ve ever experienced before, that by the time I was truly understanding what was happening around me, we were flying away...
My Madagascar trip was from July 22nd to August 12th, but realistically started about 3-4 days before when I started packing. Our itinerary was fairly complex, with several location changes, meetings, camping, equipment needs, etc. (see schedule above). As such, packing was a fairly complicated process. I brought one gigantic suitcase, my hiking backpack, and our super cool handheld 3D scanner, an Artec Space Spider. Click the button below to check out the scanner specs, and be excited for lots of 3D gifs coming your way soon!
My friends and colleagues were kind enough to share their packing lists with me, and what I gathered from each of these were a few common trends: 1) bring a mini pharmacy with you, because you never know what you’ll need in the field; 2) limit clothing, and wash along the way to save valuable space; 3) solar panels are your best friend for fieldwork in the southwestern Malagasy winter months. I’ve attached my packing list here so you can see what I brought along, but have learned a thing or two during my travels so check out the Things To Bring Next Time list at the end of the post as well.
My friends and colleagues were kind enough to share their packing lists with me, and what I gathered from each of these were a few common trends: 1) bring a mini pharmacy with you, because you never know what you’ll need in the field; 2) limit clothing, and wash along the way to save valuable space; 3) solar panels are your best friend for fieldwork in the southwestern Malagasy winter months. I’ve attached my packing list here so you can see what I brought along, but have learned a thing or two during my travels so check out the Things To Bring Next Time list at the end of the post as well.
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