Day 9 - Isalo National Park

We began our hike in Isalo National Park with our guide Toussant asking if we could see anything unusual about a bush without leaves. With much searching I do spot two tiny little eyes and a needle thin beak, a stick insect almost perfectly camouflaged in the bush.

Toussant tells us about the Baru people who inhabit the area. He talks again about the cattle stealing requirement for marriage. He says that it can be quite organized with Baru men rustling as many as 80 cattle at a time. With the requisite paper work already prepared, they will load the cattle onto a truck where he says they cannot be interfered with. He says lately guns have been involved whereas in the past it was only spears.
He also tells us about the slash and burn form of agriculture practiced by the people. He says that they believe burning makes the land more fertile because the grass comes in green. There has been a problem with fires spreading into the national park. Without wildfire equipment there is little that can be done when this occurs.
He showed is piles of stones in the side of a cliff. This is where a body has been left. He says that the dead are put in these places right away and then, after the flesh had rotted and only bones remain, they are washed wrapped, placed on a casket and then interned in the side of a cliff higher up where they're likely to be bothered and can thereby act as an intermediary between the living and the higher spirit. He showed us a child's casket painted white for purity and black for the grief his death brought to the family. There was also a set of wheels beside the casket to symbolize the comfort the family wishes the child to experience on the afterlife, the wheels signifying the luxury of owning an automobile.

Not far from here we stopped ring tail lemur. They'd already been bothered by tourists who'd preceeded us and so ran away not long after we arrived. We stopped for a swim at a pool with a little waterfall. They call this area the puisine. Despite the hit dry weather experienced by l in the area the water was cool and refreshing. A few ring tailed lemurs were hanging around Toussant says hoping to pick up food or banana peels left by the tourists. He said that during the dry season there aren't many leaves left for them to eat.

Then it was a long walk over what Toussant called the valley of fire. Fortunately a cool breeze blew in our faces so the trek really did not live up to its name. Heat did become a factor when we entered the canyon of our destination and began the long trek down to the bottom. We caught up to an older couple with their guide. (Everyone has a guide as it's mandatory in the park.) She was suffering from heat exhaustion. I'm not sure how she got down but we did see her husband making the trek up the canyon.

We drank a couple of cokes in the cool of the shade by the stream at the bottom of the canyon. We were entertained by the antics of the brown red fronted lemurs and a white sifaka lemur also called the dancing lemur because can't walk on he l his four legs. He must hop on his hind two which makes him look like he's dancing. This was a solitary male being rejected by the male of a nearby group. He posed very nicely in a tree while a couple of red breastfed lemurs attempted to steal food from people eating lunch right next to us.
The walk up the canyon was quite cool and beautiful and arduous. There were many steps up and down many cut into the rock as the path followed the steam up a pool. Lush green vegetation surrounded the stream and the sun rarely reached the bottom of the canyon.

I stripped down to my underwear for a swim at the end of the trail. A waterfall fed the pool and I'd watched a girl who'd surreptitiously changed into her swim suit don her swim goggle and swim across the pool to tread water under the falls.

The water was painfully cold. I could barely bring myself to swim as far as the falls. No wonder the girls hubby or boyfriend had only swum a couple of strokes after jumping in.

For the remainder of the afternoon and evening we hung out in our beautiful hotel enjoying the view and the cool of the late afternoon and evening. Later that night we gazed at the most amazing display of stars with the milky way easily visible. We were also able to identify the southern cross. Not exactly a trick as I was pretty sure I could identify it before checking on my phone.