Another early morning as our tour to The Isle of Lemurs
leaves at 7:30 am. We had a quick
breakfast and my head was spinning from the drinks last night – started with 2
blue martinis at the James Bond, followed by 2 Rose Kennedys in Observation,
lots of wine at dinner with John and Janet, and then after dinner Amaretto with
the cast. Ugh – I can do this!
I took over an hour for our number to be called to get on
the tender since we are anchored off Nosy Be, Madagascar. A bit frustrating but what are you going to
do?
Once we got ashore our guide was waiting for us. A soft-spoken Madagascar women who did a good
job. We all got into a speed boat for a
30 minute ride over to Nosy Komba which is called “The Isle of Lemurs”. Gemma from the cast and Sharon from Sydney
were on our tour, along with 2 elderly people who both used canes to walk – why
in the world are they coming on this tour.
She didn’t know it was a “wet landing” so just put her orthotic shoes in
the water when we got off the speed boat at Nosy Komba.
Our vessel to go over to Nosy Komba to see the lemurs
And we are off from Nosy Be to Nosy Komba
Our driver and his helper
We passed the Voyager at anchor at Nosy Be
Lots of children greeted us on the beach - some selling things - some just wanting money
The school on Nosy Komba - recess time!
We were met with children singing, dancing, and twerking and
women crushing coffee beans. Lots of
embroidery was hanging as they make this here as a specialty. We walked through a small village and our
guide explained life on Nosy Kombo. We
are all so fortunate!
We got to the Lemur Park and a guide took us to where some
lemurs were. He had us stand with our
backs to the tree and put some banana in our hands. The lemurs would come down and sit on our
shoulder and eat the banana. They are so
soft. That was great fun. My guide had to coax the lemur (a black one,
so he was male) down the tree and he sat on my shoulder a while taking it all
in.
Lemurs jumping around in the trees - the brown ones are female
Tim with the lemur on his shoulder - they want bananas to eat
Eating banana out of Tim's hand
They were very, very soft and furry
A male and a female in a tree
Climbing from tree to tree
Jumping all around - in look of more bananas to eat
I got my chance to feed a male lemur
The guide would put banana in my hand and the lemur would pull my hand to his mouth to eat
Sitting, watching, and waiting for more!
We saw a boa constrictor which they offered to put around
our necks (no way!) some small tortoises and some giant tortoises. Also geckos and chameleons. Gemma was fascinated with the chameleon and
they tried to get one to sit on her shoulder but it kept jumping off. She was funny.
Boa constrictors . . .
and turtles
We walked back through the village a different way where
there were more shops with carvings, paintings, and embroidery. Lots of children were singing and dancing and
I stopped to dance with one group. They
got their expected tip for letting me join them. Many of them had their faces painted in white
or gold with intricate designs.
Playing with the cameleon
Colorful handmade items - table clothes, bedspreads, blankets, etc
A fun group of children singing and dancing . . .
so I joined them . . .
jumping, clapping, and singing - all for money of course!
Lots of children singing and dancing on the beach
We sat under the trees and had refreshments and enjoyed the scenery on Nosy Komba
Panorama of Nosy Komba
Sailing back into Nosy Be, Madagascar
We got back to the shore and had a refreshment break and
then boarded our speed boat to go back to the main dock. The officials there wouldn’t allow them to
have us disembark where we had gotten on so we had to wait quite a while as the
tenders would land and then speed boats would unload. They took turns and we finally got off. There were certainly a lot of grumpy people
that emerged. So Tim started singing
“Don’t Worry – Be Happy” and Gemma joined it.
It was funny but the grumpy people stopped until we got ashore.
Tim had an unpleasant interchange with some other passengers
who got on the tender and refused to move to allow others to get on as they
wanted a seat near the exit – some words were exchanged about “selfish people .
. .” – Sabai – Sabai!
We got back to the ship and went to the dining room since it
was air conditioned and cool. We both
had a light lunch and then relaxed for the afternoon.
We sailed a little after 2 pm and will be at sea for 2 ½
days enroute to Mobutu, Mozambique. I
took a long nap to get over the partying from the night before and from the
heat of Nosy Komba – it was so hot and humid.
We went to tea at 4 pm but didn’t stay for trivia. We dressed and went to Explorers for drinks
with George and Grant and then we had reservations for dinner in
Signatures. I went about 45 minutes
prior to our reservation time to see if they could take us early so we could go
to the show and they did. We had an
excellent dinner and met LuLu from France who was one of the servers.
Sophie Poulton did a show of “Love Songs”. She did a great job considering she is 21
years old. We enjoyed the show. Then we went to Observation and met Paul and
Patricia, Nathan and Allen, David and Ben (chief administrative officer) and
Gemma for drinks. We closed the bar at
midnight – geez, can we continue this behavior?
Then it was off to bed – we get to sleep late tomorrow since it is an at
sea day, thank goodness.
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