Where Has the Time Gone?

The Traveler's Palm

October 14 -- It feels like only yesterday that we arrived on Tsarabanjina, yet our stay is almost over.  Today was very relaxing.  In the morning, we took a quick botanical walk from the restaurant to the reception and learned about a number of plants.  Unfortunately, our guide only knew the Italian name of many of the plants, so my ability to describe them here is limited.  Nevertheless, we saw jackfruits, pink peppercorn plants, papaya trees, vanilla plants, and a variety of incredibly beautiful (but unnamed) flowers.

Out of all of Madagascar's flora, its palms are perhaps the most impressive.  There are approximately 200 different species of palm trees on Madagascar, and 189 of those are found nowhere else on Earth.  The adaptations are astounding.  For example, there is one type of palm that, rather than growing seeds, it sprouts young buds up its trunk that subsequently fall off and become whole trees.  Yet, as impressive as the Malagasy palms are, the two most impressive species are not actually palms at all.  The most famous -- the traveler's palm -- found its was to being the logo for Air Madagascar.  It's actually a species of banana tree, but it looks like a palm and its giant leaves collect watter inside their base so a thirsty traveler need only take a machete to one of its leaves to find water.  The second "false" palm is commonly called a Madagascar palm.  In truth, it's a large succulent, called a pachypodium because it looks like an elephant's leg.  The tree is covered in spines that serve the dual purpose of keeping lemurs away from the tree's delicious fruits and collecting/storing water.  In other parts of the country, the pachypodium is referred to as a "tourista trap" because tourists will grab it to stabilize themselves, not seeing the spines on the dark gray bark.

Kati Admiring the Sunset

After a long day relaxing on the beach, the staff treated all of us to a bit of a party.  We had an aperitivo on the beach, complete with a Malagasy band, dancing, and some great appetizers.  There were chicken skewers (with some of the juiciest chicken I've ever had), several kinds of fish and beef carpaccio, fresh oysters, and a Malagasy take on pizza.  We befriended a nice British couple from London that had to come to the island by helicopter because Air Madagascar (aka 'Air Maybe') changed their flight at the last minute and they arrived too late to take a boat to the island.

For dinner, Kati had some mediocre lamb and I had some really good calamari, both paired with an excellent Malagasy red wine (yes, I drank red wine with calamari, and it was great).  Between the many aperitivo drinks and our bottle of wine at dinner, Kati and I were both a bit inebriated and more than a little exhausted, so we started the trek back to the south beach early, stopping to admire the star-filled sky for a bit before turning in for the night.