Getting there....

We made it all in one piece to Betampona after a 4x4, a canoe crossing, a taxi-brousse and a 4 km slip and slide mud walk.

We even made it with all 9 of our bags (3 bags for the research equipment, 3 personal bags for Bethany, Herman and myself, and then 3 whopping bags of food). You have to bring all of your necessities with you—there’s no grocery store on the corner up here. Although if you get in dire straits, you can always hire a porter to head back down the mountain to the nearest village (~ 4 kilometers away) to purchase anything from the following available items (the typical village stock): Three Horses Beer (THB), the drink of choice in Madagascar, local rum, rice, or crackers. Take your pick! We try to bring up as many fresh vegetables as possible, but when those start to go bad, it’s back to the old standard: rice and beans.

Check out the resourceful porters carrying our beast-sized bags…they will most likely still beat us up the slippery mountainside. In flip flops no less.