Arrival in Madagascar
by Elise
June 22, 2005

Today Julia and I arrived in Antananarivo, (easier to spell than pronounce believe me!) Madagascar from Mauritius. Although we had anticipated the bombardment of offers from guides and taxi drivers, nothing prepares you for the personal level of insecurity you feel. After converting Euro to Ariary (the revived currency for Madagascar) we managed to shake one very interested fellow by a side exit. Although once into our negotiation with another taxi driver we started to wonder whether we had made the correct choice ditching our polite English speaking ‘friend’. Second time around at our arrival in Majunga we were wiser and more confident successfully negotiating our way to the hotel for our price. We met up with Luke Dollar (principal researcher) and Nikki (fellow participant) for dinner. It was reassuring to finally be settled in Madagascar amongst friends.