As before, I will start off with a pronunciation lesson. Nosy Be (“Noisy Bay”) is an island off Madagascar’s northwestern coast, also known as “The Perfume Island” owing to the abundance of the ylang-ylang flower. Handpicked in the early morning when their fragrance is most intense, they enter a distillation process, similar to grappa. The first oils to be collected are used in luxury perfumes. Our guide mentioned Chanel No. 5. The oils that follow go into the making of soaps or aromatherapy products. We stopped and harvested a few flowers, and I can attest to their intoxicating fragrance!
From there, we proceeded to a launch area where we boarded dugout canoes for a paddle to Lokobe National Forest.
Once at Lokobe, we set out on a “forest walk,” that was really a jungle walk, in search of its indigenous fauna. To wit:
Lemurs
Chameleons
Really scary lizards
And tiny frogs with brown backs and blue-spotted bellies.
At the end of the walk, the folks of the small village offered us an excellent seafood lunch and even sang to us. One especially enchanting song was, “Old McDonald had a farm,” only on his farm he had a lemur, or he had a chameleon, etc. It was precious.
I will add that our local guides all speak English, French, Italian, and German. Madagascar is well organized to receive international visitors.
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