Arboretum d'Anstokay

K & I had a few days in Tulear so we decide to visit the arboretum
that's just outside of Tulear called Antsoky. It's actually a really
nice place, with a small hotel (Auberge de la Table) that's in
construction, as well a a really nice swimming pool and restaurant.

The arboretum was pretty great. We had a tour guide that took us for
about an hour walk, guided in English, through the garden. The plants
were all labeled really nicely and the garden is starting to mature
well. It's filled with plants that are native to southern Madagascar,
and was really nice to see many of the plants that I see every day
(but don't know because the lemurs don't eat them), as well as learn
how local people put a lot of the different plants to use: from
building pirogues to various medicinal uses. A lot of these were
really nicely put together in well-illustrated signs (I must admit,
I'm now a sucker for informational signage).

At the end of the walk we came to their small 'museum', which as a
smattering of different minerals, some nice fossils, and more plants
in jars. And we got to see their radiated tortoise enclosure at had
over 40 tortoises in it! They were packed on top of each other and
hugging the walls for places to sleep. It was amazing to see so many
tortoises all together. We see them on a fairly regular basis around
the forest, but that many tortoises is a sight. I'm not sure how they
all got there -- if they are rescues or if they were collected. I'm
not sure. I didn't get to ask because our tour guide legged it out of
there as fast as she could.

We had a nice lunch after the walk on the veranda, near the pool. Goat
cheese is one of the house specialties, so we had plenty of that. The
Swiss guy (Pétignat) who started the place moved to Madagascar as an
expat and originally tried to raise goats and market goat cheese. In
true Malagasy style, his tomb is in the center of the garden. Anyhow,
while his chevre business didn't really quite take off, he was also an
amateur botanist and decided to open a botanical garden as well. So,
we had plants and goat cheese, and I don't think that either of us
minded at all. The cheese was great -- full of garlic and herbs. Now
if only I can get someone in a village here to make goat cheese, we'd
be set.