Categories

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Tags

africa ethiopia travel
Generic Viagra | Adderall || Levitra online

Site search

Categories

January 2012
S M T W T F S
« Nov    
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  

Tags

Blogroll

Mauritius

Flic-en-Flac, Mauritius

What a difference from Madagascar. It’s way more touristy here and the food is great. Madagascar is definitely one of the poorest countries in the world. Mauritius on the other hand is more like an island paradise. Beautiful white sand beaches and clear blue water. We arrived in the late morning and dumped our stuff in the room. We headed to the beach which was busy as it’s a holiday here. Our hotel is across the street from the beach! We ate on the beach from these vans parked alongside. Great food! We has veggie samosas and a stir fried spicy noodle dish. I Iove street food Tonight it’s a buffet which is included with the hotel. Looking forward to some good Indian food. The people, culture and food are a mix of Indian, Chinese and Creole (black African). It seems that the Indian population predominates. People speak French , English and Creole. Hopefully we will go snorkeling tomorrow right off the beach in front of our hotel!

20111104-215803.jpg

20111104-215811.jpg

20111104-215821.jpg

20111104-215832.jpg

Final leg

Our flight from Morondova to Tulear was 5 hours delayed due to a foggy morning. We passed the time chatting with fellow travelers and watching some movies on our iPhones. We realized that we didn’t arrange a car hire for Tulear so we phoned around from the airport departure lounge and found a company that would arrange for a driver to meet us at the airport in Tulear. Seems to be our M. O. for this trip i.e. last minute travel arrangements.

Finally we get to travel on a decent paved road. We are not used to riding in a car without hanging on to the above window handle. We drove to the Parc National d’Isalo en route to Antananarivo.

The next morning we arranged for a guide to visit the Canyon de Maki et de Rats (Lemur and Rat Canyons). It was an arduous hike through dry forests full of insects, snakes, birds and lemurs. Our guide pointed out things we would never have seen alone. For instance, we passed a branch with white fluff on it. He touched it and the fluff started to move up and down the branch. The fluff turned out to be a type of cricket camouflaging itself. Nearby there were pink petals on a branch that were actually the same crickets changed into this mature form. He showed us a type of “sensitive” fern that when touched it retracts its fronds.

We arrived at the canyons after sweating buckets. We were hiking at 7 in the morning and the temperature was already in the 30s. We passed a Bara burial site along the way high up in the canyon wall. The Bara are a local tribe that place their dead in colorful wood coffins and leave them in rock caves temporarily. 4 years later they take the remains and move the coffin to a sacred permanent tomb in the canyon. We rested at the entrances of these canyons, an oasis- like area of lush green flora and mountain pools shaded by the high canyon walls.

There are many places were there are “fady”, local taboos. One should never point to a tomb with a finger. Our guide indicated them with his fist instead. Swimming in certain pools of water is also fady if it’s where their ancestors’ spirits reside. Eating pork or goat is fady in certain villages or cities as well.

After lunch we headed to the other end of the park where we hiked to the Piscine Naturelle (nature made swimming pool). This hike passed through colourful sandstone mountain ranges. Our guide spotted ring tailed lemurs leaping about in the trees off the path. We were very excited to see them as it was very unexpected. We followed the family, scrambling down through the hills,to catch a closer look. On our way back up we saw strange plants and insects that we’ve never seen before. Our guide pointed out a small scorpion at our feet!

Madagascar at times looks and feels more like southeast Asia than Africa. We see lush green terraced rice patties in mountain- like settings and pousses- pousses (rickshaws) which are reminiscent of SE Asia. Much of the route nationale 7 which runs from southern Mada up to Tana runs through savannah like dry grasslands and low mountain ranges. The sun is always shining and the weather is hot and dry.

The people are a mix of African and Indonesian looking peoples. Some cities are mostly Black being of African ancestry while others more South Asian looking. Antananarivo , the capital , has a very mixed population.

The people, while somewhat reserved, are very friendly and always smile back. Mada is quite a poor country and there is no running water in many of the villages. The food tends to be more African though Asian samosas and fried bananas as sold everywhere. The Malagasy hot sauce (piment Malgache) is the hottest we’ve ever tried. We tried putting our fork prong into it to taste it and nearly choked!

Our next stop will be Mauritius where we will indulge ourselves a little before heading back home.

20111030-125645.jpg

20111030-125659.jpg

Western Mada…worst roads anywhere

Today we had a late start. The lady at the hotel we were staying at told us we had enough time to get to the airport. The traffic however was horrible. Roads through the capital Antananarivo were blocked by stalled cars and carts pulled by zebus. We started to get a sick feeling that we would actually miss a once every 2 days sold out flight! We thought we took the same route into the city from the airport when we arrived. Our driver spoke almost no French which made it even more frustrating. We turned a corner and entered the gates of the airport. We were relieved to say the least!

It was a short 1 hour flight to Morondova, the capital seaside town. We had already arranged a driver and car. It was nice seeing our names on the driver held up sign ” Star and Shann” :)

We didn’t get very far as Ravel didn’t understand French very well and was not very expressive. Given that we were driving up north for a 3 day trip we decided to complain to the travel agency we booked with in Tana. Instead of changing the driver we acquired a bilingual guide to join us. With the 4x 4 full we heading north to trek in the Parc National des Tsingy de Bemaraha.

The ride up takes between 9-11 hours on a dry red dusty road though I would call it a zebu cart path. The ups and downs and twists and turns take a toll on your body. You have to hang on to the handle fixes to the side of the window to keep from being jostled around. Ww were lucky to spend the night at the half way mark on the way up. We stayed in a village that had western style accommodation. We were a little disappointed to see a bucket full of cold water next to the sink, toilet, and shower stall complete with non functioning taps and shower head. It still felt great to wash of the grime and dust with unlimited buckets of water. The nights here are sweltering and the wind from the fans doesn’t quite penetrate the tiny holes on the mosquito nets. Temperatures have been around 25C (outside) 30s (inside) at night to over 40C in the day.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30 AM to make our way up to the park. We took a barque twice to cross the rivers. The drive passed through Malagasy villages along the way which was nice. After the 5 hour drive we arrived at the park. We had a quick brunch of white rice and coffee and bread with honey. The hike took us around 4 hours and was relatively strenuous. It was quite beautiful walking through the soaring stone pinnacles of the Tsingy (sharp limestone formations). He passages underneath were very narrow and cool which gave us some respite from the scorching heat above. We crawled through cave on our hands and knees on occasion and visited a bat cave.The first inhabitants of Madagascar lived in these caves and crevasses. We climbed hand over foot with the occasional use of a harness and carabiners to make our way the the suspended bridge. The view over the hundreds of metre high Tsingy was spectacular. These limestone grey black sharp jagged pinnacles stretch out for a hundred Km.

After 9 hours on the dirt path we finally arrive at the Avenue du Baobab. The road runs by these majestic trees where travelers come to watch the sunset. some of them are a thousand years old! We caught up with fellow travelers who we met up in the Parc de Tsingy.

Tomorrow we fly to Tulear the capital of Southern Mada. From here we will hire a car and driver (they come together) to make our way back to Tana stopping in a national park along the wAy. These roads are meant to be paved!!

20111027-222330.jpg

20111027-222341.jpg

20111027-222400.jpg

20111027-222349.jpg

20111027-222311.jpg