J'aime

Madagascar is so huge that naming an article like this is a bit exaggerated. I had the chance to go for work in Antananarivo for one week and found time in the weekend to visit the surroundings. So I’m far to be able to say I visited Madagascar.

I stayed in Tana— everybody uses the short name — in a nice guest room on the hill above the center. From which the view was nice but that’s almost everything I saw from the city by day during the week.

But I also enjoyed the nicest restaurants in town with my colleague. Food is really cheap for European standards. I only took time to walk in the city on the sunday but actually there are not much things to see in the city. The Queen’s palace burnt 15 years ago and is still not rebuilt. The city as a strange atmosphere, it’s more like mountain villages together, you never feel like in a 2 million inhabitant city. Very hilly !

In the centre the main attraction is the market. But don’t carry anything valuable.

Tourists usually stay in Tana for convenience to catch their plane back. Really the nature in Madagascar is more amazing than the capital city. So we rented a car and took a driver for a day to go explore a volcanic area near Ampefy and lake Itasy, 100km West of Tana. We saw geysers and waterfalls in a very green landscape. Looking like Auvergne in the centre of France but with tropical plants like papaya and banana !

A lot of water flows in rivers and waterfalls. It’s still the rainy season in Madagascar.

Rice is cultivated in every possible valley.

On the way back we stopped at a lemur’s park to observe those animals you’ll find nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately they are threatened because of the extreme poverty of the country. People are simply hunting them to eat. But some nature areas are (supposed to be) protected.

So here is a selection of species you usualy don’t find in the same part of the big island.

Guess who they are. The guide told us but I don’t remember !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemuridae