Hotel Green Park Antsirabe

... taxi brousse with our long legs plus our heavy backpacks, oh no! Instead we had a nice calm drive through beautiful rice terraced countryside. The journey took about 3 hours in all including stopping for supplies of biscuits and goodies on the way. We arrived refreshed and booked into the hotel our Dutch friends were staying there too. We all took a stroll around the town and witnessed (for the first time) a pousse pousse! The name literally meaning 'push ...

... seems to be a constant change of weather as light sprinkles turn on and off throughout the trek. The hike is a solid four hours and we see all sorts of birds, chameleons, frogs, fish, spiders, butterflies, and a myriad of flowers and plants. I'm easily a foot and then some clear of Mr. Florent and Fidy so I get a much better view of the various spider webs that seem to be situated exclusively ...

... part was that, by the time we arrived, my ex-boyfriend Poucy, after waiting for me all day, had to leave town and won't be back until Saturday. We've stayed close and I'm sorry to have to wait another two days to see him again. We're staying in the Diamont, the hotel where the PCVs always stay in Antsirabe, and it's interesting. Caitlin and I decided to splurge on a $14 room instead of the fairly nasty $6 room, right below the ...

... RN7 avec pour première étape : Antsirabe. Le paysage est déjà magnifique : vallées des hautes terres et rizières à perte de vue. Sur la route, nous visitons une fabrique de casseroles. A Antsirabe, nous visitons un atelier de cornes de zébu, un atelier de miniatures et de broderie ainsi qu'une taillerie de pierres précieuses et semi-pr ...

... an incredibly sturdy ass. The taxi-brousse system is great. You go to the station, and about 10 meters out you are literally acosted by 10-15 men trying to get you onto their company's bus. Once you settle on a bus you reserve your space and they tell you to come at a specific time the next day. You do as you're told and the next day arrive at say 8am, the bus leaves at 8:30. An hour later they put your stuff on an empty bus. Two ...

... par Monrondav... les baobas sont la grandes attraction à Mada. Tout se négocie et on ne sait jamais vraiment pour quoi on paie. On laisse tombé en se disant qu'on y arrivera par nous même. On quitte antsirabé le lendemain après des heures d'attente à la gare routière. Comme partout les minibus ne partent que lorsqu'ils sont pleins.

... which usually means the whole village is invited for food and DRINKS...! OKAY...??!! The scenic ride was amazing (i.e. Rice patties everywhere between the cliffs and hills). Malagasy people are generally poor so they walk / bike to get around. This is not North America folks... almost no obese people here! I have found that even if they are poor they are very polite and work extremely hard any way they can to get ...