Leaving Tana for greener pastures...!

  Antsirabe, Madagascar
Friday, August 25, 2006

GPS Coordinates:
S 19°50'16.8"
E 047°02'28.3"

Temperature: 18.0 °C
Humidity: 64.8 %
Pressure: 85.3 kPa
Altitude: 1538 m

First stop: ANTSIRABE

Didi my driver / facilitator

Started the drive down to Anstirabe @ 10 AM with my driver / facilitator nicknamed "Didi". Believe me you do not want to know his full name because it has more letters than Arnold the Terminator governor from California...!

Stopped in AMBATOLAMPY for food and observe resourcefullness at its finest; they recycle old aluminum from almost anywhere (i.e. car parts, structures), melt it down and turn it into pots and pans but mostly into tourist sculptures / souvenirs.

Along the way we observed a cultural / family event called the "Retournement des Morts" which pays hommage to the buried dead by wrapping the bones of the deceased every few years with fresh linens and is usually followed by a big party which usually means the whole village is invited for food and DRINKS...! OKAY...??!!

Rice Fields

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 ahead in life. That means cultivating the land (by hand thank you! no farm equipment here), producing a traditional red brick for construction, herding Zebu's (our beef equivalent), or selling food and other wares to passing taxi-brousses, etc...

Laundry Day

Once in Antsirabe, we went to Joseph's shop where his crew works semi-precious / precious stones found in Madagascar; of course I was welcomed has any good "VAZA" (foreigner / tourist in Malagasy) to his place and automatically became his best friend...! Admittedly, a tour of his little shop was very interesting.

Antsirabe Train Station

Me and Didi then did a walking tour of Antsirabe where he showed me some of the particularities of this small town. It's the pousse-pousse capital of Madagascar maybe the whole world. Seriously, this was the capital of Madagascar when it was a French colony, so century-old french estates in various stages of disrepair are visible from large tree-lined avenues. There was the train station where all goods came in and out. The Hotel des Thermes is a big building which was used in the past to house visiting VIP's and dignitaries; it is now a hotel.

Hotel des Thermes

The term "Therme" is french and relates to the volcanic past / geology of Madagascar. There are still numerous natural geothermic baths around the country.