#andringitra

Antananarivo a.k.a. Tana

The capital of Madagascar was the first place I arrived to and it’s difficult to use only one word to describe it. Houses packed up on hills, next to rice fields as soon as you get down to anything flat, narrow, winding streets, random foods and markets. This is the first idea one gets of the country, and it tells a tale of colonialism, multi-ethnicity an immigration, and poverty. In Tana, people look remotely Indonesian to my untrained eye, and the city in general feels very far from Africa. Actually, it felt more like a fusion of South America and South East Asia. Honestly though, there’s not that much to do here. Wander around and take in the atmosphere, go to the market, but it’s not that exciting after a day or so. But do not miss out on the amazing food!

My top picks for restaurants were Sakamanga (where we had dinner on NYE, chocolate mousse is fab!), and a place which on google maps is referred to as le carrefour de voyageur (Rue des 77 parlementaires Français Antsahavola), also known as Le Carre. Just superb! I should have spent way more money on food in Tana… But check out Tripadvisor to find more!

Where to stay:

There are couchsurfers in the bigger cities in Madagascar, but I still opted to stay in a hostel in Tana – Madagascar Underground. This place has a really nice vibe, a really nice bar and the most amazing staff! There is karaoke every night and Mushu will sing for you :) It’s simple and a bit chaotic but a great place to meet people, and they can help you with contacts for the rest of your trip. As I passed through Tana many times (the road network makes that pretty much inevitable), I also stayed in Sakamanga, (it’s both a hotel and a restaurant and spa and…) which is luxurious but cheap with European standards and probably one of the nicest places I’ve ever stayed in (because I always prioritise budget…).  

South

I decided to first head south, because I desperately wanted to go hiking and had my mind set on Andringitra. This is a mountain range with the highest climbable peak in Mada, pic Boby/pic Imarivolanitra, 2658 masl. It’s a beautiful three-day adventure, the hike is not too difficult so if you are normally fit you will have no problem. And this is totally worth the effort! This park is one of the least visited in the country, and I saw only three other tourists during our days there. The nature is absolutely breath-taking, the peace of the place stunning. And we had fantastic guides and porters that cooked, carried our tents and provided excellent entertainment in terms of music and dance by the campfire every night! We got the phone number of the guide, Mario, at Madagascar Underground.

Where is this wonderland? From Tana, take a taxi-brousse that leaves at 7am (supposedly) to Fianarantsoa (Fianar for short), and there continue to Ambalavao. This should cost around 25000 Ar. We got to Fianar very late, so we ended up having to take a taxi to Ambalavao to get there the same night, which was quite expensive, over 100 000 Ar. However if you have to stay in Fianar, the hotel Raza-otel is a little bit tricky to find (a side road down from a square, that turns into a dirt road) but it’s cheap and cosy!

In Ambalavao, we stayed in a hotel called La residence du Betsileo, and they offer delicious fried cheese for dinner – the owner is French and speaks very little English… Mario met us at the hotel and picked us up from there the morning after, we spent two nights in the Andringitra park and were dropped off at the same place. The whole tour was 320 000 Ar per person, and it was well spent money as it was literally all included, even the local rum!

From Ambalavao, we continued further south to the well-known park Isalo. This is one of the oldest and therefore most well-visited parks in the country. The landscape is so varied on this island, and this our guide presented to us as the Colorado of Madagascar – desert, rock formations and canyons. And yes it is gorgeous, we walked for two days and spent one night at a campsite there, where we were hanging out with lemurs! Both brown lemurs, which is the most common type, and ring-tailed lemurs which are the most well-known ones. Suuuch a nice experience to lie on the ground and look up at 10 of those beautiful creatures, playing and chilling right above you. This campsite apparently gets packed in high season and can have 50 people staying there, but as we were in low season and chose to spend the 25th of December there, it was only my two companions and I!

To get to Isalo, take the Taxi-Brousse that goes from Fianarantsoa to Tuleár (Toliara on Google Maps) – if you are in Ambalavao you need to call and make a reservation so they pick you up, something that Mario (our guide from Andringitra) helped us with. You get off in the city Ranohira, which has the park office to Isalo. This is a fairly pricey park to visit, because there are established guide fees, the park entrance is pretty high etc. In the end we payed something like 240 000 Ar, because we wanted vegetarian food and decided to walk to and from the park instead of taking a car (you really don’t need a car). We went with a young guy, Julio, the first day and with Dady the day after. They were both great guides, explaining a lot about the local cultures, the plants and the geological formations. Recommended! In Ranohira, we stayed in a place called Chez Alice, which has bungalows just on the outskirt of the little community and it’s really peaceful. The receptionist is a nice an funny guy, and the rood in the restaurant is very good! We had dinner here on the 24th and the 26th and there was quite a party going on the last night!