Vacation: River, Tsingy, Baobabs

So as you may have guessed from the pictures in the last post, I've been exploring the island a bit more! After the Peace Corps training, I used up my accumulated vacation days by going on an awesome little excursion with some of the other volunteers.

Lava

The first stop was Ansirabe, the pousse-pousse capital of the country (the Malagasy version of rickshaws). A group of up chipped in for a taxi to take us out to Lake Tritriva, a pretty little turquoise volcanic lake situated above the barley fields. Yes, barley, not rice for once! Ansirabe is the HQ from Three Horses Beer, the national (basically only) beer in Madagascar. We hiked around the lake crater and watched a local man and his sons gather wild honey.

Water

A small group of us then took a too-early-morning trip to the town of Miandrivazo, where we joined up with some French and Dutch people for a 3-day ride down the Tsiribihina river in dugout canoes. The river was broad and shallow from the dry season and we had to get out to push it over sandbars a number of times. Out guide kept telling us that the Batman would guide us during the day. What? The Batman will take you! It took us a while to realize he meant the boatman. The sun was a bit harsh but the trip was peaceful, floating downriver and taking a turn with the oar now and then. We ate and camped on big sandbars and slept under the stars--though the first night I had to tuck my kisaly (wrap skirt) around my head to ward off mosquitoes.

Cows

After almost 150k of river, we hauled out at a small town where, as with everywhere else, the kids were too used to tourists. "Give me your watch." No. "Give me a pen." No. "Candy?" Sigh. There was also a constant demand for used water bottles, which I can support a bit more since it's legitimate recycling--I even saw a kid make a two-string guitar out of a discarded water bottle. After escaping the hoards of children, we loaded onto zebu (humped cow) carts for a 2 hour ride to our hotel, a hilarious little trip that involved running the cows and their rickety little wagons down dusty roads and fording the streams Oregon Trail-style.

4x4

After a very necessary shower and a good night's sleep, we squeezed into a 4x4 and drove to a campsite outside Tsingy National Park, a fairly long ride that involved nasty roads (4x4=absolutely necessary) and two river crossings by ferry. The ferries were interesting--bi- or tri-hull catamaran with a wooden plank platform. More river camping! As a side note, I continue to curse the French for introducing their concept of a breakfast to their colonies. 6 inches of dry bread with weak coffee or tea is NOT a meal, merci beaucoup.

Rocks

We spent a full day wandering around the Tsingy, which is a bit like Bryce Canyon in the States--erosion has caused slot canyons, stone pillars, and wavy fins of rock. We hiked around for 6 hours or so, squeezing between and climbing over the rocks to explore some of the caves and grottos that apparently used to be occupied by the mysterious Vazimba people, who according to Malagasy oral tradition were the first inhabitants of Madagascar. Many of the ascents and descents over the rocks were so steep that we wore harness and clipped onto cables anchored in the rock while we climbed over on ladders. There was also a great suspension bridge over one of the drops--think Indiana Jones with safety cables. The park was amazingly well kept up, despite (because of?) the fact that due to its remote location and the drop in tourism because of the political issues here, they only got 5000 visitors last year.

Lemurs

One thing Bryce definitely does not have! We saw a bunch of sifakas--lanky white little dudes who jump through the trees--a nocturnal hapalemur, and a family of brown lemurs.

Long Road South

We got back in the 4x4s to head south to Morondava--rough roads, two ferries, and LOTS of baobabs! There are a bunch of myths about the baobab, the most common being that the gods were angry at the trees' arrogance, so they yanked them up and stuck them back in the ground upside down, their roots in the air, which accounts for the baobabs' weird appearance. At sunset we were at the Avenue de Baobab, a line of massive trees, some of them 1000 years old. We left the rest of the group at Morondava, a dusty little city on the ocean, and after a brief swim in the Mozambique Channel, we headed back to Tana (Antananarivo, the capital) on 2 days of taxi brousses.

I'm flying back to site tomorrow and have some hopeful leads on working with fair trade vanilla. Peace (Corps) Out!