Traveling opens my eyes to so much more than just the tourist attractions, it's the people, the culture, the different kinds of plants, there's just so much... I'll try and highlight a few moments, that maybe can begin to paint even the palest picture of that incredible country.
The People
I've observed in my travels that people are the same the world over. Our cultural differences separate us sometimes, and we often have different beliefs or norms, but we are all still part of the Tribe Human. Madagascar is a beautiful blend of a 18 different tribes, with some very different lifestyles and practices (from annual exhumations at the family tomb to a completely nomadic lifestyle with no family homes or passing of generational wealth). Across the country the tribes also look quite different, as African, Asian and European peoples have all settled there over thousands of years.
As we drove from the capital of Antanarivo to the rain forests in the north, and then to the highlands to the south and finally to the spiny forest and deserts in the west, we saw a sampling of some of the different tribes, from small wood houses to 3-story brick homes built by hand from local materials, to zebu grazing areas lined with fences made of cactus.
And everywhere we went, whenever we saw young women or little girls they always waved and would smile back at me when I smiled at them. And it was a real smile. A real connection of woman to woman, and incredibly powerful. Have you ever looked out a window and sometimes caught the eye of the person in the car next to you and you feel like you just invaded on their private lives? But then sometimes you look at them and they look back and and there's a brief connection that's made? Like for a moment you just connected, and thought, yes that's a person too, with a story and a family and life all their own. It was like that. And it happened everywhere we went.
It also broke my heart too see these beautiful and proud people where survival was a struggle. As we drove along the roads we saw piles of rock with a half dozen people sitting by the road with small pick axes breaking down the rock into gravel. We saw young kids, 7 years old, filling the pot holes with a homemade shovel asking the truck drivers for some payment for their work. We saw that the people who lived in the areas that got a lot of rain were well fed, and the people in the south where they didn't have as much were struggling to scrape out an existence. The people had what they grew, or made with the resources around them. Subsistence living finally took on a real definition for me. It made me realize just how much we take our transportation infrastructure for granted, both in terms of utilities and the movement of goods and commodities.
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| The rice fields in the Highlands |
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| The handmade brick homes |
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| A local market, with clothing, goods and livestock. The villagers would walk many miles each week for Market Day |
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| A cactus fence! |
The Animals and The Parks
I wish I could say that Madagascar is full of rain forests and lemurs are jumping from every tree, but alas that is not the case. The main staple of the Malagasy diet is rice, and their rice growing practices are all manual labor and not efficient, so much of the country has been cleared for rice patties. Almost all of the lemurs are endangered and their habitat is largely restricted to protected National Parks or private reserves. More than 80% of the forests are gone, but we heard that there is a movement to plant more forests and to set aside more land. But as we even know in the US, if you have the needs of people up against the needs of the wild, only a government who wants to care about both can help solve both......
But the lemurs and the chameleons were just so amazing. We had the best moments, standing in the forest, usually on a really steep hill trying not to fall down in between a slippery mud bit or a branch poking at your back, just watching lemurs do their thing. We saw chamelons sleeping on a leaf at night, and the largest lemur, the indri, calling their haunting call; we watched a baby lemur bouncing around non-stop on his patient parents, and lemurs coming down to the ground for their daily mineral supplements from the iron rich soils. All just doing their thing and not particularly caring about us tourists one way or another. One of the best moments was when our small group of 4 plus a guide were in one of the less popular national parks, and an entire troupe of Verraux's Sifaka was just hanging out right above us. A mom and baby, jumped around just feet from us. It was just us, in the forest, with a half dozen lemurs, dancing from tree to tree.
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| Ring Tailed, or as we called them King Julien lemurs coming down to the river for a drink while we ate lunch |
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| Verraux Sifaka or the Dancing Lemur |
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| Parson's Chameleon, sleeping on a branch at night. |
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| My favorite, the adorable Bamboo Lemur. They were just so darn cute! and sadly don't survive in captivity, so habitat protection is especially important for them. |
The Company
I went on this trip with my Mom. And we had some trepidation going in to the trip, could we get along for 2 whole weeks at such close quarters? We might have had a couple mom/daughter moments, but looking back I can't be happier that we made this decision to take this trip together. My mom turned 70 this year, and there were some hikes that were very strenuous for her, but together we made it through, even when we had to take her load off and carry her pack for a bit. She has traveled all over the world, and some of it has been pretty rugged. Having her there to talk and process through what we saw and experienced was so valuable for me. And having such a seasoned traveler to commiserate with when things got uncomfortable, like when there was no hot water, or we had to sleep with the door wide open to get a breeze or a mosquito was buzzing around your head all night, Someone who understood and who could help keep you going and still find the joy in it all.
So this just scratched the surface of this incredible 2 week journey, but thank you for reading, and I hope it gave a small glimpse of this unique country.
If anyone is really interested in visiting Madagascar, I would highly recommend Pioneer Expeditions as a tour company, and Hari as a tour guide. We saw many groups in our travels and were so pleased with our choice.
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| Mom, Hari and me at Ranomafana National Park |
