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Friday, November 12, 2010

Mad about Madagascar

Tana temp tattoosAs our last and absolutely final country in southern Africa we would visit, Thomas and me spend two weeks in Madagascar.

We arrived in Antananarivo, the capital (in short Tana), where we went partying with some French Couchsurfers volunteering here.  As it was the 31st of October, Halloween was the theme…

Tana party The next day, bit hung over but with no regrets, we went to explore the city, bit polluted but still pleasant, with small alleys, lots of stairs, and hills offering beautiful views over the city.Tana view kids 

tana view high

Next we headed up north, making our way with taxi-brousses for a total of about 24h. The taxi brousses are minibuses , filled beyond capacity (our record was 37 people in the minibus made for 20). Thankfully, the countryside was pretty enough to take away some of the pain. country side riceFirst stop was the Park Andronafasika, where the Lemurs (a type of monkey indigenous only to Madagascar) roamed.lemurs thomas Then we went to the tiny island Nosy Be, the first tourist destination of Madagascar. Beautiful beaches and wonderful snorkelling, the best I have seen so far. Nosy sea thomasWe even saw a tortoise and an octopus that changed colours much quicker than a chameleon. And, touristy as it is, a local ‘park’ also allowed us to interact closer with some of the indigenous species. boa bruno cameleon bruno

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last stop was Diego-Suarez, less touristy, where we stayed in a small fishing village. The nearby sea, called Mer d’Emeraude was magnificent, turquoise… Diego Mer d emeraude

With the weather being so hot and us spending a lot of time in the sea, I also had the reckless idea of getting a haircut to facilitate my life. So, I walked into what seemed to be a rather respectable barber place, where the woman seemed dumb founded I desired a haircut. Three coiffureneighbours were called in for second and third opinions, and explanations on how to operate the shaving machine. She trimmed here, then applied the scissors there, next tried to balance it out but clearly had no idea what she was doing, and it showed… Once she cut my ear I decided the fun was over and bailed. Now, I usually don’t care that much about my haircut, but this time it really was ludicrous. So, later on, in Diego, I called in another barber, this time with the goal to simply shave it all off and start afresh. The young dude showed up with one pair of scissors (meat ones) and one comb, but also with funky tribal designs shaved into his own hair. Considering I didn’t have much to lose, I requested for something similar…. 

But, all good things come to an end, and so did our short holiday there. To close off, a classic, as one of the things I appreciated most about Madagascar, was the sea, and the spectacular sunsets. sunset1 sunset5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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3 comments:

Bart D said...

Super Bruno.
The haircut I'm curious to see.
Madagascar seems to be a great last country to visit as a 'closure' of your stay in Zimbabwe-Africa.
Ciao,
Bart

annibor said...

Ah ! Le bleu turquoise de la mer malgache... quand l'hiver arrive et que demain il neige, c'est doublement douloureux ! Ca donne vraiment envie d'aller y voir de plus près. Merci pour ces belles images qui font rêver.Pour la coupe de cheveux, je ne suis pas sûre de vouloir la même... mais tu dois être mignon, de face ! Bises.

Lily said...

Amazing photos; the comment were okay (-; !!! still think you should have brought a lemur back....