Antananarivo, Madagascar

I will quote Lonely Planet, “Madagascar is a Noah’s ark adrift in the Indian Ocean, an island peopled by seafarers and colonized by the French. ‘Unique’ is almost too simple a word for its creatures, its cultures and its landscapes. Cast adrift from Africa about 165 million years ago, its cargo of strange animals (lemurs and chameleons) and plants (spiny octopus trees and bottle-shaped baobabs) has been evolving in isolation ever since.” We met a world traveler by the name of Harry in Mozambique. When discussing our travels we mentioned that Madagascar was up next, and Harry said, “NOW WE’RE TALKING”. Having been here for only 24 hours I can easily agree with him. Wow. This is true travel.

We flew into Antananarivo (Tana) which is the capital city. It resembles a Mediterranean hill town with an elevation of around 1400m. The total population is about 4 million. Our taxi drive through the dark streets was a “white knuckler.” Our cabbie had no problem driving on the wrong side of the street, occasionally playing “chicken.” The streets were crowded with people, and cooking fires could be seen in the strangest places (the middle of a traffic circle…)

In the morning we took a walk to the Ave de l’Independance to get breakfast at a French café. The languages spoken here are French and Malagasy….very little English. I racked my brain to remember the little high school French I had learned. We walked over to a street market which sold t-shirts, shoes, sunglasses, cell phones, etc.

The locals gambled in the market. You pay money to draw a number out of the barrel…they then shake a number in a can…and if they match, you get to pick from the prizes on the table. Most of the prizes appeared to be cell phones. Wonder how good the odds really are…..

Everything gets carried on the head (admirable)….and we couldn't pass up on this one….a barrel with chicken legs sticking out the top.

Most of the taxis are old Citroens and Renaults. This is one of the nicer ones….WAY nicer. If only we had taken a picture of the taxi we drove in on the way back to the airport. Yikes. I was waiting for tires to fall off as we drove.

The poverty here is unreal. Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world, and it shows. We had multiple beggars approach us, usually women with tiny babies and a string of children following them. It was heartbreaking. Their teeth were black with what I guessed to be tobacco and they wore rags for clothing. We had our first pickpocket experience. Two young boys flanked us with ball caps drawn at our hips begging for money. Underneath the ball cap a small hand was opening the pocket to my hiking pants. Lucky for me I grabbed my passport before he did (you have to carry it with you at all times).

The air is clouded with pollution. In this picture you can see how high the hills are (and staircases…ugh) 

forming a valley.

The one point of beauty in the city is the purple Jacaranda trees.

Many of the buildings were beautiful at one point, but are now literally falling apart. In 1896 Madagascar became a French colony, in 1960 Madagascar gained full independence from France, and in 1975 all ties were severed…the French expats left the country taking with them their skills, money and technology. Now on to the “wild west” of Madagascar….