Since I’ve mostly written you about the bad side – the
hopelessness of the development efforts, the excess of poverty and disease, etc
– let me take one (last) blog entry to tell you about the good side of
Madagascar.
Madagascar is a country that has a ton of really impressive
and extremely unique things to see. Most famously and spectacularly, there are
thousands of species of plants and animals that are endemic to Madagascar and
found nowhere else in the world. Several species of lemurs, chameleons, and
baobabs are among the more famous examples. In certain seasons, humpback whales
migrate past the coast and can be seen without even getting on a boat, sometimes
with their newborn babies (these are best seen from Ile Sainte Marie and Fort
Dauphin in the months of July and August).
In the north I had the opportunity (on weekends, since I was
working during the week) to visit some of the attractions. I saw the beautiful
beaches near Ramena (which are too windy for snorkeling in the summer months
but have amazing marine life you can see at other times of the year) and I also
saw, much as I wished I didn’t, the overabundance of middle-aged Frenchmen with
young Malagasy women on their arms in Diego. I camped at Montagne D’Ambre NP,
where bats swooped by my head as I set up my tent and I heard a troop of lemurs
walk by a few feet away in the middle of the night, making their distinctive
snorting sound. During the day I saw the world’s smallest chameleon, pulled a
leech off of my ankle, and admired waterfalls in utter solitude. At Ankarana
Reserve I saw the famous karst formations, a weird freak of erosion that has
formed a field of thousands of jagged stone peaks. Near Anivorano, there is a
sacred lake where the locals sacrifice zebu to the crocodiles in order to have
their wishes granted, and if you go there and throw them some steak, the crocs
will come right out of the water and have a feast while you snap pictures.
In the far south, you really feel like you are at the end of
the world. Fort Dauphin looks like it has been abandoned, despite being the
biggest city in the region. Not too far away from there is the very tasteful
Nahampoana Reserve, where you can see ring-tailed lemurs and Verreaux’s sifaka
(among other species) up close. The sifaka are particularly hilarious – they
are cuddly-looking creatures who have a strange defect in proportionality of
arm-to-leg length that means that if and when they walk on the ground they
“dance,” although to me they looked more like little fencers, and they reminded
me of that animated feline zorro. Or if you want you can visit the Berenty
Reserve (I do not recommend), which is owned by this crazy old French guy who
has tried to bring in lots of non-native species (even things like elephants,
luckily vetoed by the government), including a plant that turned out to be
poisonous and has resulted in balding lemurs in the reserve. His whole mindset
is incredibly irresponsible and the visit is exorbitantly expensive, and yet
99% of people who come to Fort Dauphin fly in, go to Berenty, and fly out
again.
You can also go to the southernmost point of the island, Cap
Sainte Marie (where there is a national park and lots of turtles), or a close
approximation, known as Faux Cap, a very windswept beach where you truly feel
like the only person in the world. Along the way there you pass through a very
unusual desert landscape, with red earth and oddly-shaped cactus, as well as
the unique triangular palm tree (whose trunk is actually triangular), which is
found nowhere else in the world.
Out west, you can visit the area around Morondava, famous
for the Avenue des Baobabs, a road lined with huge baobab trees, each over 1000
years old. An impressive sight and popular at sunset. Belo-sur-Mer, reachable
only by pirogue or 4x4 (dry season only due to river crossings) is a gorgeous,
unspoiled little seaside town where you could easily disappear for weeks to
unwind. Near here you find sand dunes in a national park with a lake full of
flamingoes. North of Morondava is the Kirindy Reserve, a treasure trove of
wildlife (lemurs, a large predatory cat called a fossa, lots of birds and
reptiles, and the unique giant jumping rat) and even farther still is the
Tsingy de Bemaraha – more of those karst formations, on a bigger scale.
The area around Tana, known as the haute plateau, features a
gorgeous landscape of rice fields such that you might at first think you are in
Asia. Not too far away is Andasibe NP, where you will find the indri, the
world’s largest lemur and one you will never see anywhere but here, as they die
when kept in captivity. They have an extraordinarily loud, distinctive cry that
you will hear every morning while in the park. The beautiful golden sifaka can
also be found here, as well as the leaf-tailed gecko, an amazing creature that
is almost impossible to see even when someone is pointing right at it to tell
you it’s there.
And that’s just the things that I’ve seen, but there is so
much more. On the east of the country is serious rainforest, with more exotic
wildlife and remote hiking. Ile Sainte Marie is supposedly an island paradise,
and then there are countless other national parks, each of which houses its own
unique regional species of flora and fauna, such that no matter how many parks
you visit, there are always new species of lemurs and chameleons and everything
else to see. And even once you’ve seen those, you still need to come back in a
different season, since certain animals are hibernating at different times.
Which basically means that you will never run out of things to do and see in
Madagascar.
As for how to organize a visit, the country is a serious
nightmare to get around independently. It’s not cheap, there is little
infrastructure, and in order to see the sights in many places you will need to
hire private transport. It is pretty essential to speak at least some French. The
food is terrible and if you eat with the locals you’ll never want to look at
rice again as long as you live. The Malagasy people are nice enough, but you
wont be making friends with the locals very often as you might in other African
countries. If I were to come back as a tourist, which I would love to do, I
would hire a car and driver (you can’t hire a car without a driver), and I
would not come alone, so as to have someone to share the costs and the
experience with.
The other disadvantage of this environment is that it
discourages solo travel, and thus when you are in fact a solo traveler it can
get very lonely, because there aren’t too many others like you to join up and
socialize with. Plus Madagascar is so beautiful that you’ll want to share it
with someone. Watching lemurs cavorting in the trees or whales spouting in the
water off the coast or the sun setting behind the baobabs, is, I imagine,
infinitely better with someone you care about standing next to you. So despite
all the negative things I’ve written about this country, I still would
recommend a visit (assuming the political situation is relatively stable, which
is not a given). The country has a lot to offer, especially for the nature
enthusiast, and done in the right way (and with enough cash) could make for an
incredibly rewarding and romantic vacation.
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