Day 5 Fianarantsoa to Isalo We met Patrick at 9am to head out for the day. Before leaving town we took some time to explore the city of Fianarantsoa. We drove up to the highest point in the city to see the view and get a sense of the city’s extent. It’s quite large and is considered the “second capital” of Madagascar, presumably in case of an alien occupation of Tana. Fianarantsoa means “place of good learning” and has many colleges and universities....

Day 4 As we continue our trip down country, today included a number of handicraft-related stops, including a few in the morning in Antsirabe, where we had spent the evening. First up, we stopped at a crafters’ shop where they demonstrated the process for taking the horn of a zebu and transforming it into something decorative (a bird in the demo). This was one of the more impressive demonstrations we have seen, taking us from the raw horn through the heating ...

Day 3 Today we packed up our stuff and joined Patrick and Tony for the beginning of our several days long trip down from Tana to eventually end up in the coastal towns on the southern end of the island. As we began our trip, Patrick made a point of showing off the local handicraft in each region we passed. We stopped at several villages, each of which had 6-12 stands all lined up together along the road to offer purchasers many options. And each village see...

This morning we were met by Patrick and Tony (our guide and driver, respectively) at the hotel and headed about 25 km west of Tana on RN 1 (Route Nationale 1 - part of the federal highway system) to Lemur’s Park - a private reserve that has nine lemur species (about 45 individual lemurs) that have free range in the reserve along a winding river. The river acts as a natural barrier along the majority of the reserve because although lemurs can swim if pressed, th...

Going to the market can be an overwhelming experience. As vezaha (foreigners with white/light skin) entering the market you are immediately persued by sellers showing you the best they have to offer. If you happen to indicate the slightest interest in any particular item, then you are immediately shown a plethora of similar items, usually with the promise of a “good price.” The market is set up in such a way that generally several sellers with similar items a...