Today was a travel day. We left the Anjajavy Resort at 9am and headed to the “airport” for a 10am flight. We were on the same plane and with the same pilot as the one we arrived in. Rick was happy because he got the copilot seat again.
The soil in all of Madagascar is very red because it has a lot of iron in it. I took a picture from the plane to show you but the picture isn’t as red as real life.
So far we have seen the south which is very dry and the west coast which is a little wetter than the south. Now we are going to the east coast which is very wet and has rainforests. Rain and cyclones come from the Indian Ocean and dump tons of water in the rain forests there. The mountains in the middle of the island prevent the clouds and therefore the rain from moving from the east to the west. Of course the flora and fauna vary by region.
We arrived back in Tana at 11:30 and were met by our new guide, Josef, and our driver. They took us to a restaurant for lunch. Here is the view from the restaurant.
After lunch we started our 90 mile or 4 1/2 hour drive to Andasibe which is home to a national park. Unlike down south where the roads are terrible, the road wasn’t too bad. The road links Tana with the main port of Madagascar, Toamasina, so there were lots of trucks and the road went through every little village between Tana and the port. Drainage ditches, like the ones in Seychelles, line this road and two large trucks seem to have lost their brakes and careened into them. It was ugly, and only served to slow things down further.
We looked up the GDP/person of Madagascar. When adjusted for purchasing power Madagascar ranks 177 out of 185 countries. The poverty was really evident as we drove through the country. But as in other places we have been the people seem quite happy and honestly I don’t think that most know that they are in the bottom 5% of the world’s gdp. Here are some pictures.
Eventually we arrived at the Eulophiella Lodge (eulophiella is a type of orchid). This lodge is very enironmentally focused so it only has a generator and therefore only run the electricity between 5pm to 10pm daily in the rooms. Luckily they have a couple of solar panels so we can charge our electronics during the day at the main lodge. We had dinner there and it was lights out at 10!
