Mining Sapphires

In the center south of Madagascar there is a mining boom town called Ilakaka.  Ilakaka is the kind of place that attracts the kind of people that you don't want to bump into after a payday night out.  The reason people come is because underneath the town is one of the world's largest sapphire alluvial veins.  Sapphires are not diamonds.  They are Aluminium oxide.  Trace amounts of metals give them their color.  The most common and popular is blue, but sapphires can also come in yellow, purple, orange, and green.  They also come in red, but those ones have a special name; rubies.  Ilakaka has an alluivial vein about 20 meters from the surface and they take them out the old-fashion way.  First a hole is dug 20 meters deep.  Next someone is lowered into the hole to see if they can find the stones.  If they are lucky, teams excavate the area and take out what they can get.  We got to see the process, and Eva got a rough sapphire for future use.

Zebu-power.

Excavation Team.

Our guide/Driver Mamy.

The local spa.

Vallée de Tsaranoro

In Malagasy, Tsara means "the best" and noro is a girl's name.  Tsaranoro is the name of a sheer granite wall that is 800 meters high and makes up one side of the Tsaranoro Valley.  As described by Lonely Planet, "imagine having Yosemite to yourself."  It couldn't have been more true.  We did not rock climb Tsaranoro however but climbed The Chameleon's Back.  The valley is located in South-Central Madagascar about 20 km off the RN7.  Before getting to the valley we made a short stop at the Anja Community Reserve to see the ring-tailed lemurs and many chameleons they had.  In this part of the trip, Eva and I got fancy, hiring a driver/guide to take us around for 5 days.  The guide Mamy really knew the best places to stay, eat, and what to see.  We were also joined by Walter, a fellow Austrian and Photography enthusiast.

They dye the chicks pink to keep the kites from eating them.

Spot the chameleon.

So many chameleons.

Tsaranoro.

Parc national de Ranomafana

Madagascar is famous for its tropical rainforests and lemurs.  Unfortunately, because of the economic situtation, Madagascar has been largely deforested.  Ecologists believe 80% of the original primary forest is gone and the rest is heavily threatened. Parc national de Ranomafana was created in 1991 to face these problems.  One of the best remaining examples of Eastern Lowlands Rainforest in the country, the park really took shape after zoologists discovered two new lemur sepecies in the area.  In fact, the greater bamboo lemurs wasn't discovered until 1987.  We had a chance to explore the park and had very good luck spotting 5 lemur species (the common mouse lemur, the brown lemur, the greater bamboo lemur, the golden bamboo lemur, and the black-and-white ruffed lemur), multiple chameleon species, and some cool insects.

A mouse lemur at night.

A brown lemur eating some fruits.

Someone got himself some snacks.

Canal des Pangalanes

The FCE train ends in Manakara on the east coast of Madagascar.  Manakara has an interesting history.  It is a meeting place where several rivers connecting internal lakes meet.  After the French colonization of the island they invested into building the Canal des Pangalanes.  The canal once served as a major means of transportation using tug boats along the eastern coastline as well as a natural port for the extraordinarily rough tide of that side of the island.  Over the years however, lack of maintenance has doomed the canal which can no longer be used for shipping and the local economy has fallen apart.  Now the residents of Manakara and the surrounding areas use it mainly for fishing and local transport.

Sailing down the canal using old rice bags.  The abandoned warehouses sit behind.

The only place in the world where the boat goes over the bridge.

Fishing off the broken bridge.

A local zebu coming down for a drink.

Eva's one true love; rhum arrangé.

The rowing crew.

Malagasy Highland

We continued on to the Island of Madagscar.  Madagascar is huge.  Much bigger than you may realize.  It also infamously has terrible infrastructure.  Going 400 kilometers in Madagscar could take all day or several days.  We flew into Antananarivo, the capital located in the central highlands, and then went directly to the southern highlands city of Fianarantsoa.  There is a train that travels from Fianar to Manakara on the East Coast.  A lot of tourists take the 12 to 24 hour trip (it really varies that much) because it makes the journey through the Madagscaran country side through villages only connected by the train.  The trip is about 160 kilometers and the maximum speed is about 20km/hour plus many stops for loading and unloading. What is really unique is what the Malagasy people sell at each stop.  Each stop has a unique product or two to buy.

Rice is the lifeblood of the Malagasy people. They claim if they don't eat rice three times per day they cannot sleep at night.

The unique multistory Malagasy house.  The animals at the bottom, parents and kitchen in the middle, and the kids on top so they can't sneak out.

Making bricks.

The local butcher.

Why, hello there!

Looking for lunch.

Lychees!