Ifaty, Antananarivo and Andasibe
Off to the Airport
November 1: It is Sunday. I am up at 5:00am and I can hear people in the village still partying, then at 7:00am the party music switches to church music.
After breakfast, a taxi picks us up and drives us for about 45 minutes to the airport in Toliara for our flight back to the capital 
of Antananarivo (aka Tana). We pass mangroves at the side of the ocean. All goes smoothly and we catch our Madagascar Airlines flight.
It is a 1 1/2 hour flight back to Tana. On arrival we are picked up and taken to the hotel where we started our trip…the Nosy Manga.
Afternoon at the Nosy Manga
We spend the late afternoon at the rooftop bar and pool and watch the sunset. We have a 360° view of the city.
Money and Prices in Madagascar
As not much happened today I will give you some information about money & prices in Madagascar. The currency is called the Malagasy Ariary. There are no coins that we have seen and really only two bills, the yellow 10,000 ariary bill and the blue 20,000 ariary bill. The 10k bill is worth about $3 CAD and the 20k is therefore $6 CAD. The bank ATMs only dispense the 10k and 20k bills. Apparently there are no higher denominations. Madagascar is a cash economy, only high end restaurants and hotels will accept payment by credit card. Even the payment for our tour had to be in cash which necessitated us bringing over a wad of Euros.
The tourist restaurants charge an average of 30,000 ariary ($9 CAD) for an entree. Entrees include meals like steak, shrimp, pork & chicken all with a choice of sides and the servings 
are large. A large beer of 650 ml or about one quart is under $3 CAD. A meal in a local restaurant can be had for 7,000 ariary ($2 CAD). Due to concerns about hygiene, water quality etc., and to protect our tummies from unpleasantness, we have only eaten at tourist restaurants.
One of the large white sacks of charcoal we see being sold by the road for use as a cooking fuel over costs about 35,000 ariary ($11 CAD) and will last a family about a month.
Leaving Antananarivo
November 2: This morning after a great buffet breakfast, Zack, our guide/driver, meets us at the hotel and we head towards Andasibe.
Before leaving the city, we stop at a pharmacy for more malaria prevention pills.
The city is huge, Antananarivo proper is about 2.6 million and the metropolitan area is 4.5 million. The entire population of Madagascar is 33 million. However the country is about 1/2 the size of our province Ontario.
Traffic in the city is busy busy. The streets are so jammed with traffic that tuk-tuks (three wheeled motorbike taxis) and pousse-pousses (bicycle rickshaw taxis) are banned. There are many, many rice fields mixed in with the city buildings, adding vibrant green colour.
On the Road to Andasibe
After we get out of the city the roads are fairly good but with lots of twists and turns as we drive through the mountains. This road is also full of slow moving trucks driving back and forth between Tana and Madagascar’s main port of Toamasina. We go through a lot of towns and villages.
We pass a few quarries where people are hard at work using hand held hammers to break up rocks into gravel. Zack says that they work hard but don’t make much money.
Laundry in Madagascar
As in most of Madagascar, we see lots of people washing their clothes in rivers. They are often in groups and usually women although I have seen a few men. Zack mentions that lots of gossip is shared while doing laundry. Outside of the cities, most homes do not have running water. Clothes are laid to dry wherever 
spaces are available; fences, bushes, trees, rocks. I have even seen some laundry in the coastal area laid to dry on the sand.
Arriving in Andasibe
We stop for lunch along the way at a place mostly frequented by tourists. The guides all know where it is safe for tourist tummies.
Shortly after lunch we arrive at Andasibe National Park which is Madagascar’s premier 155 sq. km rainforest UNESCO biosphere reserve.
It’s early afternoon when we check into the gorgeous Relais de Mantadia Hotel. We have to climb a number of stairs to get up to our cabin but it is worth it. I feel like we are in the rainforest canopy. I am delighted.
We are given the afternoon to enjoy the resort and it’s grounds and amenities. It has suddenly become overcast, so we hang out on the deck and enjoy all the birdsong.
Night Walk Through the Reserve
At 6:00pm Zack picks us up and takes us to the VOI Community Reserve for our guided night walk. We meet our guide Natasha who leads us off into the rainforest.
I honestly don’t know how our guide finds all these animals because they are so well camouflaged. Natasha has been doing this for 20 years.
We see a Goodman Mouse Lemur, a Fat Tailed Drop Lemur, a Leaf Tailed Gecko that looks like tree bark, a gorgeous male Parsons Chameleon (click here for a video), a Walker’s Owl Moth, a Flattie Spider, a tiny Pygmy Chameleon and numerous other nocturnal creatures.
Supper in the Greenhouse Room
We end the night at the very elegant restaurant at our accommodation. We dine in a greenhouse room, all glass surrounded by rainforest. John suggests that they should staple some fake chameleons to the outside trees. John has the Tagliatelle Bolognese and I have the lamb shank with sauteed vegetables. Dessert is Masagascar Vanilla Creme Brulee and Chocolate Fondant and Creme Anglaise. So much for low calorie options.
As I’m getting ready for bed I hear an incessant mechanical sounding beaping; kind of like the sound a fire detector makes when its battery is running low. The sound is coming from outside. After about thirty minutes of this, I call the front desk to let them know. They inform me that it is a nocturnal rainforest bug in the trees. Click here for a short video of the sound.
