In Madagascar it is easy to get off the beaten path. So often that you’ll spend your time trying to find a beaten path at all! Traveling here is rewarding and we appreciate our travel where we:
The Tsingy in Tsingy National Park of Bemaraha, Madagascar represent not only a rock formation endemic to Madagascar but also one of few rock forests found around the world. The Tsingy represent a maze of multi-tiered gray limestone finely carved by tropical acid rain into sharp pointy tops. Their sides resembling machined corduroy. Erosive acid rain rivers have carved canyons through these rocks to create a maze of rock one can walk, climb or crawl through. They are so unique to Madagascar that the Malagasy words for tiptoe are “Me Tsingy Tsingy” for how the locals would have to walk through these areas (on their toes). It is also one of the most expensive places in Madagascar, hard to get to and well worth the visit.
I really had no idea what to expect exiting my bus in Miandrivazo under growing rain. Aside from the onslaught of “push-push” bicycle taxis looking for a faire that is. Somehow, in our effort to negotiate our trip of the Tsiribihina River directly with a boatman, we were funneled and joined by an ever increasing entourage of people (growing to over a dozen) looking for a commission and directing us like a magnet towards the Mayer’s office. Here we were back to negotiating down from an expensive package trip.
(more…)