Flying into Antananarivo airport we could see the flooding in the surrounding country from the recent cyclone. The rivers were a-gusher with muddy brown water, but no damage to infrastructure was evident. Mind you, apart from a few scattered 2 storey buildings out there it was mostly dirt roads and farms, with a few still-foliated trees here and there.
After the very basic passport checks and everybody trying to scrounge tips from the rich white foreigners for pushing our luggage, we were driven through the crowded and chaotic city streets. Young fellows pushing heavy 4 wheeled trolleys, cars and motorbikes skimming past each other with millimetres to spare, tiny shops open to the busy street, vendors walking amongst the stalled traffic selling anything (one bloke was even flogging shower heads!) and the open rice paddies ringed by ramshackle huts. It was busy, it was alive and it was exciting.
Our accommodation is quaint and up high on the hill overlooking the city. Gorgeous green geckoes run around the walls and the courtyard is shady and comfortable. On the horizon is the Queen’s palace and the Prime Minister’s palace. Storm clouds are rolling in, adding to the picturesque quality of the view from our large private verandah.
We met our guide and organised the final details of our private tour then were driven to the ATM to withdraw MILLIONS of Ariary. Great wads of money!
Tomorrow we leave for the rainforest to investigate the natural side of this fascinating land.
Just thought I’d take a shot at reprocessing the picture above. I’ll see if I can link to the enhanced version:
(click to enlarge)
Some of the colors are a bit smeared because of the way jpeg images discard information to reduce filesize. Darker areas and lighter areas have a lot of the information thrown away. When trying to enhance them this can give problems. If your camera can save images in raw format that preserves all the image data. It does make the files much, much larger though. They might exceed the 16 MB limit on WordPress picture uploads.
Hey guys! I’m finally catching up on all of your travels. The photos and descriptions from South Africa were incredible; so much of Africa is a mystery to me, it is awesome to be able to start painting a real picture. It looks like you could spend weeks exploring each valley alone. And now we are all in suspenders waiting for your Madagascan nature experience, keep the pics and words coming so that we can live vicariously through you!