Madagascar is a country of strong contrasts, all of which we were privileged to observe during our six weeks stay in most of Madagascar’s varied regions. It has a diverse, beautiful landscape over a territory…
"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour." - William Blake Visitors come to Isalo…
Hundreds of years ago the Antemoro people of southern Madagascar - Arabic in origin - began to make a form of papyrus paper decorated with real flowers. The art was revived by the French in…
We've frequently seen the shape-shifting nature of both limestone and lava rock, the one deposited by the sea and compressed into stone, the other spewed from deep undergound and cooled into rock. What is now…
We've been on some very rough roads by car, but the one we took in the north of Madagascar was as bad as they get. India's Himalayan routes are frequently blocked with avalanches, or at…
We were walking the trail past village rice paddies, gleaming with soon to be harvested grains in the valley below Marojejy National Park. From the outlying fields, two men carried large potato sacks back to…
Marojejy is one of the most impressive national parks in Madagascar, with 55,000 hectares of primary rainforest, green mountains, spectacular views and twisting trails mounting over roots and rocks. It is one of six parks…
On the highest of several thickly forested hills, the first ruler of the whole of Madagascar established his capital in 1793, after he unified the various island realms of the Malagasy people into a kingdom.…
The capital of Madagascar, Antananarivo (or Tana, as it is locally known), occupies 12 sacred hills, even more than Rome. The hills are linked to the surrounding plains about 200 meters below and to each…
We came to Cuenca mainly to study Spanish for a few weeks. After four and half months of non-stop touring and activity, during which we learned scattered bits of Spanish, we thought we should try…