Millot e Ambanja: il gusto del Madagascar

It exhausts the possibilities of seeing everything interesting in a short time. I recommend it.

A trip to the so-called Old Continent, the main island of Madagascar, will allow you to see the roads of the Malagasy people, what a cocoa and vanilla plantation looks like, and see a baobab tree. The roads are incredibly potholed, the asphalt washed out by rain, pothole after pothole, making it feel like driving off-road, slow as if over bumpy roads, but bravo to the driver of the elegant jeep we drove in. The cocoa and vanilla plantation, with its history told by Karol, the resident, made a huge impression. Although there were no workers because it was a holiday weekend (June 26th, the Malagasy celebrate their independence), seeing the plantation and the awareness of the exploitation of the locals by white people is overwhelming. You`ll see cocoa fermenting. We learned about the diverse vegetation and the many different old trees on the plantation: spices and trees, such as breadfruit, and you could buy these spices beautifully packaged. Then we headed to the baobab tree, a massive, 250-year-old tree that several people could hug. This was the only opportunity to see baobabs during our stay in Nosy Be, as they are plentiful in this part of Madagascar`s main island, but there`s no road access. The avenue of baobabs is located in the south of the island, about 1,000 km away. Lunch at the hotel restaurant (an opportunity to see the hotel, its modest rooms, and the 10x2-meter pool) was delicious, with unlimited drinks and beer. The next stage of the tour involved a guided tour through the town`s market—full of spices, meat on benches (unimaginable in this heat), and everything you`d expect from a market. We returned by jeep to the port and sailed to Nosy Be. We arrived at the hotel at 5:00 PM. We recommend this tour for a true Madagascar experience—poorer, but real.