From Friday we were supposed to stay in a real luxury hotel in Isalo : our own bungalow tent with a huge terrace, pool, dinner à la carte and breakfast in the form of a buffet - really extra class!
However, as I said, we slept in a kind of luxury military tent and Michel didn't miss the fun of selling the hotel to us as a kind of campsite. The surprise was even bigger :D
There is also a national park in Isalo, which of course we took a look at. There we learned a lot about the burial culture of the Bara ethnic group, which I found really fascinating. This ethnic group used to live in the national park, but was then expelled because of its creation. Nevertheless, they still have the right to bury their relatives there today - in "transitional graves" from which the remains are then removed after a few years to make room for the next person to die
Children's coffin
Otherwise we admired the interesting stone constellations as well as flora and fauna. To get a short break from the scorching heat (34°C in the shade), we bathed in a natural pool - that felt really good!
Afterwards, however, we walked for about 1.5 hours through the blazing sun without any shade to get to our picnic area. Picnic is a bit of an understatement, there was a 3 course meal prepared especially for us by a local chef. You have to imagine this! However, this is also a small problem point here (at least for me): we are constantly being pressured to eat. Be it twice a day in a restaurant or with picnics like that day. Homemade bread would have done the trick for me too. The leftovers are always eaten by the cook or others afterwards, but it still bothers me sometimes. The food still had a huge plus point: the lemurs came very close to us because they were hungry too - sooooo cute!! However, the chef wasn't so happy when I threw his laboriously prepared luxury meal on the floor to attract the little things :D
After eating we quickly went to two other piscines naturelles , which were also really nice. However, the weather changed and when it rains it is super dangerous there. Just recently, an entire family probably died there. So we turned around and were met by Michel at the parking lot.
We then drove to the Fenêtre de l'Isalo, a stone formation in the shape of a window from where you could watch the twilight - a really nice place all to ourselves. At least until the bus with 16 French people arrived and wanted to take a look. So we went to another hotel so I could play with my newly discovered friends: the turtles!
When we got back to our own hotel, I went briefly into the pool and then had a cocktail with the other three. Michel went to bed early, but we ate dinner quite late and chatted for a while, so it was after midnight when we turned off the lights.
But that wasn't a problem because we were able to get some sleep the next day. We had to drive from Isalo to Ifaty , which took a total of around 5.5 hours. We drove through many villages where emeralds are mined. The stones are really beautiful and the people there are a bit richer, but there is a completely different problem: As a result of collecting sapphires, all the rivers there have dried up and the people no longer have any water.
Michel told us beforehand that we should fill up all of our empty plastic bottles at the hotel, and sure enough: on the way we were constantly asked for water with gestures. It was very impressive to me that people here destroy vital resources in order to have more money...
On the long journey I was also supposed to see something else impressive: my first baobab. What can I say, these things are fucking enormous.
We then stopped at the Arboretum d'Antsokay, a botanical garden with 900 species of plants, 90% of which are endemic to Madagascar and 80% of which have medicinal uses. I found that really exciting.
At around 7 p.m. we arrived in Ifaty , the hotel where we would stay for four nights. There was a bit of a mess with the room, which unfortunately couldn't be resolved, but the hotel itself is still beautiful! We met our guide here and said goodbye to Michel, who we wouldn't see again until Tana . Maybe I shed a few tears... A few days of travel really brings you together.
Here too we went to the pool again and then to the bar for a cocktail - there should be a few more in the coming days.
