Madagascar is an island. The country is called Madagascar, but the people are called Malagasy.
The ancestors of the Malagasy arrived in Madagascar about 2300 years ago mainly from the southeast of Asia.
After their arrival, some of them stayed in the coast, and the others decided to move to the highland.
Malagasy people are split up into 18 different ethnic groups. They use the Malagasy language which belongs to the Austronesian language family even though each of the ethnic groups has their own dialects.
What makes the Malagasy as a people being united with a strong respect for one another is the spirit of togetherness, known as the Fihavanana.
Malagasy people also have a strong affiliation with their land. It is the land of their ancestors and it is considered as a Family Heritage and it is considered as sacred too. The land is passed on from one generation to another.
Another thing which reflects the way how the Malagasy live is the reverence for the ancestors. They think that the spirit of the dead always influences the way how people behave and act in their everyday life. That’s why, once every four to five years, Malagasy people practice the Famadihana, known as the turning of the bones as a respect for the spirit of the dead.
When you travel with us, many of our tours will give you the opportunity to experience how people live in Madagascar.
The village is one of the ways how the Malagasy show their cultural identities and their historical background. Its structure depends on each ethnic group.
In the highland of Madagascar, the village is always built on the foot of the hills or mountains. Houses made of clay bricks with thatched roofs, and always facing to the west are part of the landscape. It is not far from the field where they are working, and it is also not far from the woods where people fetch the firewood.
In the west of Madagascar, some houses are made of wooden frames covered with dirt, and they have small windows and small doors with a shelter under which people can have a nice shade during a midday sun.
As for the east of Madagascar, wooden houses built on stilts are very common. Local materials are used for the walls such as bamboos, wood, and palm leaves. The roofs are always made of traveler’s tree leaves.
Many of our tours will take you to discover more of the typical villages in different parts of Madagascar, and you will see how people enjoy staying in their homes while watching those who are walking around exploring their villages with curiosity.
A nice experience!
Rice is the main food of the Malagasy. They always have rice, at least twice a day. When you travel around the island, either it is in the highland or in the coast, rice plantation is always part of the scenery.
Rice comes with vegetables, spinaches, beans with pieces of meat. That is why one of the most famous and popular dishes in Madagascar is the Ro Mazava. It is a stewed spinach which comes with a zebu or a chicken meat in delicious broth flavored with the Angivy, a local spice that makes the taste a bit bitter.
There is also the Ravitoto, a pounded or shredded cassava leaves served with meat, and sometimes it is served with a coconut milk depending on each ethnic group.
People who live in coast usually have their rice with fish and some fresh seafood. They sometimes use more flavoring including coconut, saffron, vanilla and other spices grown locally.
When you travel to Madagascar, one the things that we want you to experience is the taste of the local cuisine, and each of the ethnic groups has their own way of cooking which differs from the others.
So, come and taste the Malagasy food and we will show you where they are.
One of the things which helps you understand the geological formation of Madagascar is the sandstone. It is more exposed in the southwest, west and in the northwest of the island. As two third of Madagascar is a crystalline basement, which means more granite rocks, it makes up one the major components of the sandstone formation in Madagascar.
Rock grains which came off from different rocks through the erosion process that has happened for millions of years, then taken by the rivers, sometimes with strong current. They were deposited, then compacted and cemented, and that is the Isalo National Park, one of the most visited parks in Madagascar, and it is also one of the places where you will be able to have an adventure and a wonderful experience.
An expedition through the canyons within the rugged mountains will give you an opportunity to explore some of the unique wildlife including the lemurs, and to see waterfall with natural swimming pools surrounded with ferns.
If you plan to see some of the sandstone formation during your trip to Madagascar, we would consider it as a privilege to help you realize it.
Come and travel with us.
The Tsingy is a limestone. It originates from the layers of calcite which were deposited in the bottom of the ocean before the opening of the Mozambique Channel that separates Madagascar from Africa.
Later on, it was lifted up by the tectonic activity that was followed by marine regression, then the Tingy was exposed to the sun, the wind and to the rain.
The dissolution of the limestone by the rain has caused the strange shapes of what is called now a sharp limestone pinnacles or Tsingy in the Malagasy language. Sometimes it is described as a stone forest when it is viewed from the top as it has an amazing topography.
Apart from the geology of Madagascar, labyrinths and caves are part of the main interest when doing expeditions in the Tsingy. It is also a good spot to learn more about the formation of the stalactites and the stalagmites.
Some of our tours to the west and to the northwest of Madagascar will give you the opportunity to see the Tsingy and to explore what the limestone pinnacles has saved for us.