{"id":969,"date":"2006-12-23T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/?p=969"},"modified":"2013-09-07T02:31:17","modified_gmt":"2013-09-07T02:31:17","slug":"day-8-morondava","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/?p=969","title":{"rendered":"Day 8 – Morondava"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we set out to visit Morondava on the west coast of Madagascar.\u00a0 People had cautioned me against going here, saying it was dirty, to be very careful of what and where you eat, and that it wouldn’t be much fun.\u00a0 However, I really wanted to see the baobab trees, and this was the place to do it.\u00a0 There are 7 types of baobab trees in Madagascar, and the Morondava area has 3 of them, and quite a number of them.\u00a0 I am extremely glad I went.\u00a0 I ended up taking 375 photos during the 1 day we spent here, burning through 2 camera batteries (good thing I brought my charger).\u00a0 The town was dirty, but the food was fine at the hotel, and the rooms were clean and the air conditioning worked well in the room.<\/p>\n

Getting to Morondava<\/strong><\/p>\n

We caught a mid-day flight to Morondava, which is about 1 hour flying time on a very nice 72 seat propeller plane.\u00a0 Fairly new and with leather seats.\u00a0 They even served lunch, which I didn’t expect since the flight was only 1 hour.<\/p>\n

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As we flew from Antananarivo to Morondava, the landscaped changed dramatically.\u00a0 The capital city of Tana is set in the mountains in the interior of the country, filled with hills, valleys and winding rivers.\u00a0 Morondava is a coastal city that is flat and with very different vegetation, including the baobab trees that we flew here to see.<\/p>\n

Shown here is a river in the mountains taken from the plane.\u00a0 Notice the red colour of the water.<\/p>\n

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Here is the landscape as seen from the plane, just outside of Morondava.<\/p>\n

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When we landed in Morondava, it was 35\u00baC before counting the high humidity, and the sun was very strong.\u00a0 I’m just not used to this kind of heat, and nothing here is air conditioned, except for our hotel room.\u00a0 I put on a hat and lots of sunscreen when we got to the hotel.<\/p>\n

Below are some photos taken at the airport in Morondava.\u00a0 This is a very small airport.\u00a0 Once they loaded the baggage on the single conveyor belt next to the tarmac, the plane very quickly taxied out to the runway and left.\u00a0 I think they only have the one flight in and out of here per day.<\/p>\n

Here is a view of our plane taken frm the baggage claim area in the Morondava airport.<\/p>\n

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Here is the baggage claim area.\u00a0 Just a simple conveyer belt from the outside into the terminal.<\/p>\n

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We were met by our prearraged transfer to the hotel.\u00a0 The guy from the hotel who met us at the airport, was also our guide who would take us out to see the baobab trees later that afternoon and evening.\u00a0 Here are a few photos on route to our hotel.<\/p>\n

Our guide and his 4WD truck\u2026<\/p>\n

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Off the main street of Morondava\u2026<\/p>\n

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View of the ocean (actually the Mozambique Channel; the Indian Ocean is the other side of Madagascar)\u2026<\/p>\n

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Entrance to our hotel, the Baobab Caf\u00e9\u2026<\/p>\n

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Below are some photos of the hotel.\u00a0 Nice place in the middle of a very poor and dirty town.\u00a0 Shown here is the main entrance to the hotel.<\/p>\n

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View of the pool from our room balcony\u2026\u00a0 I hope the coconuts don\u2019t fall in the pool.<\/p>\n

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Another view from our balcony.\u00a0 The hotel backs on to the river.\u00a0 The ocean is across the street.<\/p>\n

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Having a drink in the dining area\u2026<\/p>\n

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Watching a local fisherman paddle by the resort on the river\u2026<\/p>\n

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Visiting the Baobab Trees<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our guide then drove us out to visit the baobab trees.\u00a0 Below are some scenes of the town while driving out to the country.\u00a0 The famous Al<\/i>\u00e9e des Baobabs<\/i> is about 15 km northwest of Morondava.<\/p>\n

Here is a typical street in the town of Morondava\u2026<\/p>\n

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Buying a bottle water at a local store\u2026<\/p>\n

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Carrying a really big fish through the town\u2026<\/p>\n

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A main street in Morondava.\u00a0 I think the only one that\u2019s paved, though not in good shape\u2026<\/p>\n

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Continuing out of town.\u00a0 Note the poor pavement that is typical, where pavement exists.<\/p>\n

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A small bridge outside of town\u2026<\/p>\n

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Typical road outside of town.\u00a0 Notice the red colour of the sand that you see everywhere.<\/p>\n

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The local villagers who live out by the baobab trees are very friendly.\u00a0 Although these people have nothing and live in dirty huts made of sticks, they seem very happy with their lives.\u00a0 The children frequently ask to have their photo taken.\u00a0 Nadine can communicate with these villagers as the dialect of Malagasy that she speaks is close enough to what these people speak.\u00a0 Here is Nadine with some village children.<\/p>\n

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Some village children posing for a photo\u2026<\/p>\n

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Here are some photos of the baobab trees.\u00a0 Note to dad…\u00a0 I think you would have loved this portion of the trip.\u00a0 You probably would have complained about the heat, but otherwise I think you’d like it.<\/p>\n

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This is me standing next to the Baobab Twins\u2026<\/p>\n

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Eating the fruit of the Baobab tree\u2026\u00a0 It\u2019s very sour!<\/p>\n

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Continuing up the road\u2026<\/p>\n

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Tombs next to the Baobabs\u2026<\/p>\n

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Baobab Lovers\u2026<\/p>\n

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Road to the Baobab Lovers\u2026<\/p>\n

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Getting close to sunset, the red becomes more vibrant.<\/p>\n

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Al\u00e9e des Baobabs\u2026<\/p>\n

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Zebu moving through a neighbouring field\u2026<\/p>\n

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More Al\u00e9e des Baobabs\u2026<\/p>\n

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Village hut along the Al\u00e9e des Baobabs\u2026<\/p>\n

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Dave and Nadine in the Al\u00e9e des Baobabs\u2026<\/p>\n

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Al\u00e9e des Baobabs at sunset\u2026<\/p>\n

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Baobabs after sunset\u2026<\/p>\n

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We then returned to our hotel after sunset.\u00a0 I’m glad I wasn’t driving, as dodging all of those potholes, people and zebu carts under cover of darkness looked like a challenge.\u00a0 Anyway, we made it back to the hotel and enjoyed a nice dinner on the patio.\u00a0 Even at night, this place is very hot and humid.\u00a0 What I can’t understand is that at the table next to us were two Japanese girls, wearing long pants, long sleeves and a heavy scarf–all ready for a cold winter night!\u00a0 I didn’t get a picture as we left the camera back in the room on the battery charger during dinner.\u00a0 The temperature even at night was about 32, felt like 45 with the humidity, and there was absolutely no breeze.\u00a0 We then returned to the comfort of our air conditioned room for the evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we set out to visit Morondava on the west coast of Madagascar.\u00a0 People had cautioned me against going here, saying it was dirty, to be very careful of what and where you eat, and that it wouldn’t be much … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-madagascar","tag-morondava"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":972,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hodson.ca\/Travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}