Day 1: Antananarivo

Antananarivo is the capital of Madagascar and mainly used as a transit point for travellers to reach other more exotic places in the country. On our first day, we checked into the Lemur Hostel, which offered cleanliness, good service, security and amenities such as WIFI, free breakfast, a safe, hot water, kitchen & fridge and mosquito nets, our only issue was the dorm beds were quite pricey when compared to the rest of Madagascar.

The remainder of the day was spent attempting to take cash out of various ATMs, visiting the supermarket to buy bottled water and a visit to the Café de la Gare, Analkely Market and the Rova. We enjoyed a wonderful meal at the Café which is located in the old train station and followed it up by taking a walk through Analkely Market. The market itself is not entirely impressive and many of the stalls sell the same thing (t-shirts, hats, instruments, fake dvds and food). Walking up to the Rova offers you views of the city, though these may be ruined by poor visibility induced by the smog. The Rova itself burned down a couple years ago and is derelict and we were told by our hostel not to pay the entrance fee to go inside.

In all, Tana was mostly a starting point as it is the capital and all connections run through there. On the first night we met some lovely people at the hostel who decided they would join us on an adventure heading westward down the Tsiribihina river.

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