After closing our Peace Corps service, Tom and I decided to take a quick trip to see the southern part of Madagascar. The South, as it is affectionately called by volunterers, has a special allure.  It is a hot, dry place where people say the culture isn't as influenced and it can be difficult to access.  Well, it is easy enough to access by plane but taking a taxi-brousse is a whole different adventure.

We started at one of the biggest brousse stations in Madagascar, Fasankaran.  Our first stop was Ambositra and it was waiting for this brousse to get on the road that Tom and I came up with the "wait scheme" for taking taxi-brousses.  So, the three most common waiting periods are as follows: 1) Pre-wait, 2) Wait, and 3) Post-wait.  I suppose there can also be the breakdown wait as well.  The pre-wait period can be excruciatingly long.  The first thing one should do is find the vehicle going to desired destination.  Checking the baggage that has already been loaded on top can be a good indication of just how long this pre-wait period will be.  The wait period is the time when everything and everyone has been loaded into the vehicle and the vehicle's engine has been started.  This period is often the most deceptive as we are often fooled that the sound of the engine means it is time to go.  However, this brief (or not) wait period may only take you as far as the gas station or to someone's house.  The engine is cut shortly thereafter and the post-wait begins. This is the time after the engine has started and then been cut again.  Often times short but always has the potential to be long.

To decrease the agony of these periods and to travel comfortably, it has often been said that you should take three things on the road:
1) Toilet Paper, 2) Water, and 3) a book.  We will add a fourth for travel in M/car, 4) a lambaoany, or lamba.  A lamba is a simple piece of cloth used as a kind of skirt by women.  We have come up with numerous uses for a lamba so don't leave home without one!
1) Can be used as a groundcloth just in case you have to sleep in the middle of nowhere on the ground
2) Protection from mosquitos, the sun, cold or something sharp poking you in the side by fellow passenger
3) Can be assembled as a shade structure
4) Item of clothing to cover yourself while urinating along with 100 other passengers (caution: this takes practice)
5) A towel after showering
6) Building a travel bundle (kind of hobo style)
7) Mouth cover to filter out dust, cigarette smoke and exhaust fumes-
8) Rolled up and used as a Neck pillow

Brousse's will never, I repeat, NEVER, leave on-time. No matter what the driver or the workers tell you. I know this but I get anxious nonetheless and make us leave our hotel at first light. 

Ambositra is one of the craft capitals in M/car. They are famous for their woodcarvings. Betsileo is the name of the tribe. 

From Ambositra, we headed to Fianarantsoa (above picture) where we walked around town and checked out a few sites.
Continuing South, we stopped in Ambalavao.  I just had to see one of the places where paper is handmade. Here are a few pictures of the process...
They use the skin of a certain type of bush, cook it, pound it, rinse it and form it. Lastly they add flowers for decoration.  It is super strong and I could have easily spend ALL our money on souvenirs!  From Ambalavao, we also headed to Anja, a small reserve.  Our friend and fellow volunteer, Jeanine used to live there. This is where we spotted our first ring-tail lemurs.  These are probably some of the most commonly photographed lemurs on the island.

From Ambalavao, we headed to Ranohira which is the gateway town for the national park of Isalo.  We thought the name of the town meant song of the water but it actually translates into water of the lemur.  This is one of the most visited national parks in all of M/car but we were fortunate enough to encounter only one other visitor during our stay.  The park reminded us of parts of Mexico and Arizona.  Here we saw a few more lemurs and some cool looking insects.
 It is well worth the trip to check out the natural pools and waterfalls. We went off-season and had the place all to ourselves.

From Isalo, we hightailed it to the brousse station in Ilakaka, the sapphire capital of M/car.  It really does look like a dusty old mining town.  Our small car from Ranohira to Ilakaka was filled to the brim, 4 people in the front--2 on the driver side and 2 on the passenger side and 7 people in the back. 

We finally rolled into the dry, dusty town of Toliara. The pousse possee are huge down there!  From  here, we had our first experience with the mode of transportation of the South--large camions.  Tom says it reminds him of something out of Mad Max.  These things are as uncomfortable as they look. We took our first one here up to check out the beaches of Ifaty.  Two days later we were heading along to Fort Dauphin on the 48 hour brousse ride.  At one point Tom commented, " My ass hurts but so what?" That was maybe only after a day on the road... still more where that comes from!  The road isn't that bad to Fort Dauphin from Toliara but it is long and I would not recommend going in peak summer--way too hot.  This is our brousse to Fort Dauphin.

Of course we broke down for five hours while they rebuilt the backend suspension.
Of course you have to stop by and pick up a few chickens for the last ten hours. What do you do when not all of them fit in the basket on top?

You are getting the picture. Those are only a few feet.
Yes, there were about a hundred strapped to the side of the brousse. I heard they all made it alive.

Fort Dauphin is a beautiful little ocean town.  By this time we had pretty much run out of ariary. We already borrowed money from 3 friends and had no more borrowing options. So, we just hung out, checked out the beaches and relaxed before our next journey back to Tana.  The road is much worse, the brousse is just as uncomfortable and it takes just as long to get there.  Here are a few pictures of what we can call breakdown waits.

So, it was in Fort Dauphin where Tom and I began our "mora voky" or what we Americans might recognize as a high starch diet.  For me that meant cassava and fried fish.  Tom's derivation was cheap, fried street food (thank god our bellies were seasoned!).  I am one to be superficial to worry about money although I rearely abide by that budgeted voice in my head.  Tom, on the other hand, has never been on a budget. He always made good money especially as a bachelor (note: enter wife).  Ok, so what does it mean in a developing country such as M/car?  Food is plentiful here and pretty delicious too.  In the end, we know we weren't going to go too hungry as a giant piece of grain corn (kind of like what you would feed a chicken) is roughly $0.10 while a yam might put us back $0.05.  Starting to feel full yet?

Our brousse to Tana from Fort Dauphin. We went in the rainy season, but it was not rainy until we left for Tana. At one point we thought we were not going to make our flight out of Tana. We did.

Random shot of the latest in Gasy architecture in the rural area on the road from Fort Dauphin
Yes rushing water and a hugh log in the way so they just pulled it out of the way, only a hour and a half wait.
Major stickage, busses pulling busses and people pushing cars. It reminded me of a 'in the mud crash derby', but no one got hit.
All in all, even though our butts are sort of raw and still sore, we will relish the comfort of the airplane going to Thailand. We paid for one seat and by golly, we'll get one seat with enough room for our own ass and perhaps our elbows and shoulders too.