Island Profiles

The cuisine of Madagascar has many influences, including Asian, African, Indian and European.  As it would have been on the island of Borneo, from where the first settlers came, the Malagasy diet is based around rice.  Rice is grown on terraced paddys in the central highlands of the island and is served at most every meal.  Additionally, it is eaten at breakfast in porridge form, and consumed as a beverage by boiling water with toasted rice. The rice is, of…

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  Madagascar offers a vast array of unforgettable experiences for the visitor. Most visitors, no doubt are attracted to the island because of it’s unique landscapes and wildlife.  It is possible to have a conventional resort-style vacation in Madagascar, particularly on the offshore islands of Nosy Be and Nosy Boraha, and we will explore those options as well, but the unusual, and sometimes truly bizarre, will be the main focus as we explore this amazing island. Let’s start with the…

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The Malagasy, which is what the people of Madagascar are called, do not consider themselves to be Africans.  Although the large island lies off the southeast coast of the African continent, it’s people are to a large extent, descendants of settlers from the region of southeast Asia.  One  theory-there are several- is that the first settlers arrived from Borneo, with subsequent migrations from the Indian subcontinent and a few Bantu migrants who crossed over the Mozambique Channel.  There are traces…

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I am already very excited about our next island destination.  I already thought of Madagascar as a unique and exotic place, but I did not know that as much as 90% of the flora and fauna on Madagascar is unique to the island.  I was familiar with the bizarre baobab tree, but was intrigued to find out that in some nearly inaccessible parts of the island, where razor sharp cliff formations nearly enclose them, there are areas with landscapes and…

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