Villages, Rice Paddies and Granite Mountains on the way to Ambalavao
Leaving Ranomafana we followed a narrow-gauge railway. They used to have two engines and two trains, one for passengers and one for freight. Now there is only one combined passenger/freight; the other engine is being scavenged for parts. The only other engine is in Venezulea; too far to go for parts. The track is pretty crooked; derailments are not uncommon. The train goes down to the coast one day and returns the next. Lychee fruit is grown and exported from this area; if it is in season there is usually a 2-3 hour pause at each of the 8-12 stations for the Lychee to be loaded / unloaded. You can get off and wander around; the whistle blows 5 minutes before leaving. Reserved (1st class) seat cost depends on distance, so start to finish is expensive, and usually not full. Towards the end it's cheaper so it gets more crowded, and you find chickens and turkeys in 1st class also.
"Rice field football" is bad soccer, such as a bad game or bad day for a team; a reference to games played on rice fields when not growing crops.
Villages are often named for their market day; a trailing qualifier, if necessary distinguishes locales. So a village with a market on Tuesday would be Talata, or Talata-Angavo to distinguish it from Talata-Volonondry.
After we were back over the "hump" of the divide and headed south in the highlands, imposing granite mountains started showing up. It looks to me like there is a lot of unexplored climbing to be dealt with here. Lova said there is some climbing done up north on the second highest mountain.
We stopped at a place where women were making baskets from Sisal. They were really efficient, turning a leaf into fibre and then weaveable thread/rope rapidly. Dona purchased a great strong basket from them.
We watched women weaving native Madagascar silk at a co-op. The native "Zana Dandy" silkworm caterpillar, Borocera cajani, lives on Tapia (Uapaca bojeri) trees. Native silk is coarser than that made using Indian silkworms, Bombyx mori, which feed on White Mulberry (Morus alba) trees. Traditionally used for burial shrouds, native silk is now also used for fashion items and the tourist industry. With more demand for silk, people are trying to protect and expand tapia forests.
The process is roughly as follows:
Except for blue, the silk is colored using natural dyes. The color is fixed using banana skin and aloe vera. Dyes are obtained from the following substances:
We lodged at Bougainvilliers. We saw our first compass tree outside our room.
Antemoro paper is being produced adjacent to Bougainvilliers. The Antemoro people live in southeast Madagascar, but most paper making is now done around Ambalavao. We enjoyed having the process explained and demonstrated to us. Finished products in the form of paper, books, and banners are prized for invitations to weddings, graduations, parties, and other special occasions.
The bark of another mulberry (Avoha, Triepisium madagascariense a.k.a. Bosqueia danguyana) is used to make paper. The process:
I went for a walk around town, bought some spicy roasted peanuts by mistake, along with some chips, sugar coated peanuts, and some biscuits. I was specifically looking for peanuts and cashews, but I neglected to look up the words for them before I went out. So it was a challenge, but in the end I succeeded, and got to say hello to some local folks.
There were lots of pretty flowers around; no surprise there, given they need a lot of them for the paper-decorating!
