🙂 Avenue of the Baobabs and Lemurs!
🙁 Poverty and as a result crime is rife and political instability.
Currency: Malagasy Ariary
THREE things we did not know about Madagascar:
- It is the world’s 4th largest island – 226,917 square miles to be precise – larger than Thailand, Spaind, Sweden and `germany!
- Madagascar was referred to as “the island of pirates” on maps at the time, during the 1700s. Up to 1,000 of them took shelter here, eating the local fruit and mixing with the local women. They were gone by the time the French took over the island, although there remains a very famous pirate cemetery to this day.
- Bare knuckle fighting is a national sport: Moraingy is a form of bare-fisted combat sport, and many of the people on the island take part. To outsiders, it can seem brutal, but it’s a part of local culture.
