Madagascar is More than Just a Movie

History and culture

You get carried away by the beautiful natural surroundings but that is not all that’s there to Madagascar. There are restaurants, museums, and a busy city market to enjoy besides Art galleries, natural history museums, and the Palais de Andafiavaratra.

Creator: pierivb | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

There are numerous restaurants offering Malagasy cuisine, influenced by ancient travellers from India, other parts of Africa, Asia, and Europe. Toamasina is the country’s major seaport, and experience the city life offered. The central market has exotic spices and locally-made handicrafts. Antsirabe, a big city on the island situated at a height of 4900 feet, has a volcanic lake and thermal springs and offers an entirely different Madagascar environment.

The Film

DreamWorks featured this island in one of their iconic movies, just to showcase its beauty. The adorable Lemurs are enough of a draw to visit this place where they abound in the wild. Amazingly, Madagascar has much more to offer than the large-eyed, long-tailed fur-babies! Sand, surf, mountains, and cities are all jumbled together on this island paradise. The movie is about friendship and submerging individual desires for the greater good. It’s very light-hearted, so the messages may not have a huge impact. There are some conflicts and selfishness. The main characters are positive with personalities exaggerated for comic effect. But Madagascar offers insights into different personalities, and explores subtle themes of friendship, teamwork and forgiveness, as the animals learn to work together to solve common problems. Madagascar is not just a movie to showcase the Island’s scenic beauty, its history and culture but is also a lesson in Friendship and Teamwork.

A Popular Tourist Destination

Creator: RUBEN RAMOS | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto

The animated movie, about the island just next to Africa, and is not just lemurs and dark rainforests. Its rich culture and expansive landscapes makes this a popular destination for tourists. Apart from lemurs and rainforests, you have deserts, baobab trees, beautiful beaches, and delicious Malagasy cuisine. If you love unique destinations with plenty to offer for all tourists, Madagascar needs to be visited.

The country’s plants and animals provide interesting sights. Baobab trees abound throughout the islands; visit L’Allee des Baobabs for viewing these odd-looking giants. This street is flanked by the huge ancient trees with branches reaching out to the sky. Lemur spotting is easy with 100 species of lemur.

Creator: Robin Hoskyns | Copyright: © Robin Hoskyns

These adorable and strange looking animals are unique to Madagascar, which is their natural habitat. Isalo National Park has sandstone cliffs, breath-taking canyons, and vast plains. Deep in the canyons are swimming holes, streams and lush vegetation with yellow savannah grasses. A two-hour guided hike is ideal but for the extra-adventurous having time, a week-long excursion in the park is recommended. Nosy Be is a small island nearby with coral reefs, lemurs and volcanic lakes. This paradise for water sports is a thriving tourist destination, which manages to exude the sleepy island vibe. This beautiful island is redolent with fragrance due to plantations of ylang ylang plants, vanilla, coffee, and cacao plantations. In mainland Madagascar, visit Tsingy de Bemaraha park with amazing limestone formations. The jagged stalagmite rocks protrude from the ground in stunning needle-like patterns. Keep the weather in mind, as a brief rainstorm makes impassable the roads to this park. So pack your bags and head for Madagascar!