Sep 23 – Drive to Antsirabe

We left quite early this morning long drive ahead of us today.  We drove back to the capital city of Antananaviro where we stopped for lunch at a pizza parlor.  The pizza was pretty good.  The place was pretty empty, but it was colorful and clean and had good bathrooms (always a priority when traveling).

The it was on the road for another six or so hours.  About half of the road was in terrible condition.  Lots and lots of potholes and entire stretches where the asphalt was gone.  The entire distance for the day was only about 200 miles but it required about 9 hours of driving.  That’s an average of only 22 miles per hour. 

The countryside was pretty with lots of rice fields…

and many clusters of homes and a few small villages.

We had a stop in the town of Ambatolampy, the “Capitol of Aluminum Recycling”.  We stopped at a small workshop where they were recycling aluminum into cooking pots and a few other items, including small items for souvenirs. 

This long, narrow oven was used to melt the aluminum. 

We watched them make a lid for a large pot.  It was a very labor-intensive process.  Setting up the mold for a lid.

Stamping the down the ash around the piece.  

The mold will then be opened by running a string through the two halves of the mold, allowing the mold to be opened to take out the model lid.  The two pieces will then be placed back together...

and molten aluminum poured in.

It didn't seem to take very long for the aluminum to cool enough to open the mold and remove the hot lid. 

One group can make around 12 large pot lids a day and about 20 small pot lids.  Didn’t ask about how long it takes to make the pot.

Grinding off any extra aluminum from the edges of the lid.

This was the only real stop along the way except for stops at some gas stations to use the toilets.  

Along the route we saw a number of brick making operations.  The brick making is all done by hand. 

We also saw a fair number of roadside stand.

Musical Instruments

The drive took us through the outskirts of Antanarivo where we stopped for lunch at a brightly colored pizza parlor.  The pizza was pretty good. 

Some of the roadside stands had colored trucks and such.  They looked to be made with recycled materials. 

Madagascar doesn’t’ have a traditional bus transportation system to get people around the country.  Instead, there are large private vans (probably designed to seat 10 or 12 people, likely usually holding many more) that have regular routes around the countryside.  They usually carry any number of large and interesting items on the top. 

We eventually arrived in the town of Antsirabe around dinner time.  Our hotel, the Plumeria, had a colonial façade. 

And again, our anniversary follows us wherever we go.