Central Highlands

After spending some days on the coast we headed back to the central part of the country to visit the volcanic lake Tritriva and the surroundings.  As roads were too off road for our vehicle we explored by mountain bikes.  The rest of the time was spent enjoying excellent food in the town of Antsirabe.  

Rolling hills of the central highlands

Rice terraces

Main Highway (only paved road headed west!)

Villages on route, note the chicken.  They are always free range

and always organic here.  Haven't seen a chicken pen since being here.

They do return home in the evenings to their homes!

More lush green rice fields

Plateau headed back into the central part of the country

One of many river plains

Lake Tritriva (volcanic lake)

Me enjoying our hike

Colorful coffee shop

Our guide 

Zebu Market

Anna, me and Hannah on our mountain bike tour

Downhill biking!

We had fun

Hilly countryside around Antsirabe

Antsirabe was a former french colonial town.  

The hotel we stayed in was one of these old colonial homes.  It was absolutely beautiful

Included old political maps too

Le Trianon

5 Star Zebu filet medium rare for only 6 Euros!

Did I mention that we broke down nearly 8 times on the way home?

Well that was quite the adventure.  Here is a photos of one of these stops where we thought we might be spending the night.  Turns out the car had a check engine emission light on the entire journey.  After a gas stop our driver thought we got bad fuel.  A popping sound came out of the car every time we drove uphill.  We turned the car off and rested 5 minutes.  Sure enough afterwards we could continue normally.  The last day of our journey.  At this point (800 km later) a red light with an EKG like symbol lit up and the car turned off while driving.  Again, resting 5 minutes solved it and we continued our journey.  Usually the car died when (again) travelling steep uphill.  Internet research revealed that the minute this light comes on, the car is not to be moved to avoid serious engine damage.  Well we disregarded that for the remaining 400 km!

Thankful we made it home. I'm afraid that car is in bad shape though.