Day 4 - Bartering on the Road and at the Ibity Market

On the fourth day we took a road trip to the market town of Ibity. Among many other people selling there wares, there are a number of people there selling minerals.

We met a well know mineral dealer on the road and pulled over to see what he had to offer.

This is a video taken in our vehicle of Doug and Mitchell bartering for some nice "stones".


The video is really funny because of the confusion of the exchange rates. Basically, $1 US = 2,030 Ariary. $5 = about 10,000 Ariary. Their highest value note is a $10,000 Ariary bill. In this video Doug is saying 75 meaning 75,000 Ariary and Mitchell is saying $50 US. Mitchell doesn't like the deal so Doug buys the "stone". The video also shows Mitchell making a deal on a $10 US mineral; it's fun watching him getting his money out of his wallet.


Be sure to watch this fun video.


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Here is a short video of our group trading with the people at the Ibity Market. We were swamped at first, but Girogio got the folks to line up. We felt much safer after that.


SELECT to see us bartering at the Ibity Market

More to come at the Ibity Market. You'll love these photos.

Tsaramanga Rose Quartz Day Trip - Part 2

After leaving the village of Mahaiza, we drove the rough roads to the Tsaramanga mine. This and most mines in Madagascar are not underground. They are just areas carved within the rock faces. The miners just chisel at the rock and follow seams until they play out.

As we walk down to the mine, Doug helps Mitchell along.

After the arduous drive, we walked down to the open pit mine area. There were piles of beautiful rose quartz in areas all around the pit. We were told that most of the material was sold to China. We didn't really buy any as rose quartz is very common in the US.

The following photos show the mine, local miners home and their storage building.

Doug helps Mitchell over to the mine's high wall as Giorgio walks down. The high wall here is about a 100' drop.

Here is a cart for carrying the quartz to this storage building.

Inside the storage building there are piles of nice rose quartz

Here is a nice panorama of the mine. They were pumping the water out to get to a new seam

One of the hard working miners

Here is the miners home. His family works the farm terraces while he works the mine.

...and of course his dingo dog

Giorgio and Doug making their way back to the storage building.

Doug at the miners home

Can you imagine carrying this load up out of the mine?

The rose quartz seam. They just mine this area deeper and deeper until it plays out.

A nice pile of quartz. You can see the mine in the background.

Giorgio, Mitchell, Doug and the mine's owners Son making their way back to the van.

Tsaramanga Rose Quartz Day Trip - Part 1

We took a day trip to the village of Mahaiza and the local rose quartz mine, Tsaramanga. As usual the trip was an adventure with scenes along the way. The paved roads were in good shape, but we had to take gravel roads then essentially cart trails to get within walking distance of the mine. The drive was rough at times, but Tony took it slow and made it as comfortable as possible.

The Tsaramanga (nice blue) rose quartz mine is also known for it's blue tourmaline. Below is a photo of a huge blue crystal that was being crated up to send to a museum in the US.

Enjoy the photos of our day trip part 1. Part 2 will cover photos from the mine and the rest of the trip.

Google Earth view of our day trip from Antsirabe to Tsaramanga (Yellow Pin).

Google Earth view of the Tsaramanga mine.

Here are some typical brick stucco homes with thatched roofs. These buildings were everywhere in Madagascar. Nice structures, but the families still live on dirt floors and have to make wood or charcoal fires to cook.

Another typical building. Couldn't help but notice the first step is a doozy.

Here is a pano view of the countryside as we made our way to Mahaiza. Click on the photo to see a full view. Use back to get back to the blog.

This aquamarine crystal was being offered to us for thousands of dollars. As it turns out, Frederico (I'll introduce him later) told us that is really wasn't worth anything because it was so broken up and not gem quality. It was still impressive.

The mine owners home in Mahaiza. You often see broken glass on the tops of walls to keep people out. He uses some nice rose quartz crystals.

A huge blue tourmaline crystal in rose quartz. This specimen was being crated up to ship to a museum in the US. It was already crated up and they were nice enough to open the box for us to see.

Tony Driving in Madagascar

Here is a iphone video of driving thru the Malagasy countryside. You are able to see the people and how they get around with their daily activities.

Thanks to Tony for his safe driving. This would have been an impossible trip without him.

Enjoy.

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From Tana to Antsirabe

Our mineral safari started by visiting the mineral market in Tana. We then traveled to our home base in Antsirabe. This trip was an adventure. Tony drove us with the skill of a surgeon slicing thru the traffic, people and zebu carts without a nick on our van or any bystanders.

Giorgio interpreting for Doug as he tries to make a deal.

Giorgio making a path as Doug makes his way thru the mineral dealers

Doug inspecting a find as another dealer shoves a common quartz crystal in his face

A colourful zebu cart with typical brick houses in the background

A zebu caravan which Tony easily navigates

The interesting sights on this leg of the trip were common throughout our visit. In one word - Terraces. Terraces are everywhere. Much like what you would expect to see in China or Japan, the Malagasy are masters of managing water. These terraces have two major functions. During the spring and summer they are used for growing crops including their main staple rice. After growing season they use the same areas to "grow" bricks. Our trip was between the brick season and the start of planting crops. 

Brick production includes forming the mud bricks in areas within the terraces. After the bricks have dried and carried to stacks. These stacks are fired to bake and finish them.

What sets the landscape off from what you would expect is that the people live in nice brick homes; no matter how poor they are.

The terraces on the right are in the process of being prepared for planting. The terrace on the left have not been dug up yet.

Typical terraces throughout the region

Bricks being staked prior to firing.

This is a typical stack of bricks before being fired.

Taking a dip after working the fields.

A laborious job, making big rocks into little ones.

We could tell we were getting closer to Antsirabe as we saw more and more pousse pousse carts. This is their primary mode of transporting people in the bigger cities.

Finally, after 5 hours of driving our wonderful hotel in Antsirabe.

The Saka Manga Hotel

We spent the first evening in Tana at the Saka Manga hotel. Saka Manga means blue cat in Malagasy (The country's official language). Malagasy is derived from French, so we learned the few words we needed to get around. Anyway... The hotel was very quirky, for lack of a better word. It was chopped up and connected different buildings. I felt like being in an old Humphrey Bogart movie.

Our first meal was at the hotel and was absolutely wonderful. I had Duck Coq a Vin and a greek salad. The total bill for the four of us was about $40 US.

The first night's sleep was not so great though. It was cool outside so we left the window open (see the photo below). Since we were over the kitchen we had nice, but heavy odors during the early evening. As the night progressed the local night club got under way. The music was loud and constant. Fortunately, I have professional shooters ear plugs which worked well. Doug and I got a real kick when the band started playing YMCA. It's hilarious listening to the locals singing along Y M C A when they don't know a word of English.

The evening really got rough when the mosquitos started in on me. As I wandered off to sleep I envisioned each one carrying malaria. I finally closed the window and pulled the sheet over my head. I actually covered up every part of my body, but my mouth. It worked so I got a couple hours sleep. This was only a couple hours of sleep after being up for 25 hours traveling. In hindsight, this was the only bad night of sleep the whole trip.

Take a look at a short iphone video of walking from the lobby to breakfast in the Saka Manga.

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Our first taste of life in Madagascar. The Saka Manga Hotel

Doug Relaxing in the small lobby. The Hotel has many unusual artifacts like the home made guitar and printing press table here.

An outside view of our hotel.

Some other unusual Malagasy artifacts

Hey, wait a minute these artifacts are getting a little risky. I purposely didn't retouch this photo, it's rather explicit.

The view out of our room window.

The tour guides. From left to right - Giorgio our local guide and translator, Doug and Tony our professional driver and horn operator.

Observations & Photos of the People

Madagascar is an interesting country in that there is abject poverty, but everyone is industrious. The people make do with what they have and all seem productive. The infrastructure of the country is terrible, but people are busy with everyday life. Preparing their terraces for the growing season, making bricks, walking to the local markets and selling their goods. Our guide Giorgio mentioned that some of the people walk for two days for market day.

Doug is genius. Being a professional tour guide, Doug knew his limitations and found two people to help us for the trip. Both Giorgio and Tony made this a safe, organized and fun adventure. We met the most influential people in the mineral business and were able to trade with the best dealers. With their connections we actually saw some very valuable minerals which were found in a new mine just the day before.

Here are some shots of the locals.  I haven't retouched these shots yet, so some of them you can't see their faces and eyes very well.

Select the photo to see it larger, then back to view the blog.

The weather there was perfect. Cool in the 50's in the mornings and up to 80 during the day.

The children always are happy, especially when I started taking their photos.

This man had enough to drink, but straightened up when I asked to take his photo.

I played with this man trying to take his photo. He kept peeking out and hiding back in his house.  I could tell by his smile that he enjoyed me getting his shot.

I cannot remember his name, but he is the owner of the rose quartz mine we visited,