Madagascar’s capital is a strange brew of quirkiness, crowds and traffic chaos
Navigating Antananarivo presents a steep challenge, in every sense of the word
For new arrivals to Madagascar, negotiating the capital, Tana, provides something of a challenge.
The island nation, with its cute lemurs, colourful chameleons and bizarre baobab trees, is unlike anywhere else on Earth, so it’s little surprise to find that its capital is as crazy as the rest of the country. It’s called Antananarivo (“the city of one thousand”) but that’s a bit of a mouthful even for the locals, so everyone calls it Tana.
The strangeness begins on arrival at Ivato International Airport, and a terminal that looks more like a garden shed. Having been sent back and forth between two desks, with staff demanding forms of some sort, I soon realise my schoolboy French is rustier than I had thought. No one, it seems, speaks English, but eventually I’m granted a bright red and yellow visa for a fee of US$25.
At the other end of a potholed, two-lane road, Tana sprawls over steep hillsides. The capital, which sits at an elevation of about 1,300 metres, is more or less the geographical centre of the world’s fourth-largest island. As we approach the city centre, we get tangled up in traffic that takes a couple of hours to negotiate. By the time I reach my hotel I’m frazzled.
