Merry Christmas from Madagascar

Merry Christmas & Wishes for a Prosperous Year from Juliet in Madagascar, Africa

I am on an Incredible Vacation in Madagascar, a unique island off the Western coast of Africa, doing what most of us Travel Afficionados Love to do – explore the world !

The people here are so friendly – the kids LOVE getting their pictures taken and really “ham it up” for the cameras, and the food here is DIVINE ! Before Independence in 1960, Madagascar was a French colony, and they have taken the French cuisine & mixed it with their own “Malagasy” style to come up with just incredible meals at ridiculously cheap prices.

My son, Max, convinced me to take a hiking/trekking/camping trip through one of the National Parks – Parc Nacional D’Angringitra, where we scaled the highest mountain peak in the country accessible by foot, named Pic Imarivolanitra – it was Breathtakingly Beautiful, and the camping spots were situated by cold, clear mountain streams every night, where the porters set up tents and cooked four course dinners over wood fires and made us local drinks with rum, ginger, and orange juice. The climb up was difficult and I got a cardio workout like never before, but it was the coming down that just about Killed me !!! It took 2 days for me to be able to walk normally after we got down.

We then  headed south to the Parc Nacional Isalo, hiking through a completely different terrain – it looked similar to the terrain of the Grand Canyon in AZ, with wild rock formations and pinnacles and a desert-like ecosystem, with waterfalls to stand under and blue and black natural pools to jump in to cool off along the course of the trails.

The lemurs are cute little mammals, unique to Madagascar, that leap from tree to tree in family groups.

For Christmas, we took a speedboat over to Anakao, a jewel of an island with a strip of powder white sand beach fronting onto the turquoise blue waters of the barrier reef that runs up the southwest side of the country. We stayed in boutique bungalows with a front porch overlooking the sea, and went out on Christmas day to scuba dive on the reef – they had us diving through “tunnels” and “chimneys” in the reef, and it was a TRUE test of overcoming claustrophobia !

But I guess overcoming our fears – whether they be personal or in business – is necessary to us to grow and become better and stronger.

Why don’t you try doing something New this year – something you might be scared of doing – something outside your “comfort zone” – something you have been afraid to try…

But try it, overcome the fear of failure, and grow from it !

At this point, I was wondering if I would make it up the mountain….

I MADE IT TO THE TOP !!!!!

When we arrived at the bottom, these darling little girls from the closest village came to sell us some fresh mangoes from the tree in their yard and then sang & danced – they were all so happy !

This trip has already been a “life experience”, and we’re not done yet !!!