You know when you are a kid, there are some countries that you read about, or watch a movie or cartoon about, and it sticks in the back of your mind that you have to visit this place. Well for me it was Madagascar, I've dreamt about this island since I can remember, and finally decided to make it happen. Being a country extremely rich with rare and exotic minerals, we happen to build relationships with quite a few Malagasy people over the years who we see a few times a year around the world at trade shows. And After chatting with a few of them, I managed to find someone who was willing to take me on a 12 day journey around the island, visit some mines (including his own personal mines) and combine a mineral hunting trip with some tourism. Please enjoy the pictures below with a story about my journey to this mysterious island - who we all know is run by kind Julien himself. 

 

Start was a little rough, what was supposed to be only a 24 hour trip, turned into a 34 horus trip when the flight from Paris to Madagascar got cancelled, so after flying from Toronto to Paris (which was cool as Olympics were happening there), I had to now fly to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and make one more transfer to Antananarivo. At least I had 2 spare seats - which is always nice to be able to lie down

Flying over Reunion Island. I've had some clients from here, so I have read about this Island before, but never thought in a million years I'd be here

Island is just beautiful, had a couple hours to explore, which is always tricky after a 30 hour travel

Part 2/3 of the trip

Finally after nearly 35 hours, I've made it to Tana (Antananarivo), and my friend Mamtim was there to greet me

No time wasted, right away he took me to a workshop to show me some lapidaries at work

We are from 2 opposite parts of the world, but love of stones unites anyone and everyone. This guy was a master at his craft, not only polishing fantastic spheres and eggs but also a great cutter with an expert eye for details

After a lunch and the workshops, we did a 5 hour drive to Antsirabe, which would be my home for the next couple of days. Its wild how a 140km drive took this long, but this just shows how the roads are - mind you between 2 of the major cities in the country

After finally getting a good night sleep, we were up at 7am - with jet lag I had no idea what's what anymore, but I was too excited to go gem hunting. We met with Robert, who's known in the local mineral world as "the president", had a quick breakfast and would be on our way to visit Ibity

AlLmost no one has cars or bikes here, nearly everything is done by foot, and some people who can afford cows can work in the transport industry bringing essentials from one town to another

The largest bill is 20,000 ariare, which converts to $4.50US. I brought about 5000 euros to have on me for buying stones, and that converted to almost 10 of these brown bags. I had 2 shoe boxes filled with cash - good thing we had a security with us - thank you Stefan for guarding my shoes LOL

Finally in Ibity, we had an 8km walk to the mines. These houses are 8km away from the nearest road, everyone goes by foot, brings water from town by foot, rice on their heads by foot and any construction materials would also be brought by foot. The area is absolutely stunning, and everyone living in this mountain range wakes up every morning playing the lottery hoping to find that one Tourmaline or Kunzite that will give them enough money to retire. Unfortunately many people spend their whole life searching and searching and never finding the treasure

Hey little buddy, note how red the soil is, basically this whole region - central/southern Madagascar is all red soil like this, rich in Iron- my clothes all turned red very fast

Standing on top of the heart of Ibity, home to Tourmalines, Morganites, Aqumarines, Kunzites, Pezzottaites, Sanadines, Quartz, and many more treasures

We visited the famous Pezzottaite mine, the mine is owned by Federico Pezzotta, so we wouldn't be allowed to visit it, but the President is friends with some of the miners, so he said we can come have a drink and say hello. We brought them Russian Vodka, and everyone was so excited to try it

Then we headed to some Tourmaline deposits, the serenity of this land is something else

This is an active tunnel, going about 15 meters deep, where miners are digging for Pezzottaite as we speak

When we made it back to our car, met some lovely locals, and I was teaching the ladies how to do bunny ears for photos - they were laughing histerically 

After hiking for the whole day, we made it back to the house, and had about a dozen local dealers lined up to show me their goodies. It was important to have a drink and a chat with each one before starting business, which I didn't mind at all - sharing my story and hearing theirs is what makes me love this business more then anything. 

Picked up an enormous Chrysoberyl

The largest Phenakites I've ever seen come from Madagascar

First time ever seeing a tricolor Beryl - Goshenite on the outside, Morganite in the middle and Heliodor on the end. I got this for my personal collection

Little bit of the haul, Grandididierites, Kunzites, Pezzottaites, Sapphirines, Spinels, Rhodizites, Tourmalines - ughh look at all these treasures

Nothing like a wonderful home cooked meal to finish the first full day

Day 2, went to the other side of the mountain. All the locals were trying to offer me their treasures, sadly almost all of it was a little piece of Quartz, or Pyrite or low grade Tourmaline. I wouldn't really look twice at this materials, but when they were asking for 1000 ariare for their pieces ($0.20) how could I not buy them all. On the contrary, this is what excited these hard working people when they found it, so I was happy to share this excitement with them

This is an active Rose Quartz quarry. Public land, so anyone can come and dig. There were 3 families working when we got there, and the stuff behind me is low grade Rose Quartz with minimal pink colors - the good stuff was being dug for about 10 meters underground

This is the technique most commonly used. A hole is dug over several weeks, and then this device is set up to lower a person dow there with a bucket. They fill up the buckets, lift them up and the person above will filter the soil to see if any treasures are hiding in there

Little bit nicer quality Rose Quartz I brought from underground

Me going into a 40 meter undergroudn tunnel (130 feet), and you can see the walls are covered with Black Tourmaline, Mica and Quartz. This tunnel was made for finding Aquamarine, so I had to try my luck

Oh yeah, not gold - but Tourmaline yummm

Considering I only dug for an hour or so, I would say this wasn't a bad haul finding a couple Aquamarine crystals 

We were then hosted by a lovely family living beside this tourmaline tunnel. The wife cooked us a wonderful plate of rice and corn, and local coffee was to die for

Thank you to this wonderful hosts

This car has seen better days

Day 3, we made our way to Miandrivazo. A town by the river, where we were going to take a 3 day boat ride to the west coast of the island. 

I found a hair stylist, I knew there was a reason I was growing my hair out - it was for this moment. 

These smiles are priceless

Driving by villages along the river. They work the farms, swim in the river and love life. I've never seen people smile as much as they do in Madagascar - they just know how to enjoy life every day. Definitely have a lot to learn from them

First of many Crocodiles. Good thing I didn't know they were this big just 15 minutes earlier, when I walked with our boat captain through the shallow part of the river to shore to buy some chicken and vegetables from the locals

Ok, we decided to bring out the good stuff

Can you blame us? Look at this feast

First night we spent beside this waterfall in a tent. I have no words to describe its beauty

This is what I call a good shower, first one in a couple days, representing home

Next day we stopped by a little town that had a history of over 100 years as being a tobacco producing town - going back to when Madagascar was a French Colony

And look who finally decided to show up. Not scared of people at all, and they LOVED oranges

Brought a suitcase of kids clothes to give the locals, the girls were so excited to chose new outfits - too cute

No comment

 

Second night on the river, we spent on a little sandy beach. We made a fire under the stars, played guitar and ate a steak cooked over fire - sounds pretty good right

Day 3 we reached Port Bac Tsimafana - and entered the part of the country - the home to the famous Baobabs

Most local women had these face masks, I couldn't convince them to do a mask for me though - theres always next time

Look at the size of this thing

More Lemurs, too cute

Could spend hours just watching this

Hey buddy

Baobab tree fruit

After reaching the beautify coastal city of Morondava, we decided to drive to a beach only used by locals, and thought we were smart using a short cut, we got totally stuck. This is the car after almost 2 hours of digging through the mud -  part of the adventure I guess

Along the way, saw these incredible Termite colonies

Beautiful beach, and behind me is the Mozambique Channel - and across from the water? Mozambique!

After a full day drive back to Antsirabe, we wanted a fancy meal, but the best part wasn't the food - it was the company and the laughter

Thank you to a wonderful organization - Not Just Tourists - they helped prepare a suitcase full of medical supplies, that I was able to deliver to this incredible doctor. She is the only doctor for a town of 8,000 people, and does evereything from dentistry to child birth to surgeries without any help. Thank you Erin from this organization who made it happen and prepared the suitcase that I am sure will be extremely helpful. This doctor has been the only medical specialist in this town for over 35 years, and after crying and hugging she decided to thank me with a huge bag of rice. I couldn't say no of course. 

And of course, more rocks, spent another day meeting locals to see their treasures. 

The final day, back in the capital (Tana) we decided to try our luck in the casino, not as bad when minimum bets are about $0.50, so we were able to have a lot of fun with minimal expenses. 

And had to do a little sightseeing. Visited the Queens palace on top of the mountain, with the beautiful sunset over the city. 

Got a great history lesson from guide, gave me another perspective on the history of this magnificent country.

And of course made friends with his majesty, King Julien 

Thank you Mamtin, Stephan and Mahandry for making this trip an unforgettable one. I can't wait to go back!!