Sakamanga Hotel, Antananarivo, Madagascar, May 16 - 18 and 24 - 26, 2025

 All of us volunteers stayed at the Sakamanga Hotel in Antananarivo.  It is a very nice hotel, but I think it was made by connecting multiple buildings.  It is like a maze finding your way around and it is also like a museum with artifacts and historical information through out the hotel. This first batch of photos are from my first weekend there, May 16 - 18.

 

The hotel had a breakfast place attached on one side, a restaurant upstairs, and a cafe and bar next to the pool.  It really was an excellent place to stay.  There were a couple of banks with ATMs and several shops within a two minute walk of the hotel.  And the rooms were also decorated.  These photos were from my second stay there May 24 - 26.

 

This was a superb hotel - if you ever visit Antananarivo, this is the hotel to stay.  I stayed one extra night beyond the group rate nights and it was only about $40 for the night.  I also met people from Germany who run a nonprofit.

While walking around, I was reminded of scenes from Nepal, where many electrical and phone lines went from every telephone pole.

Antananarivo has an impressive city hall.

 

Madagascar's Royal Palace, Antananarivo, May 17, 2025

After visiting the Lemurs Park in the morning, our afternoon adventure was to visit the former palace of Madagascar's monarchy.  Madagascar was a monarchy until 1897, then it was a French colony until 1958 and since then, it is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, with a pluralist multi-party system.  The palace is on a campus of several acres with many buildings and much history.  We learned that the national flower is the poinsettia and it grows to be as big as trees.  The Madagascar flag is white,  red and green because of the white blossom, red leaves and green stems of the poinsettia.

The palace and campus are on a hill top, so we had magnificent views of the capital city, Antananarivo, often referred to as Tana.