The Highlands
The Central Highlands occupy the eastern part of the island's plateaus and cover the regions of Analamanga, Itasy, Bongolava, Vakinankaratra, Amoron'i Mania and Haute Matsiatra. The landscape is one of red laterite hills, stepped rice paddies and baked-brick villages where the Merina and Betsileo peoples live.
Antananarivo, the capital, sits atop its twelve hills with its royal Rova. The terraced rice paddies of the Betsileo country rival those of Asia in beauty. Antsirabe, the 'water city', surprises with colonial architecture and thermal springs. Ambositra is the cradle of Zafimaniry craftsmanship, inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list.
The rice paddy path
A week wandering from one hill to the next: the colorful markets of Tana, the bright rickshaws of Antsirabe, a workshop with a Zafimaniry master carver who speaks only Malagasy but teaches you everything through his hands, and a thermal bath in the volcanic waters of Andraikiba.
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