Northern Madagascar and practical information for your trip |
GEOGRAPHY :
The Anstiranana (Diego Suarez) province is made up of two different regions. The west region DIANA includes the districts of Antsiranana (Diego Suarez), Ambilobe, Nosy Be and Ambanja; the estaren region SAVA contains the towns of Sambava, Antalaha, Vohemar and Andapa. Those two regions are separated by the Tsaratanana mountain range which wich culminates at 2 876 meters, the highest Madagascar summit. They are linked by a track from Ambilobe to Vohemar, mainly passable during the dry season. The administrative center of the province is Antsiranana, formerly called Diego Suarez because of the name of the two portuguese sailors who first discovered Madagascar. |
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CLIMATE :
Northern Madagascar climate is tropical and dry. The year is divided into two seasons : a dry season from May to October and a wet season fom November to April corresponding to the monsoon and characterised by cyclons. Nevertheless there are several microclimates due to the very rugged surface of this part of the island, especially around Ambanja and Nosy Be which receive more precipitations than the other parts north west area. In the east the climate is wetter and it rains most of the year.
The trade winds blow pratically without interruption between June and October on the northern point of the north the west area country around Diego Suarez bay. |
POPULATION :
The population of the north is extremly mixed. The local Sakalava Antankarana population is completed by Chinese, Indopakistanese, Yemenite, Comorrian people and by an important European, mostly French, community. |
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RELIGION :
Christian, Islamic, animistic (cult of the ancestors).
LANGUAGE :
Sakalava Antankarana, the malagasy local dialect. French currently spoken.
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