Isalo National Park

We set off from Setam Lodge in Ranomafana National Park at 8 AM for another major journey by minibus all the way to Isalo National Park which was toward the southwest on the way to the seacoast facing Africa. Our road trip would end around 5 PM when we finally turned into our lodging for that night and the next, the Relais de la Reine. The Relais is an exceptionally comfortable new inn consisting of comfortable bungalows set into a dramatic sandstone mesa. It reminded me of Sedona, Arizona, in particular the Enchantment Resort, for those of you who may know it. The principal construction material is local stone and the stonework is executed with great skill and a keen eye to achieving an artistic pattern. It’s stonework at its most skilled and would all but unaffordable at stonemason wages in the US. It only is possible here because the laborers are paid not paid very much. I’m not endorsing low wages. I’m simply stating the facts of the situation.