On our third and final day in the park we chose to do a less popular hike in the morning to another natural pool and waterfall. We first had to drive deep into the park on bad roads for about an hour. Our driver, Patrick, choose to come with us on the hike instead of waiting by the car. The hike was a bit rough at times and maybe even a bit dangerous; we scaled down a mountain side and sometimes even our guide did not know the way.
But first we had to walk through a local village where we learned a circumcision ceremony was going to be performed the next day. This is a very important rite of passage for all Malagasy men - without this, they are not allowed to enter their family tomb or any holy places. However, sometimes this ceremony is performed, at least in my opinion, very late. For example, on the east coast the ceremony is only performed every 7 years, and all eligible boys are circumcised at the same time. If you happen to miss one, you could be as old add 13 or 14 when you finally get circumcised. The two boys we met were around 5 or 6 - old enough to express their fear (and maybe even a bit of excitement) about the upcoming events, but not old enough to fully understand what was about to happen. Their father, a friend of our guide's, came with us for part of the hike, as he still needed a few fresh medicinal plants for the ceremony.
In the afternoon we completed a much shorter, well-maintained hike - you can see in one of the pictures that they even carved steps into the rocks.
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