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To reach Antongil Bay, you have to arm yourself with courage and perhaps show a certain recklessness. However, those who take the wrong path that leads there will see their efforts largely rewarded. First, traveling along this axis offers a view of authentic landscapes located in the heart of a sanctuary of wildlife that is still preserved. Then, when you discover the largest bay in Madagascar, the one that once sheltered Portuguese navigators, Dutch ships of the East India Company and served as lairs for buccaneers, you can easily see that the isolation that persists today dates back several centuries. Since a supposed son of pirates united the people who lived there thanks to a blood pact made between the main lineage chiefs in the 18th century, the majority ethnic group in the region is called the Betsimisaraka (the many inseparable). Today, the daily life of the Betsimisaraka revolves around a multitude of activities: growing vanilla and cloves, extracting quartz, fishing, etc. This shows that the inhabitants of this region do not live too badly and shatters all preconceived ideas about Madagascar and its extreme poverty.