Portraits of the Planet: Tour des Cirques: Salazie

Salazie, the cirque to the East, a place all it's own. Mafate and Cilaos have some similarities whereas Salazie is it's own place altogether. Towering waterfalls, lush green vines, an overwhelming feeling of being in the jungle.... Salazie is absolutely beautiful. While we were venturing to Salazie, we made a stop at two other places: Takamaka and Trou de Fer. Both of these incredible sights border Salazie and are full of stunning waterfalls. Takamaka is also the home of the largest spider I have ever seen in my life, tarantulas included. The spider made it's home between two large trees, it's web strung across the path accessing a hike that we didn't take. I asked one of my friends to climb up the tree and place their hands beside it for scale, but I didn't get any takers.

We stayed the night in a gite in Hell-Bourg, the main town in Salazie. Hell-Bourg is the jumping off point for several activities in the cirque such as hiking and canyoning. I had been in Salazie once before for a canyoning trip, an exciting adventure where we hiked to the top of a canyon and used several means to get down the river. Sliding down naturally made waterslides, repelling down waterfalls and cliffs, and finally jumping down a hundred and fifty foot zip line, we made it to the bottom of the canyon in little under six hours. This time into Salazie, however, my companions and I opted for a drive to the edge of the world, that is, the fine rim line between Mafate and Salazie. It felt like it was the edge of the world, and as we stood at the top of the Col des Boeufs, the passage between the two cirques, we were enveloped in the afternoon mists that gather around the edge of the cirques. The next day, we hiked to Trou de Fer, a deep earth impression that is surrounded by waterfalls. The hike turned out to be much longer than we had prepared for, but the destination was worth it. The journey itself proved to not be horrible either, as I experienced the most fun hike I have endeavored to take on the island.