Madagascar is a big country with difficult access, tough roads. For example to go from Tana to Tulear, it’s gonna take you 2 days full driving (at least) with a 4 by 4, imagine with trucks or even buses… In some very rough dirt roads, it happens that you do 100km in 10 hours .
On the road to Ambanja in the north:
Even if we are talking about like for example let’s say 600 km of transportation needed, with the state of the roads here we are talking about a day or two of driving in a truck (if not more to be honest), also got to count the transportation from the actual growing place by foot or zebu in hidden paths for multiple days… So even if it’s cured in a specific way by the time it will arrive at you it’s gonna be different…
As it smuggled it depends as well on the way of transportation I suppose. I heard that it is sometimes hidden with charcoal. A lot is exported.
So I think curing is quite random if you live in Tana, or big cities in general, greatly depending on your contacts.
Best it to get ourselves closer to the herb.
I got a friend that lives on an island on the east coast, that when he is coming in Tana, just stop smoking zamal. He claims the zamal is not good anymore, more expensive, weaker, bad taste… I smoked some with him over there and yes the zamal looks better, greener and just fresher, with clean effects. The transport is altering to some extent the weed.
The climate is very different on every part of the island, some are very humid and cold during winter while others are very dry, arid and very hot. Cold and temperate in the highlands, very humid and hot in the whole eastern coast, very dry and very hot in the western coast.
The culture is also very different, language, traditions, fady varies a lot on the location. A bit like India I guess, @globalhead there is multiple dialects, and it is sometimes hard to understand each other. So a lot is getting lost in translation …
Just to give an example in the highlands for egg we say “atody”. The same word means testicles/balls in the far south ! Funny when you are just asking for some eggs … Do you have balls man? 
The amount of confusion sometimes is awkward and quite comical.
Highlands in Ambositra, center
Tsaranoro, south
North of Ifaty, west coast
Close to Moramanga in the east
I am detailing all of this because, as we don’t say specific names for landraces, locals differentiate the quality/effect with the location of growing. It’s the climate that makes the weed truly different. I have been told that South east is the best place as the climate condition seems to be ideal to grow good plants. Not too much rain, not too hot, good altitude… It’s close to impossible to access, it’s like “closed”.
So I guess each different weather got its own different strain that prefers a specific climate.
In my experience, the herb from south create more resin but also more seeds and harsher taste. I’ve had dark purple herb in Ampefy, in the highlands, 6 years ago, I am not sure I can find that back. The zam from the east is also often a bit more fruity.
Fresher, bigger, greener bouquets :
To me, it makes sense that the best origins are far south, south east, and north east as they are really hard to get places, very remote, possible conflict zones with no to little state control. The southern part of the island hosts the biggest zebu population of the island, and therefore more Dahalo influence and control. There is quite some heat with the precious stones too, but I reckon those syndicates don’t care about weed.
Back in the day, the iconic Isalo national park was occupied by the Dahalo, they got pushed further in the mountains to the Makay, where they found paintings in caves very recently, draws questions of what kind of people were there, why they were so remote, and far from everyone and everything !
Isalo National Park
In Isalo they found evidence that Persians came at some point in those magical mountains.
Also, when it’s raining season, so supposedly now, the supply seems to slow down. The rain season has been later and later because of climate change, we are waiting for rain now.
Not so long ago, the rain would have start now and with a lot of water. Nowadays it’s months late, little and random.
Thank you for reading !
Maztoo a 