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Published: February 22nd 2006
spices
zanzibar
this is nutmeg (i think)The spice tour was great. We visited plantations and local villages that had spices growing in the backyard. We saw how curry was grown, cinnimon, cardamom, vanilla, ginger, coffee, and more. After the tour and march throught the fields we were taken to a village for lunch. we were seated on the floor in groups of five and fed delicous coconut curry fish, jasmine rice, chapati and local spinach peanut combo. When I saw food is delicious I mean better than normal. Most of Africa is not known for its delicacies. In fact most of the time its down right grim. Rice and beans or ugali and beans. For my faithful readers, ugali is the same as Malawi's 'nsima', or Zimbabwe's 'sadza'
mazie gground up to make some sort of paste. its not delicious.
But I'm not complaining, b/c I have my own stove and can cook my own food if I am truly sick of high carb meals.
After the great lunch we went to another set of slave chambers, these chambers were used after slavery was abolished, they were under ground very close to the beach. sort of hidden from view. The slaves were kept here for weeks
until the coast was clear enough to march them shackeled down a steep path to the beach where they boarded ships for other parts of the world. There were no gates or bars it was a stone compartment with very large steps. the logic here is that the chains connecting their hands and feet were very short, they could not lift their legs or body over the large stairs.
Next we went to the beach. beautiful crystal clear water, talcom powder soft white sand. lots of shells to admire.
We had anticipated catching the ferry to Dar es Salaam that night, but the tour took a bit longer because one of the buses was contiunously breaking down, so we were all shuttled between places by one small bus. So we stayed another night in a different and nice hotel, just the two of us this time.
The next day we tried to get stuff done, it turns out getting stuff done even at DHL in zanzibar is difficult if not impossible. So we headed off to Dar on the expensive fast ferry and arrived $35 each poorer and 1.5 hours later. I think it was worth it. We
zanzibar
stonetown got stuff done in Dar in stead, incuding posting 4 kg of stuff home to my Dad (dad it should be there ina week, but don't forget about african time....somaybe 3 weeks) buying a bus ticket and meeting up with Emmy Masao.
We drove to the Masao's house on the outskirts of Dar, it took about 1.5 hours to cover 20 kms. traffic is terrible here.
We had a nice dinner with the family, Agatha the daughter is about my age, Fidel came in a bit later he was busy at the Univeristy where he does research and teaches inthe anthropology department. We sat around and chatted until bed time, and the next morning Dr. Masao was very kind to take us tothe bus station.
We took the bus from Dar to Moshi, but like most African buses it didn't leave at its schedulaed time, but 2.5 hours later. C'est la vie, we are here now.
The climate changed dramatically betweeen Dar and Moshi, we crossed a small mountain range, and suddenly everything was dry, there are dust storms, the wind picks up and good god, does it get hot in the late afternoon!
I must also mention at
zanzibar
stonetown bikers this time, about the extreme water shortage Tanzania is goign through. No water means no power. It is common place for the power to be out for a few days. In some places for weeks, and in others just for a few hours EVERYDAY. Last night when we arrived there was no power, so we huffed it into a hotel (quite nice and I highly reccomend it for budget travelers... the da costa hotel) and went about getting food. Food, when the power is out is a problem. we found another hotel with a generator which would serve us. Also fantastic food. we watched the sun set and bout 70 minutes after we ordered the food came. This is a fairly normal waiting time for restraunt meals.
By the time we left (we were famished so it only took 3 minutes to eat dinner) it was completly pitch dark outside. We tried walking the 1 block back to our hotel, but it was VERY dark and I didn't want to be mugged, so we ended up taking a taxi. he laughed, but if I lost the lonley planet book due to some adventerous fellow stealing my purse, we'd be a
Masao family
Emmy, Agatha, Fidel up a creek.
The reason we are in this tiny dusty town, is that is has a fantastic view of Mt. Kilimonjaro. We have decided that climbing this mountain is too expensive, so we are heading to mt. Kenya instead. Tomorrow we will go to Arusha to see the Genocide tribual, and see if we can book a safari to Ngorongoro crater, and to catch the direct busto Kampala, Uganda.
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johnb
non-member comment
Museum
Once you get to Nairobi, try to take in the Nairobi Railway Museum - it is a very proactive museum for this continent - no, it's not Via Rail, but those guys are trying jolly hard.....John