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Published: July 15th 2006
Nutmeg
Not what I expected... but much better fresh!Well, my last update left us on Zanzibar, but we decided to head back to Stone Town after last weekend. Stone Town is an old section of town from the days of Arab occupation and contributes to a big part of Zanzibar town. We checked into our old hotel and then setup a meeting with Jordan, Georgina and Maurice. For those of you who didn't know, Georgina and Maurice are my aunt and uncle. We took them to a restaurant we like called the Archipelago Cafe. I managed to introduce them to my best discovery in months: Sticky date pudding.
We spent an entire day just hanging out at their hot shot hotel, catching up and having a few beers. Jord entertained us to no end with his new hot shot Game Boy -I've never heard anyone giggle as hard as Penner did upon beating many of Jords high scores. We cabbed into town for dinner and ate some great Swahili cuisine... mango chutney, some kind of cinnamon pumpkin dish, beef stew, coconut cream spinach and pilau rice. We sat on the floor for this meal which was entertaining. The next day we visited the Northeast corner of the island
The hard life...
Not much to say besides the fact that I fell asleep for a period of time in this hammock. Couldn't tell you what that period of time was! and got in more beach time. We sat around watching the seaweed farmers and reading our books. Today we went on a spice tour which was really great.
We drove less than an hour in a direction I'm not too sure of. We stopped to see fruits, vegetables, spices and other crops (too many to remember). Cool ones were nutmeg, vanilla, the curry, allspice, eggplants and cinnamon trees plus lots of others. We ate jack fruit, starfruit 3 different types of oranges and tonnes more. After that we took a trip to the slave trading epicenter of east Africa (or what used to be) and explored the holding cells and secret paths and harbours used to transport all the slaves (mainly while they were outlawed). Spice Island was also slave island for quite sometime. Basically when slavery stopped elsewhere and was essentially banned, it only began to grow on Zanzibar. I believe they were still capturing and selling off the slaves until 1873. In any case, the holding cells were subterranean and quite shoddy. I wouldn't want to be stuck in there, I don't think I could have escaped and I didn't even have an iron ball and chain
A Local Lunch
After all the spice information, they decided the best way for us to learn was simply let us try it all out. From left to right: Ryan, Jord, me, Kris, Georgina and Maurice. Thanks to Kris for some of these shots since my camera batteries died a horrible, horrible death. around my legs as well.
We went to another new beach on the island afterwards this time on the West coast of the island where we had a big swim, did some nut shots and human pyramids. Once we were through there we returned to Stone Town. Our time together in Zanzibar wasn't nearly long enough and after another wonderful dinner out last night on the waterfront, we sampled many of the foods from the street vendors. Rumour around town is that I have a worm... although I deny it! My appetite has seemingly increased and last night after dinner and dessert I had one more of both again on the street. A couple nights I've found myself eating several entrees plus dessert. I think I'm just underweight (which I am). Today we're doing some errands before Jord says goodbye to his mom and comes back to join us at our hotel. We're all looking forward to him snapping back into the realities of a third world country and lowering himself to our scroungy level and ways. Tonight there is a music festival which we plan to crash before we leave back to Dar Es Salaam tomorrow on a
Indian Ocean: Secure
With added reinforcements we were able to safely defend the far East! ferry and then eventually up north.
Finally, for those of you who are wondering whether I am bored yet of remote tropical islands... not yet!
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Charlie C
non-member comment
Unoriginal
Once again Jason I find myself staring at a picture of you in exactly the same place I have been months previously. First in Zambia and now sitting on the very same rug eating the very same fish and rice we ate on the spice tour in Zanzibar.