Ferry to Zanzibar

Ferry to Zanzibar - Saturday 2/18

Because we didn’t have to be at the ferry until ten, we had plenty of time to wake up and eat breakfast at a leisurely pace. We packed only our daypacks for the two nights in Zanzibar and left main packs with the hotel for $500 Tsh each per day. Originally we had planned to walk to the ferry, but due to our leisurely pace we were running late and had to take a cab. It was probably best that we did, because our driver was able to drop us off right in front of the “Flying Horse” ferry office, thus pretty much avoiding the touts. Unfortunately, the Flying Horse leaves at 12:30 PM, so we had to run the gantlet down to the “sea star” office to buy tickets for the 10:00 boat.

To our surprise we had to go through a security check before boarding the ferry. We were told they were checking for guns. As of 10:00 the ferry hadn’t arrived so we just stood in a cattle stall kind of waiting area until it came. Finally at 10:30 it showed up … a fairly new, motor yacht type of boat with two passenger decks (no cars). Although we were mumbling about the $35 ticket price we were mollified a bit when we found we had assigned, airline type seats with tray tables, and that the boat was air conditioned.

Except for a few bumps the ride was fairly smooth. I was able to work on my travel blog for the entire hour and a half trip. As we got close to Zanzibar we began to see small fishing boats and a few sailing dhows piled with bags of stuff. In the harbor were a few small, rusting freighters and about a dozen older yachts of various sizes. Pretty soon passengers began piling up in the aisles and stairways so we knew we were close to port.

Getting off the ferry was an ordeal. Porters were coming down the ramp as we tried to go up with our luggage. Everyone wanted on/off all at once. Taxi drivers and hotel touts stood in the way and we had to dodge bundles and bales of things on the pier as we wound our way off the dock. As we trundled along an older man, Ishmael, offered to drive us to our hotel for $1000 Tsh. We said “Okay”, and he went ahead to wait for us to go through immigration.

We were surprised that we had to go through immigration because Zanzibar is part of Tanzania. It turns out that Zanzibar still thinks of itself as a separate place. Also, the port can be entered from many places outside Tanzania, even though our boat had not done so.

While filling out our paperwork Marie noticed that all of the “official” taxi drivers had badges. Our guy, Ishmael” didn’t so we were suspicious. We asked one of the ID’d guys if Ishmael was an official cabbie. He said that he would walk out with us to see. As soon as Ishmael saw us with the real cabbie he shouted to us, “Yes! He is the right driver. Go with him.”, and then took off. I guess he would have been in deep trouble if he had hung around.

Our new guy offered to take us to the Victoria Hotel for 2,000 Tsh and that if there were no rooms available he would take us to places until we found one. We agreed and hopped in. The 1.5 km ride took only five minutes, but at least we got to see the basic layout of the town without having to carry our luggage in the heat.

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