Around Zanzibar

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Zanzibar - Sunday 2/19

We slept in a bit Sunday morning because we didn’t have to leave for the tour until 9:00 am when they were to pick us up. We enjoyed a breakfast of toast and jam, coffee/tea, and the strange fried eggs they cook up in this part of Africa. It turns out that the egg yolks here are almost white, not yellow. They stir the yolk around before frying the egg into an overdone fried egg with no yolk.

About 9:00 we wandered out into the lane in front of the hotel to wait for our ride. To our surprise there were three other Westerners there also waiting for the tour. We chit chatted a bit until Mitu’s Toyota van picked us up. There were four or five other tourists already on the van and we picked up a few more so the van was full. (Check Marie’s blog for a description of the passengers)

The spice farm tour was really interesting. We saw green vanilla beans growing on tangled vines clinging to trees. We learned that cloves are the buds of a clove tree and must be picked just before they flower. Nutmeg was especially fascinating. When picked it looks something like a walnut … a green fleshy oval. When cut open, the black nut in the middle (nutmeg) is surrounded by a web of what looks like shiny red plastic filaments. The filaments are mace. The locals cook up the outer flesh and eat it.

Our tour wandered through various orchards and gardens that included coconuts, sisal, curry trees, neem trees, yams, black pepper, cinnamon, cassava (tapioca) and more. Our guide was amazing. His English was excellent and he knew the English, German, Kiswahili, and other European language names for all of the spices.

About three hours into the tour we stopped for lunch in a little village. There were mats spread on the ground under a thatched roof. We were served thalis of assorted dishes cooked with the spices from the farms. It was a delicious meal and we all lingered over it.

After lunch we headed for the slave museum where Arab slave traders hid slaves in horrendous underground bunkers. They were crammed into tiny cells with no room to move about. Many suffocated in the process. It was pretty depressing really.

Our next stop was the beach. They drove us to a totally secluded spot with fishing boats pulled up onto the beach and an outcropping of coral cliffs where we could escape the sun. An enterprising Muslim man was there selling beer and soft drinks from a cooler that he had lugged all the way there. The sea was a clear aqua marine and perfect temperature for swimming. It was truly one of those moments to savor. Marie was in heaven too. She hunted along the beach for mermaid’s tears while I swam.

For more on the spice farm tour see Marie's blog.

We got back to the hotel about 4:00 pm, washed up, and then headed to town. We wandered around a bit then decided to go back to Amore Mio for supper and gelato. We picked up two cold Tusker beers on the way. Marie was looking forward to some red wine but nothing was open that sold it. We ordered pizza and asked if we could have glasses for the beer. The owner, Elizabetha, an Italian woman slightly older than us explained that she didn’t mind, but that the owner of the property, a Muslim, did. She said we should pour it into another container to hide it. In her usual shy way, Marie said what she’d really like to have was some red wine. With that, Elizabetha said, “Oh! Italiano Coka you want.”

We were puzzled, but soon she came out with a big bottle of Coke for Marie. When she poured it into a glass we realized that it was red wine …twice happiness in the same day. Our pizzas appeared fairly quickly, delivered by the owner’s daughter. Soon Momma came over again and plopped down. She said that her daughter had told her we were nice Americans, so she decided to visit.

It was amazing how open she was. It was like she needed someone to tell her story too, and what a story that was. She told us she had been married twice. Her first husband had died quite young and she remarried an older man who turned out to be a real shit … a typical old-school Italian man who was mean and made her feel worthless. After some number of years she left him and moved to South Africa. Here’s Marie’s take on the details of her story:

After the second man, Elizabetha decided to learn how to make gelato, which she did by working for other people. Eventually, for some reason, which I never understood, she decided to move to Johanesburg, South Africa with all of the equipment to make the best gelato anywhere. She did quite well for a couple of years, and then she met a man ten years her senior who treated her like a queen. They dated for some time, and then he asked her to marry him. A week or so before the wedding he rewrote his will, naming her beneficiary of a good bit of his estate, especially, he wanted her to be secure with his pension.

One evening, she went to her room, and he to his (remember, they were not yet married) and the next morning, she thought that he was sleeping late, and eventually, when she went up to his room, he was warm to the touch and not responding…turns out that he had an aneurysm during the night.

To make a long story short, of course, his daughters contested the will, did not allow her to live in the house, which she couldn’t afford without the pension, and for some reason, she put all of the equipment in a container to Zanzibar to join her 19 year old daughter.

For some reason, the daughter’s father, decided to come help work with the restaurant, and of course, there was an alliance with a shady Tanzanian, who has to own some part of the business. Of course, there had to be a lawsuit to claim her share, which today is 79 percent, daughter has 20 percent and Tanzanian has 1 percent.

The business is for sale, so if you want to retire and work 10 months a year, they will teach you how to make the best gelato and maybe you can learn how to run a business in a fourth world economy. They always head back to Italy for the two-month rainy season when there are no tourists.

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Photos

Peppercorns
We learned that peppercorns must be dried when they are green. The red ones are overripe.

Nutmeg & Mace
Nutmeg is a black nut inside a green pulpy covering like a walnut. Mace is the bright red, plastic looking lace that covers the nut when you open the fleshy covering.

Vanilla Beans
Vanilla beans look like long green beans. They grow on vines that climb up trees.

Secluded Beach for Swimming
We spent about an hour swimming at a beautiful secluded beach.

Marie at the Beach
I swam while Marie poked around the beach looking for Mermaid's tears.

Great Old Door
Most of the buildings in town have huge carved doors with brass hardware and adornments.

Clear Notice
This sign was on the door of a bank undergoing renovation