Blogs from Tanzania, Africa - page 370

Zanzibar Spice Tour Companions The spice farm tour was absolutely the BEST value to date! For $10 each, we were picked up at our hotel joining 12 or so others in the ubiquitous Toyota minivan matatu, given a first rate tour by an excellent guide, a good lunch, a trip to the swim in the Indian Ocean at a private beach, and then back to the hotel. Not once did the guide or the driver ask for additional money, a welcome relief, although in this case, we certainly would have tipped the guide if he hadn’t disappeared without asking. Although we were to be picked up about 9 a.m., obviously that was African time, and as I waited in the street for the van, I noticed three other muzumgu (white people), and we determined that we ... read more

Spice Farm The Zanzibar Government owns about 60 percent of the land, so this was a government farm, although it appeared that many small, village-like communities existed. Spices are fascinating, and our guide could tell us where each originated, and showed us each spice and explained its season, harvest and any required processing. Here is a photo of us at lunch. Fish in coconut sauce, green vegetable, chappati, banana, etc. Nutmeg, Mace You peel off the outer part of the nutmeg, leaving a beautiful, bright red lacy substance around the nutmeg nut itself. The red lacy substance is mace with a similar, but unique fragrance and taste from nutmeg, around which is grows. Cinnamon Only the bark of the tree is used, and you chunk off a piece, and the bark regenerates in about six weeks. ... read more

Stonetown - Saturday 2/18 When we arrived at Victoria Hotel we were charmed by the setting opposite Victoria Park, the feeling of the hotel. An old, heavyset woman dressed in black sat in a chair under a tree in front. As we approached the door a gofer guy came out. We asked if they had a room for two. He said yes and started to get a key. With that, the old woman said “no rooms … the toilet doesn’t work.” We had been told by another traveler in Dar that the place was under renovation, but we really wanted a room there so I said, “I’m a mechanic. Let me take a look at it and see if I can fix it.” She agreed. I went into the room and saw that it indeed was ... read more

We only meet travelers by the way that we travel. We are in the cheaper hotels, the cheaper eating places, and the cheapest Internet places. By and large, we are in the cheaper shopping districts, since I guess that most tourists stick pretty close to pre-marked prices in the hotels or in the special shops to which they are directed. Not us! As a result, when we meet fellow travelers, our conversations usually center on where they have been, where they are going, what they recommend, and what they don’t recommend. Sometimes we see the same people from time to time. For example, the guide books and several groups had recommended Jambo Hotel on Zanzibar Island, and when several agree, we tend to their advice. However, when I called ahead to make a reservation, the answering ... read more

How we do it We started out by heading to the Tourist office, not too useful, and then we saw a sign for a FRENCH Restaurant and that meant COFFEE!!! REAL COFFEE! We invited ourselves to sit with a couple our age, she is Hawaiian and he is from northern California. They had just spent about four days in Zanzibar at the fairly new and fairly good AFrican music festival: Doreen and David. Within minutes, I had my notebook out taking notes; where to listen to music practice (not on weekends, unfortunately), where to eat but not where to stay. Then, Doreen mentioned that they were thinking about the wood carvers market, about which we were totally unaware. However, I asked if they would like to share a taxi there, they would, so off we set! ... read more