Dayna's Trip To Zanzibar

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My Friend Dayna arrived on Januray 7th at 3:30AM. She and I worked together at Citytv in Toronto and she decided to pay me a two week visit. It was great to see someone from home who knows me, has history with me, and understands my sense of humour.

After a two hour nap, we were up and heading to the 9:30AM ferry for Zanzibar. With such a tight schedule, we had to make the most of our time together. We arrived in Stone Town and checked into our hotel and hit the streets. Being exhausted from her 20+ hour flights, we wandered aimlessly through the streets. The heat and humidity on Zanzibar is far worse than Dar, so needless to say we stopped several times for breaks before heading for a nap.

After the nap, we went to the night market held in the centre of Stone Town. It is a nightly event where the local vendors offer samplings of the food they caught that day. The choices of shrimp, lobster, crab, octopus, squid, sugar cane water, skewers of chicken, beef, & goat are endless. We sampled a few things and then headed back to the hotel to crash for the night.

The next day, we headed to the east side of the island to the village of Jambiani. The east coast is much quieter and the beaches are beautiful. When planning the trip, I figured 2 days of rest would be smart after that long trip, besides I knew what I had in store for the remainder of her first week.

On our way to the east coast, our driver took us to the Zanzibar Butterfly Centre. Here, they are teaching the locals how to farm butterfies... Taking them through the steps of a butterfly's progression and then selling the cocoons (or chrysalises) to other countries. What started with 5 farmers is now at 40. We stopped to take a look at their efforts and admire some of the various species they have farmed.

From the butterflies, it was time to visit the Zanzibar Red Colobas Monkeys. These monkeys live in the Jazoni National Forest. They are one of the rarest species in Africa. They are on the endangered list (approx. 2400 left) but we were able to go into the forest and see them up close.

From there we headed to the Villa de Coco Resort where we laid on the beach for two days, read books, and not much of anything else. It was great.

Once our two days were up, we were back in the car and in Stone Town where we went to Prison Island to see the giant sea turtles. I had been there before with my friends, Martha and Mary, but it was great to see it all again though Dayna's eyes. The turtles smell as bad as I remember but the boat ride over and back was great.

After the turtles, we were on the last ferry of the day back to Dar es Salaam where we would crash for one night before heading out on a 4 day/3 night safari at the Selous Game Reserve.

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Photos

Day 2: Butterfly Eggs
In the palm of the hand of our tour guide at the Zanzibar Butterfly Centre.

Chrysalises
Is that even a word? Anyways, these are what they farm and send to other countries like South Africa.

Gold Ones
Apparently, the brighter and shinier the chrysalis, the more toxic it is to the animals that feed on them. I think the gold ones are cool.

Butterfly Feeding on Mango Nectar
You can see that the ants enjoy the mango as well.

Comments

[tim]

wow, didnt know (and didnt expect) that there would be people who understand your sense of humour

[Cath Lawlor]

No shearling coats on these monkeys! You heard all about the IKEA monkey here in our neck of the urban jungle, I take it?