Advertisement
Published: February 3rd 2014
Edit Blog Post
Tone on tone
Tanzania easy style...tell me that's not fashion! Even though my Swahili is atrocious Tanzania has taught me the words: Karibu and asanti, welcome and it's my pleasure, respectively.
These people have class and style! The Maasai of this region are even taller, darker and more handsome...I didn't think it possible!
My love affair with Tanzania began at the border, what a beaming smiling immigration officer...Karibu Tanzania seestah!
My people my people!
The entire country industrious and producing it would seem...little roadside cafés, Colorful art and signage everywhere, the women like brilliant butterflies.
The artistic flair of the people evident everywhere I look...the dark red mud huts built just so... The thatch perfect in thickness, texture and design. The way a scarf billows in the wind, the tone on tone or gentle ombré of everyday items...this country is rich beyond compare! The people it's most precious resource.
Now we head toward Dar es Salam ...Hours and hours on the road dulls my enthusiasm a bit....we rumble on through clouds of dust in a parched unforgiving desert landscape, along probably the second worst road in Africa....it seems never ending.
Finally dried to a crisp and powdered with fine orange dust, we pull into
our camp in the middle of nowhere...it's like the set of a spaghetti western! Red dry earth, old railway tracks, a small sluggish river with barely a bush on its banks and the wind, relentless, howling, dry, parching wind! The wind whips dust into our hair, eyes, meals...it clings to your damp skin after a useless shower, it warps and bends my tent threatening to dislodge it and my few precious possessions inside...
One night is enough! 5am can't come soon enough although now it's accompanied by a case of the runs....ugh! Get me out of here!
On the road again... 7 grueling hours later snarled in the traffic of Dar es Salam we pant toward mirages of Zanzibar island, 3 days off the truck in a real room with real plumbing, grilled fish, plump mangoes and good coffee, white sand beaches and no Aussie wanker! I hug a baobab tree!
Mecca!
Two ferry rides and an hour by taxi later my Dutch lady friend and I arrive in what must surely be paradise. Oh the island life...I'm home!
An impossibly azure sea, fresh coconuts, startling white sand beach and an easy laid back vibe.
Zanzibar is 98% Muslim and 100% wonderful.
Dows sail about much as they did a thousand years ago, ebony men silhouetted against the sky pole tiny dug out canoes across the bay and I lol in the crystal waters not a care in the world. Snorkeling that afternoon, sailing at sunset, the boat men drum and sing as we sip kilimanjaro beer...Jambo Caribe' karibu a Zanzibar (hello Caribbean welcome to Zanzibar)!
That night reggae, grilled fish, much bartering with the brothers on the beach. I pay too much for a painting but who cares...they laugh and clap when the deal is made and all the while the 'plastic Maasai' smile through their mirrored sun glasses jangle their bracelets and chat up the oh so receptive foreign girls on the beach.
Island style!
Three days end too soon and we are back in Stone town the main city of Zanzibar. A hideous hotel room but not for long...I go 'New York' on them, demand my money back from the 500 pound 'receptionist' as he hacks an entire loaf of bread in half to make God only knows what type of sandwich, and strike a deal with the
beautiful high end hotel a few streets away. Hot shower, wifi yet still extremely affordable..queen for a night.....it's low season.
Back in Dar es Salam Henry meets us with our truck...oh boy, here we go again!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.116s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 12; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0608s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Grace Lipscomb
non-member comment
Stunning!