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Published: October 29th 2006
Sunset
STONE TOWN - ZANZIBAR - TANZANIAWe arrived at the port of Zanzibar, called Stone Town, with the usual hassle of hawkers trying to drag you into their guesthouses, but we were having none of it as we know where we were going. The whole 2km trip to Jambo's, we had about 10 guys following us, argueing between them, and eventually fighting once we were in our place! Quite a funny sight to watch!
Stone town is buil up with narrow alleys and was used back in the days of the slave trade, where slaves were transported to Arab countries, and it still has a large Arab influence to it.
An uneventful night passed, and the next day we headed up north to the beautiful beack of Kendwa. This place was awesome, and just what we had been looking for! Beautiful white sandy beach, palm trees, azure waters... a tropical paradise! We stayed at Kendwa Rocks resort in on of their Banda's, which is just a small hut. This was our home for the next week. the first couple of days were spent doing, well, nothing, apart from lying on a beach all day, and the occasional swim here and there. Then we got adventurous
Stone Town Streets
ZANZIBAR - TANZANIA and went out on a snorkelling trip to Mnemba Atoll, which is a small sandy island owned by some lucky rich bugger on the eastern side of Zanzibar. This also gave Chris a chance to check out his underwater photography skills with his new housing for his camera, which he'd been dying to use. The snorkelling was great. The reef was in great shape and there was an abundance of marine life. The camera also performed OK, although alot more practice is needed! Lunch was served on a local beach and consisted of half a tuna, amrinated in all sorts of spiced, with fresh fruits for deserts. It was a great day, and much recommended.
The next day was time for some serious fishing! We met up with another couple, Thomas and Rejjie from Denmark. Thomas was a bit of a serious fisherman, and wasn't going to let the chance of hooking up a big game fish pass him by, as these waters are famous for them. so, we were out trawling by 7am or so. We started with 4 rods out the back of the boat. The water's were very lively, and all over the place we could
see large tuna, barracuda, and others divng out of the water whilst feeding on small fish. It was only a matter of time before we hooked one. Eventually, we had a hit on one of the rods and whatever it was was taking line fast . Chris grabbed the rod, and one the fish stopped taking line, hooked it with a yank, causing it to take off again. After a 15 minutes struggle with the fish, Chris finally got it to the boat and we finally saw that it was a decent sized Yellowfin Tuna. Chris was over the moon with his catch! We kept fishing, hoping to hok another one for Thomas, but unfortunately, everytime there was a strike on the rod, it turned out to be the lure hooking on to some weed or a net. We then went snorkelling on one of the local reefs where Anto swears she saw a large shark, before heading home. That night we all ate well as we gave half of the 30kg Yellowfin tuna to the local restaurant in exchange for them cooking us some large Tuna steaks. Luckily for Thomas, he went out again the next day and caught
a large Wahoo, similar to a barracuda, and a nice sized snapper and caral trout. Once again, we all ate well again that night!
Next was the Full Moon Party, which was held on the beach outside our resort. This was nothing like the Thailand version, but enjoyable none the less.
So after a week on Kendwa, we thought it was time to check the other side of the island out. We headed over to Paje, which is another beautiful beach, but not as nice as Kendwa. The thing with Paje was that when the tide went out, it went out about a kilometer, and where there was water was where the reef was, and due to the size of the waves coming in, it wasn't really a place where we could swim. And it seemed to be low tide all day long! Anyway, after a couple of days lounging around here, it was time to hit the road, and unfortunately, to leave Zanzibar...
We headed back to Stone Town, bought our tickets for the overnight ferry, the had a sleepless night lying on a bench flicking cockroaches off ourselves on an overcrowded, stinking, hot ferry. We
made it to Dar alive though, so we can't complain!
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Desembarcamos en Stone Town, Zanzibar y una orda de gente te intenta arrastrarte a sus hostales, pero esta vez ya sabiamos donde ir. Al parecer, decir que ya tienes reserva hecha NO es la reseta para que te dejen tranquilo y unos cuantos no se dan por vencidos. 10 hombres nos siguieron los 2km de camino desde el puerto hasta el hostal, peleando entre ellos hasta el punto que uno agarro un palo y se daban empujones. Una vez en el hostal, ellos siguieron discutiendo afuera por un rato..
Stone town esta construida de angostos pasadisos, piedra y corales. En sus dias era usada como el punto principal para transportar esclavos hacia los paises arabes. Las calles son coloridas con mercadillos de pinturas, artesanias y especies.
Al dia siguiente nos fuimos a Kendwau, una playa maravillosa al norte de la isla. Justo lo que buscabamos! arenas blancas, palmeras, aguas turquesa.. un paraiso tropical.
Nos quedamos por una semana en Kendwa Rocks, un hostal con pequenas rucas bien implementadas.
Los primeros dias hicimos nada mas que hecharnos en la arena y nadar de vez en
cuando. Despues, tuvimos un aventuroso paseo a la isla de Mnemba, la que es privada y donde hicimos snorkling en las arenas blancas y aguas calipso, y donde Chris demostro sus habilidades fotograficas bajo el agua con su nuevo juguete para cubrir la camara. Le falta un poco de practica!!
El snorkling estuvo espectacular. El arrecife tenia abundancia de vida marina y comimos un asado de Tuna marinada en epecies con variedad de frutas tropicales, todo esto sentados en una playa cercana. definitivamente un paseo recomendado!!
Ya era hora de un dia de pesca serio!! Nos juntamos con otra pareja, Thomas y Rejjie de Dinamarca. Thomas era un poco fanatico y profesional de la pesca y no dejaria escapar la oportunidad de agarrar uno grande. por lo tanto a las 7am empezamos el viaje mar adentro con 4 canas de pescar. Las aguas estaban movidas y divisamos varios peces Tuna, Barracudas y hasta delfines saltando y comiendo a los peces mas chicos. Era solo cosa de tiempo para que pescaramos. Tal vez , demasiado tiempo!!. Finalmente, una de las canas pego un tiron y fuera lo que fuera estaba tirando fuerte..
Chris agarro la cana de pescar
y cuando el pez dejo de tirar, le pego un tiron causando que el pez tirara nuevamente. Fueron 15 minutos peleando con el pez hasta que lo vimos cerca del bote, era un gran pez tuna de aleta amarilla!!! chris estaba trastornado con su pesca!. Ahora era el turno de Thoma!!. Seguimos toda la manana tratando de agarrar otros, pero desafortunadamente todo lo que agarramos terminaba siendo canastas, trampas para peces y algas.
El paseo continuo con snorkling en uno de los arrecifes de la zona, donde Antonella esta convencida que vio un gran tiburon!!.
Una vez de vuelta en el hostal, le cambiamos la mitad de los 30 kilos del pez tuna a un restoran. Ellos nos cocinaron unos tremendos bistec de tuna con arroz, ensalada y una salsa de coco increible y suponemos que el resto del pez lo vendieron dado que el menu de esa noche era tuna, tuna y tuna!! Menos mal que Thomas se fue de pesca el solo al dia siguiente y tuvo la oportunidad de agarrar un tremendo Wahoo y otros dos tambien grandes. Para nuestra suerte, el hizo el trueque con el restoran y nuevamente tuvimos cena gratis.
Esta noche
se poblo con turistas que venian a la famosa fiestas de la luna justo en la playa afuera de nuestro resort. No se compara con la version de Tailandia, pero de todas maneras lo pasamos bien.
Despues de una semana en Kendwa, decidimos visitar otras playas. Fuimos a PAJE, al lado este de la isla y es tambien de aguas azules, pero mas tranquila. El problema es que con la marea baja, el agua se iba como un kilometro adentro hasta donde esta el arrecife y las holas, ai que no era muy apto para nadar. Ademas habia que caminar demasiado hasta tocar el agua y la mera parecia estar baja casi todo el dia!! . A pesar de esto era un lugar excelente para relajarse, leer y recuperar energias para volver a las pistas, y sin muchas ganas, dejar las playas de Zanzibar...
Asi es como volvimos a Stone Town y compramos nuestros tickets para el Ferry nocturno donde el concepto era dormir sobre unas bancas, en este barco sobrepoblado, ediondo y caliente y para mas remate sacandote las cucarachas de encima!!... A pesar de esto, logramos llegar a Dar es Salaam, asi que no podemos reclamar!!
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Dusan
non-member comment
did you really catch that fish?
the fish looks quite stiff, looks like its been dead for a while and been frozen... do you really expec us to believe you caught that?!?