Spicy Zanzibar

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Day 76, “Domingo”, May 15th, thankfully our LAM flight was on schedule to fly to Tanzania. We arrived in Dar es Salam just in time to catch a small plane and arrive in Zanzibar at sunset. We got settled at the Africa House Hotel on the beachfront in historic Stone town. We loved the charm of the hotel that was restored from ruins in an eclectic African and Arabic style that reflects the diversity of Zanzibar. We enjoyed an intimate dinner in the hotel bar before turning in.

Day 77, Monday, May 16th, we came to understand why May is low season in Zanzibar. It poured rain most of the day. We dodged the downpour as we explored the narrow streets and museums giving into being soaked but kept warm by the tropical humidity. Zanzibar has a diverse history. We visited The House of Wonders museum to learn more about the history of this former spice island and popular trade stop. The darker part of the past was the role in the slave trade. We visited the cathedral that now stands on the spot of the old slave market. It was hard to imagine the torment people endured during those times. We got lost down a maze of streets and bad directions looking for the Hamamiri Persian Baths. We found the tour interesting but the journey getting there was more exciting. We also stumbled upon the tiny shop of a shoe cobbler. John had had his sandals stolen in Mozambique so he had the cobbler make him a custom pair in chocolate leather (he made them in less than a day). The rain continued into the evening crushing our plan to visit the night market for dinner. We talked with the hotel staff and had them send us to a favorite locals restaurant to get typical Zanzibar cuisine, which reminded us of Sumatran fast food.

Day 78, Tuesday, May 17th, rain again this morning. We planned a visit to Prison Island anyway. A local fisherman took us on a tour to snorkel the reef and see the giant tortoise population on the island. They were brought there years ago from the Seychelles. The only other place they have a large colony in the Galapagos. The rain held off all afternoon and we had great visibility on the reef. We saw giant primary colored starfish, tons of spiny black sea urchins and bright tropical fish. After snorkeling we toured the small island and visited the tortoises. Visiting the tortoises was interesting. They had fenced in an area of the island, which they have turned into a sanctuary (a little sad but it is for their protection). Each shell of the tortoise was marked with their age with the oldest at 185 years. We fed wild lettuce to the docile giants thinking how they have changed little since prehistoric times. We returned to the mainland for a tasty lunch at Archipelago Café overlooking Prison Island. Then we drove North to Nungwi Beach. We arrived near dark to find many of the hotels closed for renovation (off season). We met a friendly local that jumped in our car and escorted us to a few other options. We chose to stay at Jambo Brother’s Bungalows right on the beautiful white sand beach. We walked down the beach that night and discovered the area was much more developed than we originally thought. There were several, restaurants, bars, dive shops and large hotels (most closed for renovations) within a two mile stretch. We were then grateful it was low season imaging how busy this area could be fully booked. We had a lovely romantic dinner at Paradise Café. I started with a tropical pina colada (made from fresh pineapple & coconut – not crème de coco although that is tasty too). John got to know the local Kilimanjaro beer. We ate delicious fresh seafood prepared with local Zanzibar spices. We went to bed hoping for a few sunny clear days to enjoy the beautiful beach.

Day 79, Wednesday, May 18th-Day 81, Friday, May 20th we spent our days on the post card perfect white sand beaches. John walked at least a mile and a half to surf the outer reefs of Zanzibar. The fisherman and other locals looked at him as if he were crazy walking around with a surfboard. He was stoked that he caught quite a few waves and surfed a very “unknown” spot. We also took a dhow trip to Mnemba Island that was a wonderful day trip. We visited the surrounding reefs of the private island for a snorkeling excursion. The reefs are known to be world class diving adding to the allure of the Mnemba Island (guess that’s how the exclusive island hotel can charge $3000 US/night – again out of our budget darn). We spent an hour exploring the reefs before boarding the boat and heading back to a secluded beach on the mainland where we were served a lunch of fresh fish, salad and local fruits. We explored the central part of the island and visited a spice plantation. Zanzibar was a perfect climate for a multitude of spices but was known for the cinnamon (or queen spice) and cloves (or king spice). We had a private tour with a wonderful guide named Tiboo. Tiboo led us on a tasting tour of all the local spices and fruits. After the tour we headed to the other side of the island to check out the Eastern beaches (beautiful but very windy). This side of the island is a popular kite boarding spot. On our way back to Stone town we picked up a guy heading our way. He was a Kenyan living on Zanzibar as a construction worker. He was kind enough to point out some local spots we most likely would have overlooked. As we were passing through a forest he instructed John to drive really slowly. Being close to sunset we were able to see numerous Columbus monkeys. The longhaired red and brown monkeys are extremely rare and are only on Zanzibar. They have really long back legs and a nose like a pig. It was like having a personal tour guide. Nothing like asking a local for advice. When we arrived back in town we found the Maritime Hotel right next to the ferry station since we had an early departure. We able to enjoy the night market that evening with beautiful weather. We cruised the market, which is full of vendors selling all different types of local cuisine. Each had a spread of street food including fresh baked flat breads, kabob abs with every type of seafood and meat, huge coconut crab claws, and Zanzibar pizza. First we made a bad choice of selecting something from the first booth we came to. We got some overcooked squid and terrible falafel. We walked around a bit more to find one of our favorite things, the sugar cane drink (in fact so good we had two each). The vendor hand-cranked a metal press crushing sugar cane, ginger and lime into a refreshing drink. As we walked on we found a busy booth with some of the best food we had in Zanzibar. The Babu Salum BBQ booth cooked us some delicious spicy chicken and sesame bread. For dessert we stopped next door at the Master Pizza booth for a nutella, banana walnut pizza drizzled with chocolate. Not bad for street food.

Day 82, May 21, Saturday, Our ferry left for Dar es Salaam at 7am and we had to buy tickets around 5:30 am. We woke in time to get ready for the day, complete some last minute packing and have breakfast before heading across the street to buy our tickets. For $35 each we enjoyed a nice hour and a half catamaran ride back to Dar es Salaam. The boat was equipped with flat screen TVs that played back-to-back videos on the Serengeti that served to excite us even more for our coming week in the parks of Tanzania. When we arrived in Dar our ride was waiting for us. As luck would have it, because of our delayed flight leaving Pemba for Dar es Salaam we met a few people while we were killing time awaiting the next flight (3 days later). They were heading to Dar es Salaam overland and were looking for a couple of people to join in their Safari to Ngorongoro and Serengeti. John and I had been spending the previous 2 days exploring options and calling tour operators looking for an affordable option (to no avail). As we were contemplating not going to one of the parks, we met Jamie, Sophie and Jeremy who needed a couple more to share park entry fees and petrol costs. We were now heading to Moshi in a 2010 Land Rover Defender and would be camping (on the ground) among African wildlife. Little did we know how hectic things would be. Unlike Kruger Park in South Africa, there are no fences in either the Serengeti or Ngorongoro parks. As we would find out we were going to truly experience the wildness of Tanzania. As a joke, Jamie had an insignia of a NGO put on either side of his truck. Somewhat copying the UN insignia and colors was our fake NGO United Nomads. Perhaps because of this, despite being stopped numerous times by police we were never issued a ticket nor did we have to pay any bribes. I take that back we did have to pay one ticket it was the equivalent of $20 as Jamie was clocked doing 100 KM/HR in a 40 KM/HR zone. All the other stops (about 6) were to ask us where we were from and where were we going. Since we were from all different places (Tasmania, Zimbabwe via Ireland, Canada and USA) perhaps the police did think we were a UN envoy. We finally arrived late to the Honey Badger in Moshi, were we enjoyed a wonderful and late dinner and talked about the exciting plans for the upcoming week.

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Comments

[Fran and Ailsalee]

Get a life!
Get a life! We have for the past week, its about time you two did as well!!

[robyn johnny]

Hi Great to hear from our favorite Goat farming gals. Missing you!