Blogs from Zanzibar, Tanzania, Africa - page 59

Wow...I don't know how else to describe this town. Old, centuries old architecture, Islamic Arab influence ingrained with a mix of Indian and East African (Swahili) heritage, preserved on an island untouched by modernization yet preserved in its time. One could only imagine what bustling business occurred in this town centuries ago, for this sea faring island reeks of history from many cultures past and is infused in its present form. The Persians, Arabs, Portuguese, and Omanis have all touched this area. However, thanks to the Aga Khan trust for culture, the buildings and streets are being preserved and maintained. Must do's in Zanzibar? For sure, staying at the Zanzibar Serena Inn, or even having lunch there (make sure to order the Swahili mix). Also, the Emerson & Green hotel has a beautiful rooftop restaurant. Make ... read more

my second day at the beach i decided to go snorkeling. i considering diving but it was diving in the open ocean, the indian ocean no less, so the instructor recommended that since it's been so long, maybe i should dive first where it's calmer. so i agreed and decided to play it safe...or so i thought. we got to the site and the swells were about 3-4 feet. i wasn't liking the looks of it from the boat but put on my mask and fins and bravely jumped overboard, holding on to the boat. for dear life! i couldn't let go. well, let's say wouldn't. no, actually, i think i was physically unable to pry my hand of the bow. well, when there's a will, there's a way and there's a solution to every problem. ... read more

Yes, we have now seen some cats! Lions, a cheetah and a serval so far, but the leopard is proving elusive. We saw most of our lions and the serval in the Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania), the cheetah between there and the Serengeti and more lions in the Serengeti NP. The Ngorongoro Crater was amazing. It was a horrible day when we got up, raining, low clouds and we weren't expecting to be able to see much as driving up to the rim of the crater we couldnt see much further than the front of the landrover. As we went over the crater rim and started going down inside, the clouds lifted and we had the most beautiful views. The crater is about 20km across with one large lake and loads of smaller lakes / waterholes. We ... read more

After a few days of doing nothing every paradise gets boring... so, we decided to head for a few days to a east cost beaches... but there was one problem... at that time it was impossible to do that trip in one day... so, we had to stay another night in Stonetown... again... :) We hit the market... again :) (i already bought extremly useful sandals there). We wanted some fruit, and bananas were the name of the game... different sizes, colours... so, let's get the biggest one... a red one... well... seller was noding a bit, but she clearly didn't speak english, neither did we speak swahili... so... only when we tried banana was clear what she wanted to say. That was clearly not a banana to eat raw, but to cook... it tasted, well, ... read more

So, our third "pre-planned" trip was to see some dolphins. Dolphin tours run from Kizimkazi in the south of the island. We passed Jozani forest, but we decided not to stop to see the Columbus monkeys, as we saw them near Arusha (though, those monkeys on Zanzibar are very rare red Columbus monkeys - oh well, next time). After a long and dusty drive we finally arrived to Kizimkazi. The village seemed to have no tourist infrastructure and wasn't overrun by tourist. We embarked on a small boat and got our flippers, goggles and snorkels. Oh, did I mention that we were the only two people on a tour. Great... Some 30 minutes later we came to the spot where the dolphins are usually lurking around. Yep, we saw some, but it wasn't really like "swimming" ... read more