Day 10 - Travel to Zanzibar

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We had a quick breakfast at 7:30 and then were in a car to the airport. Our flight was supposed to be at 11 and it was a 2 hour drive. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but our driver had a case of Driving Miss Daisy syndrome. One of the seatbelts didn't work so we had to move around the car. The speedometer on the car was busted but clearly we were driving incredibly slow. The car had no gas. A simple ride to the airport couldn't be easy.

We arrived at the airport at about 10:20 only to learn that we were on the 12:15 flight. We were pretty sure our tour company wouldn't get us on the 11:00 flight as we had requested a dozen times.

Oh well. We were essentially rid of them. From here on out it would just be the two of us, the Dhow Inn and their transportation...or so we hoped...

The airport was tiny with a lot of small propeller planes. Most of the airport was outdoors with small check in areas. We grabbed lunch while we waited. It was a beautiful day as we ate outside in the terminal. We were back to being happy, knowing that relaxation at the beach was a short plane ride away.

Our plane seated 12 and was nearly full. The 1 hour, 45 minute flight went smoothly. A few bumps along the way but nothing major. The view was great. We could see all the Maasai villages encircled with the blinding plant. After about an hour in the air we started going over the ocean. The beautiful blue water below got us excited. It looked like something out of a commercial.

The first thing we noticed about Zanzibar was the incredible heat. We don't know what the temperature was, but it was HOT! Fortunately our driver was waiting for us and he whisked us off to the hotel in his air conditioned car. We wound our way to the hotel, about an hours drive in the other side of the island from the airport,

We held our breath as we crossed through ugly, trashy alleys before pulling up to the security gate. Please, please be a nice place we both silently thought. We checked in and got to the room. A flood of relief came over us. The Dhow Inn was a beautiful resort with fantastic clean, air conditioned rooms. Yes!!! We could relax!

The resort isn't all that big, maybe 30 rooms, but it was almost deserted. We were at the low of low season. There were 3 other couples there, honeymooners as well we think, and that was it. There are two main room areas of 12 rooms that circle a private pool.

The resort also has a bar, restaurant, lounge, breakfast area and a private beach. The beach was a short walk, ~50 yards. There is another small resort between our place and the private beach so our area is offset instead of being directly in front of our resort. Not that it really mattered.

At the beach there was a server who brought us a mojito and margarita. The waves crashed just off of our private beach and rolled in to our beach. For people walking along the beach, our private area, and the adjacent ones, made walking difficult because you had to walk in knee deep crashing waves. A group of local kids were playing in the small waves.

The water was a beautiful shade of blue. We relaxed and soaked in our surroundings. I eventually went for a swim. There wasn't much in the way of a current and the ocean did not get deep quickly. After swimming out a ways, it was still only 8 feet deep. Another set of waves were crashing far off in the distance.

We went for a short walk and hadn't gotten very far before we were hit up by some Maasai people selling souvenirs. Their approach is quite tricky and hard to ignore without feeling rude. They approach you with their hand outstretched so they can shake your hand and welcome you to Zanzibar. Next they ask where you are from. And when we say America they always say "Obamaland." They give a quick tidbit on where they are from and then they try to lay out their backpack of goods so we will buy something.

The handshake approach is really tricky. They are quite aggressive with it and it is hard to walk by without shaking their hand or running in to their arm. It is a well laid trap.

After our walk, and being hit up a few more times, we made our way back to the resort for dinner.

Dinner was fancy. Really fancy. A 5 course meal extravagantly prepared. It was a little much for us, but we certainly weren't going to turn down a dinner, especially since it was included.

We didn't recognize the appetizers so I ordered the beef and Sarah the veggie. The beef was a carpaccio (raw). We had pressed our luck with drinking mixed drinks that had an unknown supply of water for the ice. Now raw beef? The main course we had a snapper and a filet. The filet was medium, but came out pretty bloody. Lots of risks being taken at this dinner, but we had a significant supply of Cipro left and we were at the end of out trip so we dug in.

We talked a lot about what activities we might want to do. Snorkeling and the spice tour were the most likely options. We'd have to see tomorrow about the details.

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