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Published: November 15th 2007
Our first potential travel nightmare started when we got dropped off at the Kilimanjaro airport to fly to Zanzibar. When we got up to the counter to check our luggage in, the attendant asked for our six dollar security fee. No problem....... except we had NO money. We got so used to Tanzania Adventures taking care of everything for us that our brains seemed to have left the building! The best/worst part of the entire thing is that we would have had 20 dollars if I hadn't insisted on stopping by Rivertrees on the way to the airport to buy some Bahati jewelery!
We asked if there was an ATM and the answer to everything was NO! Luckily another tourist overheard us asking and said that there was one just outside. Good old Barclays my friends. We had used this ATM since day 1 of being in Tanzania and it had never failed us. This time was no exception. Why the airport employees were telling us that there was no ATM will always be a mystery to me but thank god for other tourists! The flight to Zanzibar was full of Italians and us!
We both felt like we
were back in Galveston, Texas when we got out of the airplane. Thank goodness a Tanzania Adventures employee was there to gather us or god knows where we would have ended up! It is a bit scary how spoiled we became in Africa with that company because the rest of our trip was NOT going to be like that. We were transported to downtown Stonetown where we stayed at the Coffee Lodge. Our room was great but the best part of the place was the view of the city that we had from the roof. They had a mini fridge full of beer so we grabbed a Kilimanjaro and enjoyed the sunset! This was our first night "on our own", meaning dinner was not provided by the company. And of course.............. things went south fairly quickly! We were walking around the waterfront looking for a nice place to eat when a man approached us and asked if we wanted a nice restaurant that was cheaper and that served beer and wine. The dude didn't have to ask me twice, I said sure and started following him! When it finally occured to me to look over at Yuri, he was glaring
and scowling at me! For those of you that know Yuri, this sort of thing does not happen often.....he was mad! Not much I could do about it then so we just kept following the guy. After turn number 6 or 7 down a small street I also started to question my judgement but then we arrived at the restaurant! Lucky for me it was actually quite good and cheap. However, this did not prevent the "How could you just follow a random man" talk that started dinner!
The next morning we had a great walking tour of Stonetown. That place has a lot interesting history but much of it is very sad. Zanzibar was used as a slave market for many years because it was fairly easy for boats from many countries to access. Our tour guide took us down in the basement where they used to keep people for three days without food, water or light to see if they were strong enough to be sold. If so then they went to the market where they were whipped. If they cried out it was a sign of weakness and they became slaves on the farms in Zanzibar
and did not get paid. If they did not cry out then they went to the market and were sold to other countries. Our tour guide's father cried out.
Until the mid sixties Zanzibar was mostly inhabited by Muslims and African slaves. This was of course until the slaves decided to take their country back and rose up against the Muslim population in the middle of the night. They stormed Stonetown and first asked them to leave peacefully by a boat that they had waiting for them in the harbor! Once everyone was gone, the leader gathered everyone in a big stadium and told them to go find their new house in Stonetown. The slaves ran and claimed the first house they came to. Many of the slaves became instantly rich with money, gold, cars and jewels!! This is how our tour guide's father became wealthy and was able to provide an education for his children! It is just hard to imagine that this just happened in the 60's. During the tour we also visiting the bustling market place and the palace where the Sultans used to live. Now Zanzibar has its own president and functions somewhat separately from
Zanzibar form of lipstick
The inside of this fruit was bright orange. Women use it as lipstick. Our guide gladly demonstrated for us so I had to put it on as well. You are not getting a picture of that! Tanzania.
After the Stonetown tour we went on a spice tour in a local spice farm. Zanzibar is known for its spices and its coffee. We already learned that the coffee was the best we have had during breakfast so it was time to check on the spices! During the same "take-over" some slaves were awarded plots of land and many of the families still own them today. The farm we went to was owned by 10 families and had about 30 workers. One of them collected all of the spices for us as our guide told us about them. This includes the ones that were 60 feet in the air! Near the end of our tour our guide told us that he was going to take us to a Coca Cola plant. It didn't sink in until we walked over to the coconut tree! Oh, I get it! The young man had gone to change to some dirty, tree climbing clothes and when he returned, he wrapped a loop made out of palm fronds around his feet. He then climbed up this HUGE coconut tree by wrapping his feet around it and then pulling them up. The loop
Spice time
After putting my new watch on my wrist, the guide asked me what time it was. I looked at my real watch and replied. He then said "No, it is spice time"! acted as a stopper I think. He was singing a song about Jambo (hello in swahili) and Hakuna Matata the entire time. It was great! A few of the other fun facts were learned were that supposedly men make pretend sunglasses out of pineapple leaves and wear them to the club if they are single. This tells the ladies that he is free and looking for a wife. The young man made a pair for Yuri, see for yourself! Young women apparently wear a piece of star fruit on their forehead if they are single and looking for a husband. I guess a piece of fruit on your forehead or crazy sunglasses would take the guessing out of the search! The red fibers wrapped around the inside of nutmeg used to be used as a form of viagra! It was recently banned by the government because using it seems to cause families to have all girls and no boys. Zanzibar currently has A LOT more females than males and this is thought to be the reason! Last fun fact.... White people are called "muzungu" in Swahili. This literally means white people and once we knew about the word, we heard
it ALL of the time. Anyhow, our tour guide told us that many Zanzibar residents want to look like muzungu so they make their teeth yellow instead of white! According to our guide, when they look at white people they see white skin and yellow teeth! During celebrations and around the holiday season they use some spices to color their teeth yellow and lighten their skin. Fancy that, they want yellow teeth and I want white teeth!
At the end of the tour we got to try all of the fruits that they grow there and our favorite was a pear apple. I think that is it's name anyway. It is big and green with little spikes (not sharp) on it. This is also the time when the guides and the young man took the opportunity to dress us up like total tourist idiots! I even got a new green ring and Yuri had to put it on my finger while they took a picture! You know they were thinking "Stupid tourists" the entire time!
The next part of the tour was the BEST. We got to go to the home of a Tanzania Adventures employee to have
a traditional Zanzibar meal. When we arrived at the house there was a table cloth on the floor in the living room with all of the dishes set up on it. We had potatoes with curry, some green vegetables that were like spinach and this great rice that had four Zanzibar spices in it. Our guide and Yuri also had fish. The other guide and the woman that had prepared this great meal for us were not able to join us because it was Ramadan. However, our other guide had converted to Christianity so he was able to eat! Ninety five percent of Zanzibar is Muslim.
We spent the next two days hanging out at the greatest beach hotel ever! It was called the Mtamwe Beach Hotel. We did two dives on each of the days, laid in the sun in the afternoon and attended happy hour promptly at 5 pm! We love Kilimanjaro beer! On one of our dives we saw the biggest lobster either of us has EVER seen. He must have been at least 3.5 feet long not including his antennae!
As you can see, we LOVED everything about our Africa trip. If you can
go someday, DO IT!
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Rhett
non-member comment
I'm in LA/LB and where are you!
Hey you two, I hope ya'll are having a blast! Great pictures! I'm on the HMI BRENTON REEF and we have been in LA/LB for a week now. Wish you guys were here, but I bet you don't. Have a good trip. Rhett