Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Thursday morning we took another bijaji out to the ferry in the morning and headed out to Zanzibar. The ride was about two hours, and we sat on the upper deck where we got a nice breeze and a great view. We sat in front of two Masai guys, who I chatted with for a bit. The Masai tribe lives in northern Tanzania, and they are known mostly as very tall, lean people, who wear beautiful beaded jewelry, and have cows as their main means of survival. They also send their young men down south, to Dar Es Salaam & Zanzibar, among other places, to work as guards and to sell their jewelry. Everywhere we went in Dar, there were Masai men in traditional dress, holding a spear, guarding outside restaurants and in parking lots. I guess if you're a thief, it's a pretty good deterrence to come upon a 6'5" Masai man with a huge spear!

Zanzibar is a fascinating place, because it has been important for trade for so many centuries. There is mention of it in historical records from before the time of Christ. Many cultures have influenced Zanzibar - the local tribes, the Persian people, Europeans, Indians, etc. The architecture is the first thing you notice coming into the harbor. Most of the famous buildings were constructed during Sultan Seyyid Bargash's reign. We could see the tops of mosques, churches, and Hindu temples as our boat pulled in. Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim, but they pride themselves on their openness and religious tolerance, and we heard from many people how all religions are welcomed there. 

Stone Town is the old part of the port city there, on the western side of the island. It was called Stone Town because all the buildings there were made of stone, whereas across the river, the poor houses were made of wood. It is truly like a maze, with very narrow streets and twists and turns everywhere with no street signs. We were pretty much constantly lost, but it's a very small town, and at least we were happy to wander around lost, taking in the history all around us until we finally stumbled upon our intended destination. 

We settled into our hostel and then had a little lunch. The food here is heavily influenced by the Indian community, and it is delicious!  We wondered around crazy Stone Town and saw Beit El-Ajaib, The House of Wonders. It was built by the  Sultan in the late 1800s and was the first house in East Africa to have indoor plumbing, electricity and an elevator. Not surprising that the locals nicknamed it The House of Wonders. 

We also saw the old fort, which was originally built by the Portuguese. It is now used as a market for selling knickknacks to tourists and for holding concerts. There is a large, stone amphitheater that was originally used for slave auctions. Zanzibar was a center of the slave trade in the 18th ad 19th centuries. The old Slave Market is now the site of a huge Anglican church. The slaves came mostly from West Africa, and then from Zanzibar were sold off to other parts of the world. In the House of Wonders there were many painting depicting the slave market and auctions and even a few photographs. Slavery was outlawed here by the British at the end of the 19th century.  

We spent the late afternoon in our hotel room trying to cool off. It is so hot and humid here, as we are 6 degrees south of the equator. Amazingly, our little room had a wall air conditioning unit, which I have never been so happy to see in all my life!  

We headed back out for dinner, at a little park by the water. There were lots of vendors selling kabobs of local types of seafood - tuna, red snapper, swordfish, octopus, calamari, lobster, and on and on. Most stands also had nan and chapatti bread, so we got a few skewers and a couple pieces of bread and sat tby the water to watch the sunset. 

The next day we spent the morning on a spice tour. This is the first organized tour we've done on this whole trip, but it was highly recommended to us by Logan and Molly. They took us into the center of the island, where they still grow many of the spices that first made Zanzibar famous. We saw nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla, cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger, turmeric, red curry, cloves, pepper, jasmine, ylang ylang, allspice, and more that I'm forgetting. They also grew oranges, limes, passion fruit, guava, papaya, watermelons, pineapple, mangoes, coconuts, breadfruit and jack fruit. We got to taste many of these fruits and then had a delicious lunch made by one of the women in this little village, utilizing a lot of the spices we had just learned about. 

After the spice tour, we took a dolla-dolla out to the east coast of the island where we were meeting Molly & Logan for the weekend. The dolla-dollas are trucks that have been outfitted with benches on either side of the bed, and then a cover placed over top of the bed. And into this contraption they managed to squeeze on 35 people and all their cargo. It might not have been the safest or most comfortable way to travel, but it sure was cheap!

We are staying at a beautiful hotel right on the beach that has a salt water pool and a great restaurant. We made plans for snorkeling the next morning.  I have never been snorkeling, which no one here can believe, but I'm excited to try it out. The water here is crystal clear and there is incredible coral all around us. 

We headed out with Captain Mu at 10 the next morning in his dhow. A dhow is a dugout canoe with a balancer (outrigger?) on either side. There is no motor, but there was good wind, and we all helped to raise the sail and head out. Even fairly far out from shore, it is still quite shallow, only about 15-20 feet deep. It took me a while to get the hang of breathing out of my mouth, but it finally started to feel normal, and I could enjoy the sites below. There was so much coral, all different types and colors, and so many different types of starfish. We saw clams, sea urchins, zebra fish, clown fish, tiny iridescent blue fish, needle fish, etc. It was absolutely incredible. For someone who has never snorkeled, I think I got pretty spoiled with my first experience. It was like swimming in an aquarium or swimming through a Pixar movie. Although I got a little sunburned, I think this experience stands out as one of my favorites from our travels. 

We relaxed in the shade that afternoon and had a great dinner of more seafood. We played some serious games of banana grams and fell asleep sunburned but happy. Tomorrow we will enjoy the morning here before heading back to Stone Town and then home to Molly and Logan's. Monday morning Jonathan and I get on our last long distance bus to head up to Arusha.