August 2011 - Tanzania - Zanzibar

Hello Rafikis,

We made it to Zanzibar, the island of the spices and a quite unique African destination. It feels like the Orient is meeting Africa within the beauty and fertility of the Indian Ocean.
We spend our first days in Stone Town which is a crazy labyrinth of little alleys and multi storey buildings, the perfect place to get lost on a continuous basis. For the 3 days we stayed there we did not get once the way back to our accommodation right.
We had the pleasure to be in Stone Town for the end of Ramadan which means a 3 day celebration for the 90% Muslim population of the island. It seems to be something like Christmas for us, so the ones that are enjoying it the most are the kids. Everybody, especially females of all ages put their fanciest dresses, loads of beautiful make up and henna paintings on making themselves looks as if out of an Oriental fairy tale as they head towards the Gardens of the city down at the promenade. There, they treat themselves to a feast of seafood which is sold by street vendors from their stalls there. From octopus, to calamari, to crabs, to lobster to all sorts of different fish along with backed goodies such as samosas, chapattis and tones of other things of which the names are unknown one can find anything. All this is washed down with the most delicious freshly squeezed sugar cane juice spiced up with lime and ginger; people really need to start selling this in our places!!! (a bit of Rum in there would not harm neither)

Fred got a good two days rest in the hotel as his ear was healing under antibiotics and some painkillers that are only by a 10th weaker than Morphine and which he seemed to be enjoying quite a bit! On pills, he was the perfect shopping and sightseeing companion, nothing could make him bored, everything seemed fine... Even watching the sunset in cheesy but institution-like place full of tourists, ala Ibiza-style was accepted without comment. Very strange!
After leaving Stone Town we had a small tour of the island and we ended up in its South East corner in a little place called Jambiani. On this island everything seems to grow. Apart from millions of banana trees, there are of course the standard coconut forests and in between the hugest Mango and Papaya trees, there are also plenty of orange plantations, sugar canes and of course all the spices you can think of, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cumin... Truly, a very beautiful setting!
Being in Jambiani was like living in a postcard for a couple of days, the colour of the water is just stupendously turquoise! Not sure how many times during the day one of us would say “Look at that water!!!”, being in a place like this was just too hard to comprehend sometimes. After going snorkelling and walking on the endless beach the activities of the place were exhausted (our budget could unfortunately not accommodate a kite surfing course...) and it was time to do what most people do on holidays, just nothing!
This feels a bit strange after the tempo we have been having until now but we managed. For a day and a half that is, after which we might have gotten spastic cramps if did not start moving again, making us realise why we chose to have our own means of transport on this trip.
Zanzibar was a great stop to chill, the people here are super friendly and despite having so many tourists around (we had not seen that many white people since Cape Town) they are not too pushy and simply extremely welcoming. The food compared to Mozambique was a bit disappointing until we met Alli and his family who cooked for us the last days, through them we managed to get a homemade taste of the famous Zanzibari style of cooking;
all sorts of sea food in coconut sauce along with all the spices that grow in the garden.
Now we are full of food and energy, Fred is half healthy again and we are returning to Cruisi in Dar es Salam. From there we are off to the Samaani Park on North Coast which is described as the Galapagos of Africa!s