Zanzibar musings

Hi all! Just got back from spending the weekend in ZANZIBAR!! How absolutely amazing. I had my heart set on this trip way before I even came. How could I come this close & not go to such an exotic locale?

Leann, Cathy & I headed our Friday right after placement. We had to take a cab to Arusha (next big town airport, 1.5 hours away). We got to Stonetown, where all the hubbub is, around 5:30pm-6pm. The hotel was nice-old but nice. The room was huge! 3 beds, tv (with Bollywood music videos!) a small fridge & AC! Zanzibar is SOOOO hot & HUMID! Wow-what a difference compared to Moshi. So we checked out our room then met w/ a guy to book a spice tour for Saturday morning. Then we went exploring a bit but it was unfortunately getting dark already. Stonetown is really old with exceedingly narrow streets. I mean we had to walk single file against the buildings as to not get run over! Lucky for us there was a superb Indian clothing store next door. WOOHOO! I got the coolest pants & I don't even have to hem them,er I mean have MOM hem them, haha. We went into a couple more shops, which were overpriced, then ate on the rooftop of a great restaurant. Shrimp-finally!!!!YUM. It was great. That was all we did pretty much. We were warned not to be out after 10pm. With the streets being so narrow, it's easy for goofballs to try to steal from you. All in all, I was not impressed with Stonetown.

The next morning we had a driver take us for the spice tour. I loved it! It's so green everywhere-tons & tons of palm trees & banana plants. We went to what looked like a forest. A guide took us all around, pulling off leaves of different plants asking us to smell it & guess what it was. We saw black pepper (which is a vine), vanilla beans, tumeric, ginger, cloves, fruits, & more. Cinnamon was so cool- he carved off 3 little pieces of the bark for us-it was amazing. The bark is cinnamon, the leaves smell like clove & the root smells like menthol!

I shocked the guy when he pulled down some leafy things & asked us to guess. I knew right away it was Ylang Ylang so I said it. He got this shocked,surprised look & said,"How do you know?!" heehee I did it again to him when he showed us a henna plant. He explained that women use it to color their hands & hair (I know) & I said "Mhendi". Again, the surprised look & "How do you know?!" Ü

A young man was with us & he scaled a palm (coconut) tree w/ a rope around his feet! Like a little monkey, he went all the way up & lopped off a branch! He then wove it into a cool little basket. He chopped open a coconut & we drank the water & tasted the fruit. Weird chickens came running to eat it too. They love it!

So it was all very cool to me. Of course they had a table filled w/ spices to buy so I loaded up for me & for gifts!

Then the guide took us to see an old Persian Bath house. It was weird but kinda neat. There was a room for massage so I had to take a picture.
We also visited some palace ruins. Eh-I wasn't too impressed.

We went to lunch then & had some fabulous spiced rice & fish-yum!

So, around 1:30-2pm, we headed up north to the beaches at Kendwa. Ahhhhhh, peace & relaxation awaits.

Jes