Zanzibar Vacation - Amazingly beautiful!

Sorry we have been out of touch for a while. We just returned from a 6 day, 5 night vacation just off the coast of Tanzania to the island of Zanzibar. It is technically a part of Tanzania, though it is kind of like Quebec, except more extreme. They have their own government and all the documentation is completely different.

Sarah, Steph (another girl from the house) & I flew out on Friday morning & arrived in Stonetown. There is a lot of history within the walls of Stonetown. Friday we wandered the streets, which are a bunch of confusing small alleys with shops, hotels, & restaurants on every corner. We went for lunch to Freddy Mercury’s which was right on the beach & located beside the port where we waited for the other 4 people to show up. 4 of them decided to take the bus from Arusha to Dar es Salem & then the ferry across to Zanzibar in order to save money. We decided it was a vacation & we didn’t want to waste a full day on the bus (it takes 10 hours on the bus plus a 2 hour ferry ride).

Friday night we went to the “night market.” It is in an open field next to the Indian Ocean & there are a ton of vendors selling seafood, sugarcane juice, & Zanzibar pizza (a tin crepe like outside that they put beef, onions, & veggies inside then they crack an egg in it, fold up the corners & then fry it. It was quite delicious. I also had my fill of seafood for a while, & I tried shark & barracuda!

Saturday we woke up quite early & went on a Spice Tour just outside Stonetown. We saw a lot of different spices at the plantation & tasted a lot of different fruits. We also had a lot of boys following us making us rings, necklaces, bracelets & baskets to hold our spices out of leaves. Of course we tipped them at the end of the tour. We were then given an opportunity to buy a lot of spices, which of course I did! They all look so good, hopefully they will stay semi-fresh until I get home. We were then served a delicious lunch from the spices we had just seen. We were then taken to a beach for about an hour just to hang out & we also got to see one of the slave caves. It was quite emotional seeing the conditions they were forced to stay in & the lengths many of them went to in order to escape. Few made it out & many died trying. The beach was gorgeous, I love the Indian Ocean, the water is so blue & the sand is powdery white.

That night we ate at a delicious Indian restaurant with the best Garlic Naan. Stonetown has a large Arab background so the Indian food is very good. That night we went to The Africa House hotel & smoked Shisha as a group, it was very relaxing sitting on the balcony over looking the night market & ocean. There is also a woman who lives there & has a monkey who we played with for a long time. She is the cutest little thing & had so much energy.

Sunday we headed out to Jozani Forest in central Zanzibar to see the Colubus monkeys, which are only found in Zanzibar. They were not shy at all & walked right by us. There were also a lot of cool trees & we went to a Mangrove and could walk on the roots of the trees with swamp underneath. From there we went to the south east coast, called Jambiani where we spent Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.

Jambiani was a lazy vacation spent lying on the beach with my book & music. We had a “family house” so all of us stayed together & it walked out to sand & 20 steps to the actual beach. The Pakachi Beach Hotel (where we stayed) is owned by a really laid back rasta guy so it was a really relaxing time. I got henna tattooed on my foot & even got a massage on the beach – amazing! Monday we also rented a Dhow (traditional wooden boat) & went snorkeling & fishing. There were a lot of cool small fish & nice coral & Sam & Steph both caught fish (not big enough to eat though).

Unfortunately on Tuesday we had to leave to go back to Stonetown. I wanted to stay on the beach forever. It was even nicer than the beach in Stonetown, with the clearest turquoise water & it was gorgeously hot (well all of Zanzibar is hot, especially compared to Arusha). I can’t wait to show you guys pictures. When we got back to Stonetown we walked around through all the alleys, got lunch, & real coffee which is a hot commodity here, where everything is instant. I also shopped & again ate at the night market.

All in the entire trip was amazing. We flew back this afternoon & are now packing for safari, which starts tomorrow until Sunday. We go to Tarangire, Serengeti & Ngorongoro national parks. I am looking forward to it & can’t wait to let you know all about it.