Zanzibar!

Ah Zanzibar. After some non-stop travel on the mainland, we were thrilled to finally arrive. We quickly made the easy decision to extend our stay (instead of good beaches and an old world vibe on Kenya's east coast, we stuck with Zanzibar's great beaches and intoxicating fusion of Arabic, Indian, and African food, architecture, traditions, slang...).

We developed a nice routine in Jambiani, a small village on the SE side of the island: sleep in, read a ton, and then walk out to the shore at low tide. The tides are dramatic - the ocean literally recedes a full kilometer twice a day. We would walk through the squishy white sands and past the grounded fishing dhows (only in use during high tide) to reach the turquoise ocean, where we would share the calm waters with fully-clad women harvesting seaweed in the shallowest pools. When the tide turned (this was easy to notice - the current instantly switched directions), we would return to the hotel with the incoming waters nipping at our feet.

Bright sun - we're not smiling, just squinting.  Dhow in the background!

Our daily routine wrapped up with dinner at the Coral Rock Hotel (samosas with duck, mango, and cream cheese - genius!) and entertaining stories from the Tour D'Afrique from our new friend Mike, who was recovering from a cycling injury (stoned by children) in Ethiopia.
The village of Jambiani was very quiet and relaxed, but tourist money clearly wasn't trickling down to the locals (most of the hotel staff came from other parts of Tanzania, hotels were owned by Italians or South Africans, and we saw a UNDP truck coming through town to offer aid). Our liberal guilt was moderated by the fact that the village is in the most beautiful setting in the world, and there are enough coconut and mango trees to keep the people of Jambiani well-fed. So everyone wins, right?


Park Avenue of Jambiani

We eventually peeled ourself away from the beach to get lost in the narrow cobbled alleyways of Zanzibar's old city, Stone Town. Simply wandering Stone Town without a destination or itinerary was one of the highlights of our whole trip. Arabic-style houses with brass-studded wooden doors, old Persian Baths, Sultan's palaces, neighborhood mosques, compact bazaars... and of course countless shops selling useless kitsch to tourists. We stayed in the heart of Stone Town, where the roads are too narrow for cars, but the area was full of life. Old men in white robes drinking coffee at any hour of the day while veiled women do all the work and small children fill the streets with perpetual football. We read other travel blogs warning of "thieves and bandits," but we felt perfectly safe exploring Stone Town - all one needs is a fluffy beard and a few street Swahili phrases to throw off any would-be bandit.

This is cool, but it pales in comparison with other street scenes.  Holly will post a facebook album when we can load more pictures and get a better internet connection in Nairobi.

We did venture out of Stone Town for a few other sites. We visited Changuu Island, which is home to the second largest tourtoise species in the world. They really are huge. They're also deceptively quick, especially when you dangle spinach in front of them. We enjoyed pristine snorkeling on the back side of the island as well. This was a great place where everything seemed just right - even the numerous jelly fish didn't sting much.

We also did a spice tour, which seemed necessary since Zanzibar is known as Spice Island. The farm was fine and we learned how to process vanilla beans and about the various uses of nutmeg, but the best parts came after the tour. We ate delicious curry in a small village (we could recognize the individual spice flavors after the tour) and swam north of Bububu beach (what a name!). On the walk back, we were overwhelmed by large ants with bites that stung worse than the jelly fish. We jumped/ran to our next destination, and gladly bounded into a giant cave. We might have been the first people to ever be so excited to descend into the Mangapwani slave cave, used to illegally hide slaves at the end of the 19th century after the slave trade was abolished.

We're on our way to Nairobi in a few hours, where we'll spend our final five days in Africa before heading north to Paris. Also, to friends and family back in Seattle, we found an apartment in Capitol Hill on Craigslist - we'll be moving in there mid-April. Looking forward to catching up, though we're dreading the end of our trip...