After leaving Arusha we flew (in a teeny plane) to the island of Zanzibar, which is just off the coast of Tanzania. It is part of Tanzania, but has its own president. Zanzibar has a very interesting history: it has been controlled by the Portuguese, India, Arabs, the British and Germany during its existence, and the current culture is a fusion of African, Indian and Arabian. It is a very special place.
Stone Town, or Zanzibar Town, is the main city on the island, and it is a UNESCO world heritage site. I can easily admit I have never been anywhere like it. It is crazy, fun, vibrant, and beautiful! All the architecture is middle eastern influenced: white buildings with courtyards in the middle and rooftop terraces to catch the ocean breeze. All the doors are thick wood and frequently decorated with bronze studs. The streets are a maze, and extremely narrow (too small for cars). At first we were intimidated and thought we would never find our hotel after leaving it to explore, but a quick walk led us to realize that the town is really very small! So if you just keep walking eventually you will find your home turf.
The first day we just wandered about and ended up on the beach. We had a beer at a cafe and watched men loading and unloading a large cargo ship, which had pulled up directly on the sand. This was quite a show, as we watched people carrying refrigerators (one fridge per man) and all manner of other things, including pushing cars through the sand and up on the boat’s ramp. It was fascinating! We continued wandering and eventually found a cafe that served us a great dinner, despite a power outage (there were outages every day we were on Zanzibar, but everyone seems to have a generator).
On Friday we had booked an all day snorkeling trip through a local company, Eco and Culture Tours, and it was great fun. Ourselves and some nice folks from NYC got on a wooden boat from the south of town and went out to Niamembe Island, which is uninhabited and features a wonderful sandbar. The shells we found were amazing! Also, there was a wonderful flock of terns at the end of the island as well, so I got some new birds there. I didn’t take any home but did get some photos. We snorkeled in the morning while the cook worked on our lunch (grilled fish, octopus, and a potato curry) and then swam from the sandbar in the afternoon. The snorkeling was amazing, lots of anemones, pretty reef fish (including a very cute and territorial clown fish) as well as a large sea slug: imagine a giant pink caterpillar. That is what it looked like. Despite the 70 spf we got sunburned!
That night we finally caught up with our pal Greg (Kate was in the states due to family issues which was a bummer for us as she is super cool!) but it was wonderful to see Greg. He has spent a bunch of time in Zanzibar, and we ate at a great cafe that night that he recommended. Also, Greg and Kate had suggested we stay with them at their favorite hotel, The Coffee House Hotel, and it was super nice. It has 8 unique rooms, featuring lovely fresco-ed floors, and a hand carved wooden bedpost. The hotel had 5 stories and a great rooftop terrace where they served breakfast and had an “honor bar” for later in the day, and we watched the sunset nightly. The coffee is locally grown and those barristas are real pros! My morning cappuccino was always delicious.
Saturday Greg guided us through the city. We visited the Darajani Market and wandered around the city, stopping to try different rooftop or oceanfront cafes for a tea or beer. I did some shopping but not too much as the guys were waiting! At night we ate at Monsoon Restaurant, which features traditional sit on the floor middle eastern dining and live Taarab music. Taarab music is a fusion of African, Indian and Arabic music and is unique to Zanzibar. It was wonderful to listen too! Dinner was good too. Afterwards we sat on our rooftop deck and tried the local booze, Konyagi. It is a white liquor, like gin, and is sold in plastic baggies.
Sunday after a farewell breakfast at the hotel with Greg, we did a half day snorkeling trip to a sandbank off of Stone Town. It was probably some of the best snorkeling I have ever done in my life. The water was very shallow and clear, and the colors were just amazing. More lovely fish, a big eel, and pretty corals in about every color of the rainbow. Lunch was again wonderful: fresh grilled fish served with chapatis.
I am happy to report that our flight back on Sunday night was not a problem at all. We were quite nervous after all of our trouble flying down, but it went fine. The only bad part was that I got a sunburn on the back of my legs snorkeling, so it was not the most comfortable flight ever. Live and learn!
