June 18 - Tanzania: Zanzibar!!
Jon in Zanzibar
Finally - the Crusade has come to a brief respite in Zanzibar. We'll be here for 3 days to sight-see and scuba dive, and we're thrilled to have a few days in something other than a tent. We got up this morning, packed up our tents, loaded excess baggage on the Kiboko bus-truck, and schlepped our stuff on taxis to the ferry. The ferry to Zanzibar was a two-hour ride, air conditioned (I'd almost forgotten what that was), and we all slept for most of the way.
The Hotel International
When we got to Zanzibar, we passed through customs and met our Kiboko Zanzibar Guide, Abdul. He took us to some taxis and we went to the Hotel International where we got settled into our rooms and ordered lunch. Jon gave our two HUGE bags of dirty laundry to the front desk and we're very excited to have clean clothes tomorrow. Jon went with the Aussies to run some errands (read: to buy beer), and I spent a half an hour trying to get the electricity converters to work in the outlets so the laptop gets some juice. Our room is on the top floor (the fourth), and is nicely air conditioned with its own bathroom. Can't wait for that shower tonight. I might sleep in the bathtub just because I can. Then again, the mattress is much more inviting. The beds are four-poster beds with mosquito netting on it. I definitely feel like I'm in Africa. The steps to the 4th floor are incredibly steep, so we'll be minimizing the trips up and down the stairs as we break a sweat climbing them. Good training for Kilimanjaro, right?
Zanzibar Tour
At 3:00, we all met in the lobby to take a "street tour" with Harry our Zanzibarian guide. He took us to the market, a few churches, and many sights that are pertinent to the slave-trading history of Zanzibar. I didn't realize, but this was a major port for the slave trading industry. Although it's not something they're proud of, the people of Zanzibar have done a lot to pay tribute to the slaves that suffered as a result of slavery. It's very touching.
One of the churches on the tour of the city, which is also where Freddie Mercury was born
Zanzibar is 98% Muslim, and I felt disrespectful walking around in a tank top so I put on a long-sleeved shirt despite the heat. The women here are covered from head to toe in Muslim attire, so even my shorts were pushing it. The people are used to tourists and don't seem to mind our attire. And while I don't necessarily agree that women should have to cover themselves, I don't want to disrespect the culture either. The call to prayer happens a few times a day, just like in Istanbul. It definitely reminds us of last summer in Turkey and makes us smile. I love the dedication they have to their religion, it's so refreshing.
Another notable fact about Zanzibar: apparently Freddy Mercury (of the band Queen) spent part of his childhood here. So we walked by the apartment building where he lived, and Harry brought up Freddy Mercury more than once on the tour. This prompted the Aussies to ask every change they had: "Did Freddy Mercury eat here? Was Freddy Mercury ever at this sight? Is this were Freddy Mercury bought fish?". Quite funny!
The Evening Market
The street tour ended at 6:00, and we came back and freshened up a bit. At 6:30, we met Brendan and Vanessa our guides who were going to take us to their favorite spots. We went down a bunch of windy alleyways and ended up on the shoreline at an evening market. The first thing we had was a sugar drink made of sugar canes. The guy takes the sugar cane and puts it through a press and the juice falls directly into a bucket. It's delicious (not exactly clean though!)! Then we walked around and looked at a bunch of the stuff people were selling: wood workings, necklaces, bracelets, bowls, spoons, statues. All very cute. For dinner, Jon and I had some kabobs, chips (fries for the Americans), and then found our way to the Zanzibar Pizza booth. Zanzibar Pizza is a sort of crepe but with more dough. Mohammad - the guy running the booth - was wearing a "Cafe Du Monde" apron (a famous beignet & coffee place in New Orleans) and dishing up these pizzas made to order. They were divine. We split a meat pizza and then a banana pizza with chocolate. I'm definitely not losing weight like this.
Masai Beadwork
After dinner, dinner, and more dinner, we went back to one of the jewelry dealers to bargain the price of some bracelets. This particular section was run by some of the Masai people. They're the ones that look like something out of the National Geographic, with the huge earlobes and piercings. Saroni, the Masai we were talking to, makes excellent beaded jewelry. There were some beaded sandals that I loved but they didn't come in my size (of course). He offered to make some for me but we won't be in Zanzibar long enough. So we bought two bracelets and Jon got a necklace with University of Florida-colors which is silly since he's not a necklace-wearing type of guy. But it looks good on him! Saroni had to enlarge one of the bracelets and Jon's necklace to fit us. And since I couldn't find sandals that fit, he says that I had "feet like and elephant" and Jon had a "head like a lion". He also taught us how to say "Cool like bananas" in Kiswahili. I guess the translation isn't exact because a guy we tried it out on later said "What about bananas?".
Internet Cafe
Then we went to an Internet Cafe that was recommended by Brendan our guide. We ran into him and Vanessa there, but the lines were down so there was no connection happening. It turns out that most of Zanzibar connects through one of two different wireless service providers, and this particular cafe used the one that was down. So we waited a while and then moved on to another cafe. This next one, unfortunately, didn't have a disk drive that works so I still haven't uploaded the most recent pages. But that's the way things are here in Africa. Jon was falling asleep in the cafe so we left and navigated our way through the windy dark streets back to the Hotel International.