Zanzibar

Zanzibar

Time for a vaction within a vacation. I've been really enjoying sleeping in a bed, being clean and not cooking my own meals for 4 nights. Although clean is relative, since the showers are still salt water.  We negotiated a room for $60/night, which cost each of us $15. That included breakfast.

Zanzibar is beautiful. White sand beaches flecked with red coral pieces. There are barely any waves and the difference between high and low tide is drastic. At low tide you can walk out and grab red starfish from the water. But you need to be careful of the sea urchins everywhere. The beach itself is ringed by coral, which is covered by water at high tide.

For $10, you can have an amazing fish meal. My new favorite is dorado, althought I also tried kingfish and tuna. I haven't had a meal without seafood since I've been here. Curry is very abundant on the island, which I always thought predominantly indian.  I had a lovely calimari curry one night at a restaurant down the beach.

There is a strong italian influence on the island, due to a lot of italian tourists. Usually Masai speak english, but we met one named Fabiano that only spoke italian. There is pasta and pizza at most restaurants. I'd recommend the octopus pasta at Langi Langi if you ever visit.

My second day on the island I went on a snorkeling trip. $20 included snorkeling gear and lunch. We saw two pods of dolphins swimming on the way to the reef. The reef itself was filled with beautifully colored fish. There was a giant black and white angelfish, about the size of my forearm.  The reef was just off the shore of one of Bill Gate's private islands.

Zanzibar is known for its spices. We took a tour of one of the spice plantations and learned all about growing spices. The yellow turmeric root stained my hands a deep yellow.  The cinnamon trees had several uses. The park makes cinnamon powder, the branches cinnamon gum and the roots Vick's vaporub. What an awesome tree.  We were able to suck on raw coffee and cocoa beans. They are kind of sweet and sour.

One of the workers on the plantation climbed to the top of a coconut tree. The top of the tree had to be at least 50 feet off the ground, it was so tall. He shimmied up it like nothing. He has been climbing trees since he was 8. At the top he graced us with a song in swahili, Jambo... jambo, jambo. It was such a catchy tune, it's still stuck in my head.

The final part of the tour was being able to taste all sorts of weird fruit. Jackfruit is huge green and very bumpy looking. It tastes like a pineapple and a banana had a baby.  My favorite was the custard apple, a spiked green fruit. It has a soft, fall apart in your mouth texture and was very sweet. Kind of like sour sop. Packets of spice were available for 1000 shillings apiece (about 66 cents.)

For our last night we took a sunset cruise down the island ($10). It was beautiful watching the sun set over the ocean. The guys on the boat sang for us. It was a blast and a perfect way to end the Zanzibar experience.

I love Zanzibar. It's going to be hard to get back on the truck.