Zanzibar

Sunday, August 16, I boarded a small plane for a two hour flight from Arusha to Zanzibar. The day before, I had been in Tarangire National Park trying to figure out what to do for the next 5 days. My friend Sherell was going to meet me on Zanzibar Island on August 21, but I didn't have any plans between now and then. I had hoped to visit some of the lesser known national parks, but no one was responding to my inquiries, and I had to make some decisions. So, Saturday morning, I asked our driver to see if the safari company could arrange a flight for the following day to Zanzibar. I was lucky. After about an hour, they were able to find me the one remaining seat on a small plane that would fly me from the local Arusha airport directly to Zanzibar. So, now I was on my way. My one worry was what the heck was I going to do for the next 11 days -- 6 on my own, 5 with Sherell before we headed back to Nairobi. I have a very hard sitting still and doing nothing. How could I do that many days on a beach without going crazy. At least I had a lot of books.
My first stop was Pongwe beach. I had read about it in my guidebook, and after doing some research at the internet cafe on Saturday, I decided to make a reservation at the Santa Maria Coral Reef, a small, inexpensive place right on the beach. It was fantastic. They actually have two facilities that are about a mile apart by beach walk. My taxi driver mistakenly took me to the Queen of Sheba, which is the more upscale of the two places. I spent the night in a beautiful tiled room on the bottom floor of this amazing house with a courtyard right in the middle. $30 a night, including a breakfast of fresh fruit, toast, eggs, and freshly blended fruit juice. The beach was a drop down from the overlook (see photo above) by way of a ladder. At high tide, the water was under the overlook deck. At low tide, the water went way out and the local women went out with bags and picked up crustaceans and farmed seaweed. Seaweed farming is the big industry on the east side of the island. There is a reef that goes the entire length of the island, and this protects the interior and makes it quite shallow for about a mile. The women put poles in the water, the seaweed grows around the poles, and then the women harvest the seaweed. Other women will get up early and grab the seaweed that washes ashore. I have never seem anything like it.

I spent 3 nights at Pongwe. I read, ate, and walked up and down the beach and out into the water. I would get up at sunrise, about 6:30 am, walk up the beach during the low morning tide, and then again during the low late tide to watch the sunset. Then, I'd come back and have dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. Every hotel has it's own restaurant, which was a good thing, because there were pretty much no options otherwise. The weather was warm and sunny for the most part, but every morning a band of rain would move in. I would sit in the overlook on the netted chairs, listen to the rain pound on the roof, and stay nice and dry. It was a rough life, but I was okay living it.

My last night at Pongwe, I moved from the Queen of Sheba down to the Santa Maria. I really liked the Queen of Sheba, but there weren't many people staying there, and I was hoping to meet other travellers and exchange ideas and maybe find someone to travel with for a short period of time. Although my room wasn't nearly as nice as the Queen of Sheba, I did meet some nice people and was able to hook up with them for my next Zanzibar adventure -- the dalla dalla ride to Jambiani beach on the south part of the Island.Dalla Dallas are the method of public transportation in Zanzibar. They are pickup truck with an open canopy over the back. The roof is used to transport everything, including the kitchsen sink. Backpacks, bikes, firewood, doors, everything. The only thing I didn't see up there were people. People go on the inside, along with their market purchases, gasoline containers, and everything that couldn't fit on the top. Dalla Dalla travel was definitely an adventure. Where the taxi ride to Ponwe cost me $40 plus tip, the Dalla Dalla was about $1.50. It took almost 3 times as long and was not exactly comfortable, but it because my mode of transportation for the rest of the trip. Local culture and adventure all rolled into one. Imagine sitting on a hard board seat, one butt cheek on the seat, the other squished against the person jammed next to you. No leg room, no sense of personal space, and undoubtedly some dried anchovies in the bag in front of you invading your leg space. People's children would be placed on a stranger's lap. School kids and latecomers would have to sit on the bags in the middle of the bed. Oh, and when it rains, either you get soaked or they close the sides and you can imagine how stuffy it gets in a 5x12 foot area filled with 32 people and all the items coming from or going to market.After a dalla dalla transfer in Stone Town, the main city on the island, we finally made it to Jambiani. We found a hotel right on the beach, which was inexpensive, but not exactly nice. But, it was on the beach and we all could stay there, so that's where we ended up. Jambiani has a much bigger beach than Pongwe. At low tide, you can walk all the way up to Paje, which is about 3 miles north of Jambiani. And, you can walk another mile down the beach until you hit coral cliffs. You pass a number of small hotels and their restaurants. Jambiani is definitely much more touristy than Pongwe. Jambiani also has a town. Town is not what you would think of iin the western sense, but there is a town there, small shops, and a soccer field. I checked out a soccer game as I explored the town one day.

For the most part when I was in Jambiani, life was not much different than while I was at Pongwe. I woke up around 6, walked down the beach for about a mile with my camera, watched the sunrise, took photos, and picked up shells. Then, I walked back, had breakfast, and went to the beach again and read. Then, lunch at one of the many restaurants along the the water (this was different from Pongwe, because at Pongwe, the only restaurant around was the one at my hotel), more walking on the beach, reading, dinner, beers, bed. I did very my routine a bit. One day, I went snorkling out to the reef. We took one a dhow out to the reef with a local fisherman, and while we snorkled, he fished. The octopus he caught was his dinner that night. I also got a henna tatoo and a massage while at Jambiani beach. The local women walk up and down the beach offering these service. Tatoos for less than $10, hour long massages for $10. How could I go wrong?

I spent two nights at Jambiani, August 19 and August 20. August 21 was the day I was to meet Sherell in Stone town, so that morning I walked up to Paje, got poured on, then walked back down the beach and caught the 2pm dalla dalla back to Stone town. I got there around 3:30, and with some help from a local stone towner, I found the hotel and Sherell. Yay!

Stone town is an incredible place. Very old, dating back to the 1400s with a portugese fort whose walls are still mostly intact on the waterfront. In the 1800s, it was a major slave trading port. During our exploration of the city, we visited a church that was the site of the slave market. We stood in the slave holding chambers below the church. It was absolutely chilling.

Stonetown is famous for its doors. Many are works of art. Sherell and I wandered around the narrow streets for hours. We got lost, found ourselves, found giant markets, small shops, and everything in between. There are over a hundred mosques in Stone Town -- the city is something like 70% muslim. We happened to be there during ramadan, which meant no eating or drinking on the streets during daylight. Surprisingly, many of the restaurants were open, although some had their windows covered so those observing the fast could not see in.

Our first night there, we visited Forodhani gardens on the waterfront for their food market extravaganza. I had read about it in the seattle paper's travel section before I went to Africa, and heard about it from people I met while travelling in Zanzibar. None of that did it justice. It has to be experienced to be believed. It is a huge conglomeration of cooks all dressed in chef outfits with their wares on tables covered in white table cloths and gas lanterns all over the park. Everything is beautifully laid out, incredibly organized, and fresh. You could get sugar cane juice, lobster kebabs, zanzibari pizzas, meat, vegetables, whatever. Locals and tourists mingled together, watching and eating. It was fantastic.
The next day, Sherell and I took a boat out to prison island, where we snorkled for a few hours, then checked out the giant tortoise sanctuary on the island. We did some more town exploring, then had a drink and watched the sunsent at the rooftop bar at the famous Africa house, and a fabulous dinner at Monsoon restaurant.
The next morning, we headed north toward the top of the island. We stopped along the way and took a spice tour at one of the many farms in the center of the island. Zanzibar is known as the spice island, and now I know why. We saw cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, curry leaves, pepper trees, as well as many more. And, bananas, mangos, jackfruit, starfruit, tangarines. Good stuff.

When we arrived in Kendwa, our home for the next three nights, we were fortunate to find that there was a room available at Kendwa Rocks, a beachfront hotel that I had heard a lot of good things about. For our first two nights, we had to stay in a posh room with a great deck and hammock. Our third night, we were moved to a small banda, which was not nearly as nice as the first room but was about half the price. Kendwa rocks has an amazing bar/restaurant right on the beach. Sherell and I spent lots of time there eating, watching football, playing scrabble, and making new friends. It also has a super beach set up with chairs and covered areas where you can avoid both sun and rain.
Life in Kendwa was much like life in the othe beach areas. Lots of reading, beachwalking, and picking up shells. We checked out the other hotels along the beach, and on our last full day, walked up to the end of the island and visited the town of Nungwi, which is filled with hotels and also is the dhow building section of the island. Dhows are wooden boats outfitted with sails. Most have outriggers. These are the ubiquitous island boats, used for everything from fishing, and ferrying to snorkel trips for tourists. We had some good rain showers along the way, and at one point when we stopped for our first REAL non instant coffee on the trip, there was an out and out deluge going on. We stayed warm and dry, though.
After a fantastic three days in Kendwa, we headed back to Stone town for one more night before we headed back to Nairobi and our safari in Kenya. Before we had gone north, Sherell and I had checked out a hotel called 236 Huzumi. It was located on one of the main shopping streets, and looked beautiful. Plus, it had a well regarded rooftop restaurant that had sunset prix fix meals that were supposed to be spectacular. So, we decided that we would splurge for our last night in Zanzibar. It was a good choice. The hotel was amazing, location was great, and the dinner experience was a lifetime memory. We also had a room where we could hear the calls to prayer all throughout the day. What a haunting experience.
Our last day, we did a bit more shopping and wandering, then headed south to the airport for our flight back to Nairobi. It was hard to leave, but we were ready for the next stage of our adventure, a four day safari in the Masaai Mara.