Zanzibar

This weekend we went to Zanzibar (that little island off the coast of Tanzania), and it was amazing. It has so much beautiful architecture, rich history, and fantastic beaches. It was a jam-packed weekend that was so fun, and at times ridiculous, that I don’t even know how to retell it. Here goes…

Stone Town
Stone Town is part of Zanzibar City, the capital of Zanzibar. It’s an incredible area with tiny narrow streets, great markets, and lots of churches and mosques. I loved wandering around the city because the architecture is fantastic. It has a lot of Arabic and Indian influence, so everything is very elegant and exotic. Still, it is Africa, so they don’t have a lot of resources to maintain the buildings and historical sites. My favorite parts were the doors; they were all elaborate and elegantly carved.

When we arrived, we took a rickety wooden boat over to Changuu, an even smaller island not too far from the wharf in Stone Town. It used to be a prison, then a quarantine area for Cholera patients, and now it is a resort and tortoise sanctuary. There are tons of HUGE tortoises that were given as a gift from the Seychelles to some rich British resident back in the day.

By far the coolest thing we did in Stone Town was eat at Forodhani Gardens. It isn’t really a garden so much as an alley lined with tons of food vendors. It is the craziest and most energetic place I’ve ever seen! There are tables lined with all kinds of fish, octopus, squid, meats, and delicious fried snacks. They even have an oh-so-delicious “pizza” made with flour, water, and egg topped with bananas and chocolate. You go to a vendor, tell them what you want, and then they grill it up for you. Everyone either stands around or sits on any spare space available on the street to eat. I had my first taste of barracuda, and it was fantastic! Overall it was the best meal I’ve had since I’ve been here.

Spice Tour
Zanzibar is famous for its spices, so Saturday we went on a spice tour. We drove out into the countryside and saw village after village situated in these forests of palm trees. The houses are made out of mud and sticks, and the people live so simply. I’d love to try it out someday. The tour was in one of these villages where they grow everything from cinnamon to henna, and cloves to iodine. Being the little tree nerd that I am, I absolutely loved hearing about all these

plants and their different uses. There is this one tree (mwarobaini in Swahili) that is used for all kinds of medicinal purposes: pain, fatigue, Malaria, and even as a natural pesticide. At the end of the tour we got to eat all of their delicious fresh fruits!

Abdul the Taxi Driver
Our taxi driver was crazy. He was with us for the whole weekend, but I still don’t really know how to describe him. First of all, he drove like a maniac. My life flashed before my eyes every time I got in the car. When he picked us up from the port, we drove about 3 miles before we ran out of gas. Abdul leaned out the window to a guy next to us at the intersection and asked to borrow his motorcycle. Surprisingly, the guy said sure, so Abdul drove away on a stranger’s pikipiki while we sat in an intersection completely confused. The next day the car almost overheated. He stopped to add some water to the radiator and lost the cap. He tried to fashion one out of bits of trash from the side of the road, but we ended up having to get another van and another driver (but Abdul stayed with us anyway…).

One night we asked him where we could find some good places to eat. He kindly offered to drive us to a good spot; he ate with us and even brought his wife. Conveniently he and his wife hurried off right before the bill came, so we were stuck paying for them both. After that we went to a bar next door to play some pool, and Abdul shows up around midnight to convince us to go to downstairs to a club (of course, he didn’t pay his own cover charge or anything…). The club was totally empty; it was just us and Abdul breakin’ it down on the dance floor. Although, between my hippy dancing and Sarah’s white girl break dancing, we pretty much got the party started.

Along with Abdul we acquired another Zanzibar native to our group. Her name was Nora, but that’s about all I know because I never heard her say anything. She knew our professor, who was leading the trip, but no one really knows how. She did come back to Dar with us, and brought a TV that she bought on the way to the spice plantation. It was very random. I never have a clue what is going on in this country.

The Beach
We spent one night at this beautiful beach resort on the East coast. The water was perfectly blue and the sand was so white. It was some of the softest sand I’ve ever encountered, and it felt like you were walking on jelly. Some of us went snorkeling, which was fun. We took another rickety wooden boat out to a small reef. I don’t think it was too healthy, but there were a lot of cool tropical fish. Other than that we pretty much sat on the beach drinking pina coladas and enjoying delicious food. It was beautiful and relaxing and I fully plan on going back another weekend.