Tz 2018: Habari Gani Zanzibari!

My 4th trip to Tanzania, and the flight feels absolutely no shorter than the first one. The second you get on the plane you are reminded a couple things. One is how much personal space we are afforded in our American personal bubble. The other is how our threshold for personal hygiene exceeds that of many other places in the world. But nonetheless, I enjoyed it. The 6 hour stopover in Dubai was very restful and I treated myself to the Emirates lounge for a shower, food, and rest.  The Dubai airport is my new favorite airport, finally edging out Washington Dulles and Washington National. So elegant and pristine, a great layover indeed.

I arrived in Zanzibar early in the morning on Friday (after leaving the US on Wednesday afternoon). It was hot and muggy. The second I walked out of the airport there were people in my face asking me if I wanted a taxi. I walked out to where all of the drivers stand and my name was nowhere to be found. Now what? I had arranged a driver through violet but I had no idea his name or phone number. So I called violet and Richard with no answer and was considering getting a taxi. But do you get a taxi from the guys inside the airport or outside? It was hard for me to admit defeat and go back inside to say “actually guys, I do need a taxi”. But I finally looked up from my conversation with this nice British girl traveling to Zanzibar on her own for 8 days, and saw my name in green letters. I walked up to him and was like, “hi! Have you been standing here the whole time?” He said he was looking for a solo traveler and it looked like I was there with someone, because of the German I was talking to. So finally Violet called him and I heard him explaining the situation to him. All I understood was “moja mzungu” and I said, yes, you were looking for one white person! So all was well. 

Bungo fruit from Rashad

Rashad has lived in Zanzibar his whole life. His family was originally from Oman but many generations ago. He wore the traditional Zanzibari hat and his minivan had a backup camera.

Rashad drove me to the Pyramid Hotel, a very simple hotel in the middle of stone town. It started raining on the drive, something I was completely unprepared for, and we waited in the car for it to let up. I had a single room and went to it, put my stuff down, and just as soon as I did the guide for the Zanzibar tour Mbwana Juma arrived at the hotel. 

Flower petals and towel animals

So I went downstairs to meet him and we walked together to the ferry terminal to meet the students. The terminal was a zoo. It’s so interesting how I’m sure I stick out like a sore thumb to everyone, but the men in Tanzania are so much more welcoming and engaging than the women here. The women are more reserved and intimidating. I went to pay for my ferry ticket to Dar and she looked at me and said that I had reserved the wrong ticket, I reserved for Dar to Zanzibar instead of Zanzibar to Dar.  Mbwana straightened it out but she didn’t seem to have a lot of patience with me! 

So the students finally came out of the ferry and it was so great to see a couple familiar faces! We all walked back to the hotel, at this point my second pair of shoes was soaked, and got changed and ready for our stone town tour. Mb gave us all personalized ZNZ shirts, which we wore on day one of the tour. No one could tell we were mzungu tourists.

My third stone town tour was just as nice as the first two, but with a lot of rain to make things interesting. The main government building was under construction, it looked like it had been for a long time which was funny because the first time I was in Zanzibar I was able to go, so I guess it was that long ago.  

After the stone town tour we headed back to the hotel and were picked up for the spice tour after a quick visit to the slave trade museum; it is always so powerful to go into the rooms where they kept the slaves before they were headed to the Middle East. Most of the Zanzibari were slave traders and not slaves, they were brought from the mainland here for the market. The market in stone town is always fun too, if you have a strong stomach.

 The spice tour started with a delicious lunch in a hut very similar to the one we ate in the first tour I went on. It was very flavorful, rice, chicken and vegetables in a coconut and tomato sauce, chapati, mandaazi, cassava, and fruit. I enjoyed the tour as well, but it was cooler to see the students on their first spice tour. It was all the typical players, the soap and perfume salesman, the boys who give you the leaves from each of the spice plants while also making you hats, crowns, and bracelets out of palm leaves, but this time there was a coconut tree climbing man at the end of the tour, which was pretty amazing to watch. He climbed the tree, sang and danced with the tree, and gave us coconuts! After a coconut water and meat snack, we headed back to Stone town and boarded a couple motorboats over to Prisoner Island.

Prisoner island was built during the slave trade eta but never actually used as a prison. It was a hospital and one point and now home to a few peacocks and a bunch of enormous tortoises that are up to 150 years old. They are just as fast moving as you’d expect. Maybe slower because No Hurry in Africa! So the first day in Zanzibar allowed me no time for jetlag! 

Dinner was delicious chicken curry at a restaurant by the market. The market was as quiet as it has ever been. No painting vendors, but we did have Zanzibari pancakes, mine with Nutella and snickers. It was delicious as expected. At this point I was pretty much delusional after not having slept in a bed for 3 days so I was pretty much out as soon as my head hit the pillow. 

This guy appears to feel safe.

Joseph, Mbwana, and Kazoka

Zanzibari pancakes 

The next day we woke up early for breakfast and headed to the Main Street to catch the shuttle for the snorkeling trip. 

#mzungulife

Our roof deck

We drove about 30 minutes to the south part of the island, where we walked out across a coral field to the boats. There were hundreds of guys bringing all sorts of coolers and equipment to the bots as well, it was quite an operation. 

So the Safari Blue crew took us on this wooden dhow/motorboat to the first reef where there were thousands of colorful fish swimming around. There was a point where I was a little overwhelmed by the quantity of fish swimming around me, but overall I was able to keep them under control!  We stopped at this sandbar in the middle of the ocean which was pretty cool because on our way back we rode by it and it was just a tiny 6’ wide island. Apparently not one of the 51 islands in Zanzibar. 

We stopped at a mangrove lagoon after lunch on the beach and some quick naps in the lounge chairs. The tour was action packed. 

Pee freely in Zanzibar

So much we saw and did for under $200! Mbwana was an awesome tour guide. He loved to say “AMAYzing” in his Tanzanian accent. It was sad to leave but super rushed because the ferry terminal is a mad house! We paid $5 extra for business class, well worth it for the air conditioning. And then there was Dar Es Salaam!