On Holiday on Zanzibar

August 12th, 2013

We have now been on holiday for three days.  It has been nice to spend a few days giving ourselves a treat after volunteering in Malawi for eight weeks.  The plane ride over here was without incident, but tiring nonetheless.  We left Lilongwe at 1:00 pm, traveled 2000 kilometers out of our way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, then back down to the island of Zanzibar on the beautiful Tanzanian coast.  We landed on Zanzibar at 3:00 am.  After finding accommodation in Stone Town, the principal city of the island, we crashed!

The next day we arrived at our hotel on the beach, the Art Hotel Zanzibar.  

 

Fortunately, two friends of ours from back in Lifuwu, Keenan and Nicola, were on Zanzibar for a holiday from their volunteering experience in Dar Es Salaam.  They met us at the beach, where we enjoyed a nice lunch and afternoon in the sun.

Now that I have been all over this island, I can say unabashedly that it is a paradise.  The beaches are absolutely stunning, with turquoise waters and fine sand beaches.  The beaches in Florida have fine sand beaches, but they don’t hold a candle to Zanzibar.  Walking on the beach here feels like stepping on sifted cake flour! 

 

If the natural beauty is not enough to convince you to come to Zanzibar, the food will get you packing your bags.  Zanzibar is known as a spice island and was a pivotal port for Arab and European spice (and slave) traders.  As such, the food is unreal—the flavors are intense, yet well balanced—and draw on the varied cultural heritage of the island.  Our breakfast table is filled with local tropical fruits and homemade flat bread called Chapati.  Here’s a picture of curried chicken with Chapati for dinner.

 

The culture on the island is quite unique; it has a vibrant mix of Arab, Indian, and African influences.  Back in Toronto on Yonge Street, there is a “gentlemen’s club” (strip club) called “the Zanzibar”. I find that name quite ironic and somewhat misguided, since the Zanzibari people are very traditional Muslims, and the women all wear hijabs and full-length robes.  I’m sure they would love to know what people in Toronto think Zanzibar is really like.  The people are truly, exceptionally warm and friendly, which only adds to Zanzibar’s many charms.

 

On Sunday, Kim and I booked a sailing excursion to the outer reef.  The beach here is really amazing, since the reef prevents the surf from crashing too much at shore.  The water remains quite shallow for over a mile out to sea, which means that the tides here are very dramatic.  A two or three foot tide will send water inland over a mile!  Also, because the water is so shallow, and the sand is so white, the water is very warm.  Even though it is technically winter here, the water is in no way unpleasant to swim in.

 

We went snorkeling around the coral, went for a walk to the barrier reef caught octopuses, and enjoyed a nice sail back to the beach.  We saw so many fish, anemones, starfish, and sea urchins.  It seems that the people here don’t eat sea urchin, because no one was fishing for them.  I wonder if they know that one sea urchin costs $8.00 back in the United States…There were so many, you really had to watch your step!  In this shot, you can see Kim holding a starfish—those black spots in the photo are sea urchins.  

 

Holding an octopus is really strange.  They are really slippery, but their arms have suction cups that hold onto you really tight.  Here is a shot of me holding one—notice the ink all over my hands. 

 

In the evening, we enjoyed a meal outside at our hotel, watching the stars and relaxing. 

Today, we had a very full day.  At 6:30 am, we were picked up to go to another part of the island where there are dolphins.  Our guide took us out on a boat with our snorkeling gear, and we got to swim with the dolphins.  They are really hard to photograph, since they move so fast, but here was our best effort at getting a shot of them.

 

Unfortunately, Kim had seasickness on the boat, but she still got to swim with the dolphins a little bit.  I, on the other hand, was so close to them on a couple of occasions that I could almost reach out and touch them.  It’s funny, but even though we were snorkeling at 7:30 in the morning, because Zanzibar is so close to the Equator, the water was still comfortably warm.

After swimming with the dolphins, Kim and I went to Jozani forest, an old-growth jungle on the island of Zanzibar.  

 

 It is a national park and the only place in the world where you can see the Red Colobus Monkey.  There are only 2350 left in the wild, so they are quite rare.  However, they are also quite friendly.  I got within one foot of this one, isn’t he cute!

 

Part of the tour of Jozani forest included a mangrove swamp.  Mangroves help protect the island from erosion and from tsunamis.  They are really strange ecosystems: the plants thrive in salt water, and you can see crabs and other aquatic animals really far inland.

 

Finally, Kim and I visited an animal preserve.  Part of the project involved protecting and releasing green sea turtles, which are highly endangered due to (Asian) black market demand for turtle meat for soup, among other things.  Here’s a shot of a sea turtle.

 

Then, we went to another part of the park, where they raise some other endangered species.  They had a tiny species of antelope native to Zanzibar, several species of turtle, monitor lizards, and even a rock python, which Kim was very eager to hold.  Look how excited she was to handle a live snake!

 

That is our Zanzibarian holiday so far in a nutshell.  Stay tuned for the second half of our stay here on Zanzibar.