Zanzibar

Stonetown Narrow Street
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January 18th our flight from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar left at 8:00 am.  We took the Air Tanzania shuttle from the hotel.  It was free versus $50.00 for a taxi.  Our flight was 50 minutes.  The view from the air was beautiful, with many reefs dotting the aqua marine waters of the Indian Ocean.  Stonetown is a wonderful cultural experience.  The religion is mostly Muslim and the people stop to pray many times of the day(and night).  At 5:00 every morning prayers can be heard over a loud speaker throughtout the town.  The streets of the town are very very narrow.  Some are only a few inches wider than a vehicle.  They twist and turn with no real order at all.  It makes for very interesting walks through the shops and homes.  You never know where you will end up.  We were told that the town could be dangerous and not to walk around, but our hotel management assured us it was safe and we felt very comfortable  walking everywhere during the day.  This night we had dinner at our hotel with an amazing seafood platter and about 5 other dishes with enough to feed at least 6 people.  Very delicious.

Rainstorm
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January 19th

The streets of Stonetown are very very narrow.

Today we took a morning spice tour that was recommended to us.  It was very interesting to see where the different spice actually come from.  Camphor(the ingredient in Vicks Vaporub) for instance comes from the root of a  Cinnamin tree and Vanilla beans grows on a vine.  We had fresh coconut milk which was obtained by one of or guides who climbed the tree with nothing but a piece of rope tied between his feet.  We enjoyed our ride back to Stonetown with the many sites along the way.  There were men with metal jugs of milk and a couple of glasses on the backs of their bicycles.  If you want a drink you just call for them to stop.  There were many women carrying their wares on their heads.  We saw a sawmill which consisted of three men with axes chopping away at some logs to square them up into timbers.  We also saw a lumber yard which was stocked with different lengths and diameters of trees with the bark and branches removed.  We also saw a lime kiln.  It was constructed with a pile of firewood and logs with the limestone stacked on top.  Once the pile is high enough the logs are ignited and the pile burns for two days after which the limestone is crushed to powder and bagged for sale.  In Stonetown it is very prestigious to have a finely carved door on your home or business.  Some of them are absolutely beautiful and must take months to carve.  We also saw the factory along the roadside where some of these doors are being carved.

Dhow
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January 20

Our stay in Stonetown has come to an end and we are off for our one hour journey to the north end of the island where we will spend 5 nights at our beach resort, The Amaan Bungalows.  The drive took about one hour.  Our room is literally right on the water.  At high tide the water splashes under our balcony.

January 23rd

We went on a snorkel trip to Mhemba Island. Our boat was locally built boat with an old motor that kept stalling.  It took 2 1/2 hours to get to the island.  This is a private island which has a resort on it.  Apparently it is very expensive and only accepts 20 guests at one time.  The island is very small, but beautiful.  There is a sand bar that extends out into the ocean for about a kilometer.  The snorkelling was very nice.  After that we were taken to the beach for a nice lunch of fresh fruit and barbequed octopus cooked in lime juice (very tasty).  Our trip back was a little shorter as the tide was in so we didn't have to go out around the reef.  That night when we went to bed there was a crab in our bed.  It had crawled through the crack under the door.  I'm glad we saw it before we got into bed.  It would have been quite a shock to wake up with that crawling across our bodies.  When the tide is out we go for long walks on the beach, but it is so hot we can only last about an hour and then have to retreat to our air conditioned room.