Stone Town, Zanzibar (posted subsequentially)

When I began planning my trip to Africa I planned it in chunks, focusing primarily on the interim periods in between my volunteer assignments, such as the trip to the capital and Andasibe National Park in Madagascar, or the trip to Uganda. I figured it was easiest to plan my weekend trips once I arrived in country. I knew there was a lot to see in Tanzania and wasn’t certain if I’d be able to find anyone interested in visiting Zanzibar so I didn’t make it a priority. In fact, spending time at Nosy Komba even made me wonder if it was worthwhile visiting Zanzibar after enjoying some of the most beautiful and pristine beaches in the world! But very early on my roommate Judith indicated that she was also very interested in visiting Zanzibar, so it was settled. Before long we had decided on a weekend, Jennifer decided to join us for the trip and I of course jumped into planner mode and started looking up lodging and reviews online.

We dilly dallied a bit on buying our airfare and of course my inner planner was a little worried that it would be hard to get a good airfare. Even though it is the low season for Zanzibar there are limited flights and now that I had my heart set on Zanzibar I struggled with the idea of missing it. Of course everything worked out fine, we got our passports back from TVE with our new work visas, which meant we now qualified for discounts and we booked our tickets.

My time in Africa has taught me to be a little more relaxed about planning. Don’t get me wrong, my personality is Type A, I enjoy planning and dammit I’m really good at it. But now I’m also more comfortable with not planning every little detail and I see the benefit and flexibility it offers you when you allow life to happen. Russ is definitely doing a little happy dance wherever he is as he is reading this…

Our flight left Arusha on a Saturday afternoon so we enjoyed a leisurely morning, although the concept of “sleeping in” is one that I’ve given up on entirely in Africa. It was my first experience at Arusha airport and I found “security” entertaining. There were metal detectors and yes they ran carry on bags through a machine but it was nothing like security in the U.S., it was very relaxed. We sat in an array of broken chairs under a small roofed area looking at the runway, where the majority of planes seemed to be twelve seaters or occasionally something larger - but nothing with jet engines.

Our boarding passes were plastic cards that had writing in dry erase marker and it was time to board when someone held up a plastic boarding card that looked like yours. We followed the attendant out onto the tarmac, handed in our reusable boarding pass (I’m all in favor of recycling) and boarded the plane. With only twelve seats it’s not like you need seat assignments. Our pilot told us to fasten our safety belts, pointed out the exit in the back of the plane that we had entered through and the two emergency exits in the front of the plane (his door and the co-pilots door - although there was no copilot) and off we went!

The flight was about 90 minutes and in a propeller plane you never get very high so it was an enjoyable flight to take in the scenery. When we landed we hopped in a taxi and headed straight to our hotel in Stone Town. Once we actually got into the “city” it was like entering a completely different place - it felt almost Disneyish, well, maybe Epcot-ish, just in that the change was so abrupt, the narrow little streets winding between buildings with so many unique Arabic details, from the intricately carved wooden doors to the archways and bright colors. It was so different from the relatively drab buildings I was accustomed to in Arusha. Then there was the heat, or actually the humidity. Oppressive, sweating while you stand still, humidity. I was so glad that we were staying in Stone Town for just a night and then heading on to the beach where hopefully there would be a sea breeze. 

We checked into our hotel and then wandered taking in the charms of Stone Town, hoping to find a location that would be showcasing tarab, a musical and dance performance that we were eager to see. We peeked into the old fort, the menu for their dinner looking promising and they had live music in the evening as well so we decided to spend our evening there. There was a tourism desk in the atrium of the fort and we decided to book a snorkeling trip for the following morning.

We headed to the beach to catch the sunset and it was spectacular. The sunset itself was so-so, obscured by clouds, but the scene on the beach was so festive and entertaining we had a hard time tearing ourselves away. As far as you could see there were people on the beach and it looked like the majority were locals, not tourists. Families, children, groups of teenagers; strolling, lounging, doing gymnastics. Yes, I slipped gymnastics in there. A group of guys, ranging from young teenagers to adults took over an area where they would run down the beach towards the water and launch into elaborate tumbling routines, from a simple roundoff for the young ones to a series of seemingly never-ending backflips for the seasoned vets.

Despite the magical start to the evening on the beach, the rest of the night was a series of debacles. Truthfully, debacle might be a bit harsh but lets say things didn’t go as planned. Thankfully we had each other and had a good laugh about all of them. From the beach we headed to Fodhori Gardens, a large park along the waterfront area that was known for hosting a variety of food vendors in the evening. We perused the tables and couldn’t resist ordering some grilled octopus as a starter. It turned out to be super tough and chewy and I ended up tossing most of it, piece by piece, to the local stray cats that stalked through the grass. We headed to the fort for dinner and the food ended up being terrible - perhaps the worst I’ve had in any restaurant in my travels in Africa. So bad in fact that we sent it back. The show was equally awful so we didn’t feel too badly about leaving as soon as we settled our bill and ventured off to find another place for dinner, which was far more enjoyable.

The following day we enjoyed breakfast in the rooftop restaurant at our hotel. The sun and the heat was already intense so we were glad we had scheduled our city tour for the morning. We met our tour guide in front of the hotel and he took us on a walking tour of the city, pointing out notable buildings and providing background on the history and events of Stone Town. When we returned to the hotel he insisted that we owed him more than he had quoted us the prior night because the tour ran longer. Of course he hadn’t advised that he was taking us on a longer version and was trying to milk us for more. He thought he had us since he had already taken us on the longer version of the tour. We refused to pay the increased price and paid him what he had quoted us the night before. He wasn’t happy but had no real options. I hoped that the snorkeling tour would be worthwhile.

And it was! We met our operator and took a small boat out to Prison Island, about 30 minutes off the coast. It’s a private island with a resort spread across the small island but we paid a few dollars to visit the Aldabra Tortoises, the last surviving species of giant tortoise, now considered endangered, but who seemed to live happily in the reserve on Prison Island. The space they contained was large and they had a good selection of habitats, from higher, drier, shaded ground to sunnier spots and deep muddy watering holes where they could coat themselves in mud. We fed them some greens and thoroughly enjoyed watching them slowly make their way here and there. Even though tortoises are clearly herbivores I can’t pretend I didn’t get a little nervous when this giant 200+ pound creature lumbered towards me as I sat on the ground offering a spring of greens. It wasn’t like I couldn’t outrun it, it was just so much larger at eye level than I expected!

The snorkeling off Prison island was only fair but it felt great to jump into the crystal clear water and cool off. There wasn’t a large variety of fish and certainly not a large quantity of them in this location but I knew that our snorkeling from our beach location to Mnemba would be spectacular. Our skipper was friendly and flirted with Jennifer while he let her drive the boat. It took me back to those magical boat rides to Nosy Komba - there is something so transformative skimming along the surface of the water, watching the light flickering along in the wake. I hope I don’t forget these details.