Dar and Zanzibar

I sit typing this from the poolside of the Serena Hotel in Stone Town, Zanizibar. Boy, is this place divine. I’m adding this to my very long list (already, yikes) of places to which I mst retrn. But really, this place has it all, and in my short time here, only two and a half days, I’ve only been able to explore the tiniest slice of all this small island has to offer.

On the other hand, I would say that Dar is nothing to write home about really. It's a bustling East African city with a nicer than average setting on the water and some nice buildings and churches, so it may eclipse Kampala in that respect. I'm sure if I lived here for a bit I would grow to love many of it's quirks and lesser charms as I did in Kampala. But I decided that one night there was plenty and wanted to get to Zanzibar as soon as possible!

On Tuesday I arrived by ferry—that in and of itself is a huge feat because the port area in Dar is a fright. There are hawkers and hasslers everywhere, trying to persuade and swindle. I managed to race from my hostel, the YMCA, down to the port in about 15 minutes, raced to buy my ticket from the Seagull company and plopped by sweaty self down in a nice airconditioned space at the front of the ferry—next to a very nice young South African couple as luck would have it! They had met an American girl on the last ferry who is doing a Fulbright in Zanzibar and she met us at the ferry and took us to a clean, perfectly decent guesthouse with my own bathroom and room for $10--magnificent! We spent the afternoon drinking a beer at Mercury's, a bar on the beach near the port and watching the sunset, then had Swahili cuisine, octopus in mild coconut curry, at a local restaurant.

On Wednesday I got up nice and early for a Spice Tour in the villages outside Stone Town that was actually quite interesting as I never knew where cinnamon came from for example--the bark of a particular tree. We had a lunch of Swahili cuisine--another mild fish coconut curry--and then made our way to Mangwapani Beach. First I visited a slave cave where 200 slaves were held after the British baned slavery in the 1700s while the Portugese still tried to carry on the slave trade. Then it was time for some light and breezy beach time on the most beautiful beach I may have ever seen. It had the softest white sand, clear turquoise water, and palm trees alongside rocky outcropping. Spectacular.

I had a delicious dinner at the Forodhani Gardens, which had an amazing fish market where you can buy skewers of tuna, baracuda, kingfish, etc, calamari, squid, crab claws, puffed bread, rotis, fresh sugar cane juice (my new favorite thing!)--in other words, Laura's version of heaven.

Today I went snorkling on a morning trip through One Dive Agency here on the island. We did two dives: one at a great reef off the coast of Batwe Island, the other at Great Northern over a 120 year old shipwreak that had coral grown all over it. There were gorgeous yellow, blue, stripped fish, and even ones named after lions and crocodiles. Definitely looking forward to another change to snorkle again soon. Then this afternoon I wandered around Stone Town, i.e. got lost a lot. The small winding cobbled streets are shabby and in disarray and utteryly charming. There is a "jambo" (Swahili hello) waiting around every turn of course. This devotely Muslim island is full of partially or fully veiled woman in the heat of the day making for an interesting and sometime controversial mix with less sensitive tourists. (My knee length skirt and cap sleeve shirts have served me well.) There are also In any case, I could stay here for another month and not run out of things to do and see and enjoy, and I'm sorry to leave so soon--but as I say, I'll be back, fingers crossed!

I leave tomorrow on a morning ferry and then make my way to the Tazara train station in Dar for my 40 hour train ride to Kapiri Mposhi smack in the middle of Zambia. (Don't be jealous!) From there I will make my way down to Victoria Falls which may be the next time I'm on the internet. Here's hoping that my company on the train is as good as it has been on the island!