Zanzibari Sun Set

Holy Hot Holidays!
Wk of 12/21-12/28

This past week I escaped from Arusha town to the southern parts of Tanzania. My friend Heather and I ventured by early morning bus down to Dar where we met up with Imee and Debby.
[Photo 1. MCH Girls Reunion: Debby, Imee, Me]The first noticeable difference about the city of Dar es Salaam is the extreme heat and humidity. I’ve gotten used to the hot days in Arusha, but the nights are always nice and cool. Not so in Dar. In the evening the temp was still hovering around 85-90 and 100% humidity. After a quick dip in the pool, we all got ready for an Ethiopian dinner before Imee jetted off to Europe for the holidays. The food was delicious! Ethiopian meals are served family style on a large platter of spongy bread. Each dish is dumped out onto the bread and you tear pieces away and scoop up the sauce and dish of your desire. My favorites were the lamb and the cottage cheese(more like Indian paneer cheese)/spinach dishes. After dinner we went for a round of trivia at an Irish pub. A friend of mine who I met in Arusha but lives in Dar took a few of us to a local bar as an escape from the expat saturated bar we were at.

The next day we spent lounging next to the pool, relaxing with our books. For lunch we walked down the road to a shopping center where I spotted chocolate mint ice cream. That was a much better substitute to lunch in the hot hot weather. After lunch it was back to the pool to cool off. That night we picked up another arriving friend from Arusha who would be joining us in Zanzibar. The morning of our departure from Dar, we made a much needed pit stop at good ole Mr. Price! This was the largest one I’d been in with an amazing selection of tshirts, jeans, and all things I love: ) Thankfully we made it just in the nic of time to catch the afternoon ferry to Zanzibar Island. To ward off any seasickness I slept most of the 2 hr boat ride (and it was my afternoon nap time).

I thought it was hot in Dar-but it was even hotter in Zanzibar! To make matters worse, the power in Zanzibar was out, meaning no electricity for air conditioning or even fans! Our hotel did have a generator, but as good conservationists they only turned the generators on from 6-9pm. Unfortunately our room had only a single window that faced a small, center courtyard with no breeze. I sweated through the night sleeping like a star fish spread across my bed. However, despite the heat-Stonetown was pretty amazing! The architecture is Arabian inspired, the streets winding and narrow, and the attitude laid back like many beach towns. The highlight of Stonetown was the Forodhani Gardens; a public space where vendors set up shop at night and sell skewers of fresh seafood, fruit, Zanzibari pizza, sugar cane juice, and falafel.
[Photo 2. SEAFOOD GALORE]
We tried everything from lobster to shrimp to marlin, tuna, and barracuda! The verdict is: seafood is delicious! Zanzibari pizza is more like an omelet with chopped onion, tomato, pepper, and beef. My favorite desert was definitely the fresh slice of pineapple.

While in Stonetown, Heather, Debby and I decided to take a Christmas Eve day spice tour. Zanzibar historically was a major port for spices. Many are native to Zanzibar, but many also were brought over by the Portuguese, Spanish (?), and English. We saw, smelled and tried many things including vanilla, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom, lemon grass, and ginger.

[Photo 3. Heather and I smelling Lemon Grass] Towards the end of the tour we also had a chance to try the abundant fruits of Zanzibar: passion fruit, jackfruit, oranges, papaya, pineapple, coco, and star fruit. The fragrance through the woods was amazing!
After the spice tour we attempted to withdraw money from the ATM-luckily, I had brought US dollars and could exchange at a bureau, but Debby and Heather were in dire need of an ATM. In true African fashion, none of the ATMs around Stonetown were working; partly due to the power outage and partly due to ‘nothing ever works in Africa.’ We ran from bank to bank and ATM to ATM with no luck. Finally a nice Zanzibarian took pity on us and offered us a lift to another bank. We finally found one that worked and the girls were able to take out money! This new friend turned out to be our savior-very fitting on Christmas Eve, even if he was Muslim. In return we invited him to our evening gathering. The night was great! We met up with my roommate Kala and another Arusha friend Megan at a near by bar where the special entertainment was an Arabian fire dance show!
[Photo 4. Fire starter, Xmas Eve]

On Christmas day, Heather, Debby and I travelled across the island to Jambiani for some beach time! It turned out that our new friend just so happened to grow up in Jambiani and offered to drive us to the town. Six of us piled into the car and took off for an adventure on the beach.
[Photo 5. The Jambiani Gang] Debby and I were ecstatic to see water-Arusha swimming pools just doesn’t cut it. The cool thing about this beach trip was that I can now add the Indian Ocean to places I’ve been! The water was crystal clear and warm, the sand white and powdery soft! On our second beach day we went up the coast to a private beach where we were the only people for miles in all directions! That is except for the fisherman who caught our lunch! While we waited for our fish to cook, we sipped milk from freshly picked coconuts and floated in the water. Truly an amazing holiday!

[Photo 6. Coconut Freshi (they say freshi in swahili)]

While I loved my escape to the island, I was looking forward to be back in the cool temps of Arusha! I guess when you miss being in your familiar surroundings, that’s when it’s really home.