Island Paradise

So after my ever so exciting bus ride, nothing could have been more welcome than a relaxing trip to Zanzibar. For those of you who are not familiar with this African paradise, Zanzibar is a short ferry ride off the coast of Tanzania. The island is covered with Spice Plantations and white sand beaches. The main town is called Stone Town and thats where we have stayed for 5 nights. The town is amazing! It is made up entirely of alleyways, so it is easy to spend an entire day, walking around getting lost. Zanzibar is such a strange collision of worlds. The island is 98 percent Muslim, so all native inhabitants are extremely conservative. With the boom of tourism in the last 10 to 15 years though, a swarm of skantily clad tours are mixed among the women in head scarves and full covering. When asked about what he thought a booty shorts and bare shoulders, a local Muslim man compared it to drinking alcohol. He said that the first time you taste it, it is not good, but as you continue, it gets better as you get used to it. Now what a man of Islam knows about drinking I have no idea, but he got his point across. Here is a run-down of our days here in our island paradise.
Sunday: On Sunday, Kathryn and I got up and were just going to wing it. It turns out we caught the 9:30 ferry. Of course, we left around 10. Its about a 2-hour ride and I ended up popping a Dramamine. As soon as land was out of sight, my motion sickness popped up and threatened to make it a messy ride. We hit land around noon. We had a friend from Pemba, an island just north of Zanzibar, meet up with us and also another volunteer, Eric, and his friend from the states. Kathryn and I had made reservations at a hotel called Zenji Hotel. We went and dropped our stuff off when we arrived. This hotel is incredibly cute. If I had one word to describe it, I would say "quaint." The best part has to be the roof. They serve a complimentary breakfast on the roof and even met us with complimentary drinks when we arrived. The breakfast is to die for: homemade breads, homemade jams, fruit, fresh juice, eggs, and REAL coffee!! Quite the spread for someone who has been living in the bush for 9 months. After we put all of our stuff in the hotel, our group went to just walk around a bit and hang out on the beach. We ate lunch(Chili Guacamole Burger!!) and the boys got fed up with Kathryn and I's shopping (although you should really call is browsing since our budget doesn't allow us to actually get anything). That night, we decided for just street food instead of a sit-down place. We had some pretty good Tandori chicken and hung out.

Monday: Monday, we got up, filled our bellies with breads and jams, and went on a Spice Tour. For something that sounds extremely touristy, it was well worth the money. They bus you about 30 minutes north of Stone Town and you visit one of the several local Spice plantations. You walk around the grounds and are shown more spices than I have ever seen: pepper vines, cinnamon trees, vanilla, ginger, tumeric, star fruit, nutmeg. Basically everything a well stocked kitchen would have. While showing us, they let us taste everything and told us about processing, harvesting, and even traditional medicinal uses. After the tour, they took us to some ruins, and then lunch. Lunch was pilau (spiced rice) that was prepared with all of the spices we had just seen. After lunch, they took us to this extremely secluded, beautiful beach and we explored a cave where they used to illegally hold slaves before shipping them out. After all of this, we showered back at the hotel, and went out for a nice dinner for the boys' last meal on the island. We found a rooftop restaurant called House of Spices that processes all of their own spices and makes DELICIOUS pizza in a brick oven right next to the table. After dinner, the boys left to catch their overnight ferry back to the mainland and Kathryn and I enjoyed a relaxing night on the roof of the hotel.

Tuesday: On Tuesday, Kathryn and I decided to shop. Well for normal people, this would not be a problem, but most of what we saw exceeded our meager Peace Corps budget. All the same, it was fun to just walk around the narrow alleys and have no clue where you are. We did find a lady that was amazing at henna and would do it for a reasonable price. So after getting henna, we met up with Claire and her visiting boyfriend, Rob. We had lunch at a fun little Indian restaurant. After that, we headed back to the hotel to nap and play on internet. That night, Kathryn and I went and had some beers on the beach and then decided to try out Zanzibar pizzas. This is not like a pizza at all, but really tastes like a hamburger. They take dough, fill it with meat, vegetable, and mayonaise and cook it in a wok. Sounds weird, but it was pretty tasty.
Wednesday: Wednesday, we decided to take a day trip out of Stone Town. We hopped on a dala dala to a town on the northern tip of the island called Nungwi. We spend the day relaxing on the beach at a resort. It would have felt like a completely different country, enjoying sangria and guacamole, if it had not been for the Masai that had parked his cattle on the beach next to the sun bathers. It was an intersting sight. After our skin got about as much sun as it could handle, we caught another dala dala back, showered, and went out for seafood. Kathryn started not feeling great and I was tired so we headed in early (we are such party animals, right?) and internetted and went to bed. Just give a Peace Corps volunteer wifi internet and they are satisfied.
Thursday (today): So far today, we have slept a lot and eaten breakfast. I think I might try to make it to one museum called the House of Wonders later, and also buy our ferry tickets for tomorrow. Tonight, we have plans to meet a volunteer that lives on the island for dinner. As an overall assessment, if you ever have the chance or for some reason are in Tanzania, visit Zanzibar. It is a beautiful place and a unique experience. Thats it for now! I'll try to keep you updated on the rest of our travels. Peace out!