Zanzibar

August 7

We packed up early in the morning and drove 2 hours to the Arusha airport. Before leaving Tarangire Park, we stopped to view our last elephants and took some group photos. At the airport, we said goodbye to our wonderful guides, Moses and Pascal, and our drivers, Prosper and M’Taki, to whom we had become very attached. They provided us with excellent service and much information about Africa and its animals, and helped us overcome a few problems. We flew to Zanzibar in a plane that contained not one African and the flight crew sounded French over the PA system. We were picked up at the airport and brought to the Zanzibar Palace Hotel, a stately old building with Arab influences, owned and managed by a Dutch couple. It is located in Stone Town, a place that dates to the early 19th century and was controlled by Arab sultans for many years. It was also a hub for the slave and spice trades. After our arrival, we dined at a Middle Eastern restaurant where we sat on the floor, barefoot, while we listened to a 4-piece band that played the local taraab music and covers of Bolero and Pachabel’s Canon. This was a great dining experience that featured spicy foods, unlike the previous tasty, though blander, Ugandan and Tanzanian ones.


August 8

This was a relatively quiet day spent going to the Zanzibar historical Museum, shopping, and exploring the labyrinthine streets (literally) of Stone Town, managing to get lost in the process several times. At the times we were most disoriented, a local would appear and guide us to our destination, for a tip of course. The town itself possesses a certain run-down charm, a combination of historical buildings in disrepair, mosques, shops that sell the most unusual merchandise, piles of garbage, and an assortment of people rivaling the bar scene in Star Wars, bordered by a white beach with azure water. John discovered a store unlike any I have seen before; it consisted of several rooms packed to the ceiling with mostly antique items from the past 3 centuries, many of them African. I have never seen a more cluttered space. Some of the objects being sold were ceremonial jade-handled daggers from Persia, hundreds of African masks and other carvings, antique padlocks that require 4 keys to open, and early 20th century tins, posters, and postcards from the US and Europe. Just when I thought I couldn’t see any more, the owner, a very knowledgeable south-Asian who could provide detailed and colorful histories of every object, took us across the street to a 3-story warehouse with even more stuff. We just barely scratched the surface. I plan to return to purchase at least one treasure to lug back home. That night we ate at a restaurant with the best Indian food we had ever had.


August 9

We set out mid-morning for a spice tour which consisted of a drive north, a guided tour of a demonstration spice plantation where we saw cinnamon, clove, and lychee nut trees, peppercorn and vanilla vines, and turmeric and cardamom plants, among many. Our guide had an assistant who quickly crafted baskets, hats, necklaces, and neckties out of palm fronds and gave them to us as we moved along. Unfortunately we will not be able to bring them home. After we learned all about spices, we were served an assortment of fruits such as Seville oranges, jackfruit, lychee, bananas, and grapefruit, then a lunch of vegetable stew, rice pilaou, and a salty fish as we sat on blankets on the ground. Our guide explained that the plantation is a community project of his village, the income from which pays for social services and to help out the more destitute villagers. Those in need of financial help present their cases to the whole village citizenry who then decide whether to provide the funds. After lunch, our driver took us to a pleasant beach where we swam in the Indian Ocean. We plan to return tomorrow for a longer stay. Once we returned to Stone Town, our friends departed for a different locale while we stayed on at the Zanzibar Palace. Mel and I ate a decadent dinner there after taking Spencer and Lily, a restaurant called Mercury’s, in honor of Freddie Mercury of the 70’s and ‘80’s band Queen, who was born here. The contrast between our more sedate and comfortable stay here and our more challenging travels that preceded it is quite apparent. We will be less apt to take comfort and convenience for granted, at least for a while.