A vacation from our vacation - Zanzibar

We exited Malawi’s northern border and spent two days and about 22 hours of driving (we slept outside Iringa) before arriving in Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. “Dar” is situated on the Indian ocean and the name means “Haven of Peace” in Arabic. The city is the largest in the country and is home to 3.5 million people. Dar is enormous, sprawling, and markedly more developed than other capital cities we have visited, excluding Cape Town. There is a huge Muslim population here and many of the women wear traditional head scarves.



Aside from the usual folks who try to scam you or sell you junk, the locals have been really friendly always saying “Hello” (jambo/mambo) and “Welcome to Tanzania” (karibu Tanzania). We are easily identified as tourists because of our skin color and bewildered look...mostly our skin color. After saying we’re from the USA, the response is usually “Barack Obama!!!!”. We transferred our Malawian Kwacha to Tanzanian schillings and settled into our beachside campsite for the evening.

Yesterday morning we awoke before dawn to head over to Zanzibar. In two hours our modes of transport included: overland truck to foot to ferry across the harbor to foot to minivan taxi (i.e. death trap) to foot to high-speed passenger ferry eventually arriving at Stone Town, Zanzibar around 9:30am.

Zanzibar has a long and storied history as a slave port and trading center over the centuries. The island paradise is perhaps best known for its spices. Consequently, Katie went on a “spice tour” which explored old Stone Town, the former slave market, the ruins of a sultan's palace, and a spice plantation.



Meanwhile I opted to wander around the narrow streets alone, check out little shops, research scuba diving options and generally get lost. We ate dinner in the open air markets on the ocean. I avoided the fish kebobs but loved the chocolate and banana pizza. Today (6/2/09) we head out of Stone Town and up to Nungwi for several days in a beachside hotel. Also of note: this morning was the first morning we've woken up in a real bed in about three weeks - very refeshing. More later!