Zanzibar

Later that day on the plane to Zanzibar we had a very strange snack box of a hot dog, an apple, and candy. The candy was the good part. When we stepped out of the plane, we could already feel the humidity. It is very different from mainland Tanzania, but beautiful. The hotel we are staying at is called the Maruhubi Beach Villas. It is absolutely beautiful. The rooms are like any hotel room with beautiful mosquito nets and beds and a bathroom. The pool is right on the beach. During high tide, you can’t even see the sand and when you’re in the pool, you feel like you are in the ocean. And, because Zanzibar is an archipelago, we also have an amazing view of the islands surrounding Zanzibar. We spent our first day hanging out in and around the pool/beach. The next day we spent the morning in Stone Town, and then we came back to the pool. We met a family from Spain and Australia that are now living in Malawi. They had a six year old boy named John, a four year old girl name Monica, and a one and a half year old girl named Ana. I gave Monica a hair wrap, which she seemed to like. We spent the rest of the day swimming and working.

On Tuesday, we went on a trip with a company called Safari Blue. They do a day trip to the Southern part of Zanzibar. We first got into our groups and then we got into our dhows, which is a traditional Zanzibari boat that is made out of wood from a mangrove. A mangrove is a tree that grows in salt water. The tree has a very thin, strong trunk that holds the boat together. In the middle of the boat there are benches on both sides, and a mast with the sail on it. They added a motor to the back of the boat also.

Once we were all on our dhow, which was called Kilwa, we headed to a sand bank. There, we re-applied sunscreen for the second time and we went out and snorkeled. We saw some beautiful fish! My favorite part of it all was seeing an octopus-our guide even got it to release its ink! After snorkeling and swimming for a little bit longer, we went back to the sand bank and we got coconuts and pineapple. There were two different kinds of coconuts, and I didn’t like either of them, but seeing them being cut was fun. The pineapple was delicious! When we all were done with our delicious fruit, and headed we headed back to the dhows. We saw some humpback dolphins flipping and having fun. They were beautiful. By the time we did all of that, we were ready to head to another island for lunch. On this island we had a delicious lunch of a fish buffet, chicken, beef, and rice. We also had a delicious desert. Our guide brought out tons of fruit and explained them to us. We had: jackfruit, mzugu bananas, mangos, watermelon, passion fruit, lychee, mandarin oranges, and a fruit bao-bob tree. Jackfruit is a fruit that grows on a tree here in Tanzania. We seem them everywhere. They can be as big as big as 1-3 kilograms which is 2.2-6.6 pounds. A mzugu banana is a red banana. It got that name because mzugu means white person and in the sun, wazungu turn red. Mangos, watermelon, passion fruit, and oranges are the same thing as they are back home. A lychee is a little gummy like thing that is in a red spiky shell. A boa-bob tree fruit is a little pink dried fruit looking nut. It was all delicious.

After that we went to a little mangrove pool which is a little bay-like area that is closed off to waves. It is about five feet deep with moss and rocks on the bottom. There are also big rocks that are dispersed through the pool. It is surrounded by mangrove trees. It is about as big as a larger swimming pool. It is beautiful. We were also all very surprised, because the water was extremely warm, it was almost not refreshing! Overall, the whole day was a lot of fun. We were all wiped out by the end of the day, but we went for a quick swim to clean off the sand. That was a really fun day that I will never forget.