Trip to Zanzibar

This weekend Nicole and I went to Zanzibar to visit Evan, Tyler and Stephanie, the YCI volunteers in Zanzibar. We left Morogoro at 6am and took the bus to Dar es Salaam. The bus station was chaos in the morning. Two bus companies were competing for customers by honking and revving their engines. Once we got to Dar es Salaam we took a taxi to the Zanzibar ferry port and took a fast ferry to Zanzibar. The ferries take about 2 hours to get to Zanzibar and sea-sickness is pretty common because of the speed and choppy water. I was pretty happy that I didn’t get sick but I did take Gravol before leaving.
We had to go through immigration in Zanzibar because they like to pretend like they are their own country (more stamps on my passport!) The volunteers met us at the ferry port and we checked into the Jambo Guesthouse in Stonetown and proceeded to wander around. Stonetown is amazing, lots of narrow alleys with high buildings all very old and beautiful. Some of the doors are very ornate and we learned that there are three different kinds of doors Arab, Swahili and Indian doors. Some of the doors have spikes on them so young elephants don’t break through the doors. Poor elephants!
That night we went for the nicest dinner I’ve had since leaving Canada. Amore Mio is an Italian restaurant right on the beach so we got to watch the sunset while eating pasta and ice cream. Zanzibar is definitely more touristy than Morogoro and that was a little weird to get used to. Especially at Amore Mio all of the customers were mzungu tourists. While in Morogoro, my Swahili is very limited and really only good for basic greetings and simple conversation, in Zanzibar I kept getting complimented on my Swahili and I think this is because they are more used to tourists who come and don’t try to learn the local language.
Saturday we went to Kizimkazi to swim with the dolphins. We took a boat out into the open ocean and search until we found a pod of dolphins. We had our snorkel gear on so we would pull up next to the dolphins and jump in and swim with them. The first time I jumped in they were all around me and below me, it was an amazing experience! I really loved that this wasn’t some aquarium where the dolphins are trained to interact with people, these were wild dolphins and just got to hang out with them for about an hour as they lived their lives. Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever done!
After that we had lunch at the beach where they fed us tuna, rice, vegetables, fruit and chipati and then we relaxed on the beach. At one point I went for a walk along the beach and shouldn’t believe how beautiful the beach was. The sand is so white and the water is a beautiful blue-green. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to be able to see this. After lunch we went to Jozani Forest to see the monkeys. It was very neat there were so many monkeys in the trees all jumping around, cleaning each other. I even got a picture of two monkeys on a tree doing “the jiggy-jiggy” as our Tanzanian tour guide explained it. We also walked amongst the mango tree swamp which was very beautiful
That night we went to the Forodhani night market where there are all sorts of tables set up with different chefs serving different food. We had sugar cane juice (so sweet!) and Zanzibar pizza (which is delicious!) as well as some seafood skewers. I tried barracuda, lobster and octopus, all of which were quite good. One downside to there being so many tourists in Zanzibar is that you constantly get harassed by beachboys who come up and try to sell you things (usually for an elevated price). You also have to worry more about pickpockets (Stephanie had her camera stolen during one of her first weeks in Zanzibar).
The next day the Zanzibar volunteers had programming (although Steph had to miss it because she was feeling sick and went to the doctor, fortunately she tested negative for malaria and is now on antibiotics). Nicole and I spent the morning at a beautiful beach and then joined the others for lunch. Then we wandered around Stonetown doing some souvenir shopping (a much wider selection than in Morogoro). That night we went to the volunteer’s homestay for dinner and met their family. I couldn’t believe how nice their house is! It’s about the same size as my house in Canada, has two stories, tile floors, a shower, a washing machine, HBO! It’s a much nicer house than volunteers typically stay in but the family is so welcoming and good to the volunteers that all volunteers that have stayed there have a great experience. We watched TV and then sat down to dinner and had a good conversation. The next day we took the first ferry home with Micah as she is spending this week in Morogoro.
I had a really great time in Zanzibar. It is very beautiful and is definitely somewhere I would enjoy visiting again. Although, for my own sanity, I have come to love Morogoro and am happy to be living here (otherwise I would be jealous of the Zanzibar volunteers and their beaches and giant house). Honestly I feel like I am really living the Tanzanian experience and my homestay family has been so accommodating, welcoming and kind to me that I really couldn’t ask for better. Working with Makho and Godfrey has been great! Both are very kind and do their best to take care of us and make us feel comfortable. Morogoro is also very beautiful and as I walk towards town every morning with the mountain in front of me I still get struck by this idea of “I can’t believe this is where I live!”