Spice Tour on Zanzibar

While in Zanzibar, we went on a tour of the spice market.  Again, I was expecting more like a market but instead, we walked through different fields and areas where various plants were grown. I cannot remember what these plants were, so my apologies for no labels on  most of them.

A pineapple plant produces two pineapple's a year

Lipstick!  (I don't remember what this plant was)

Climbing the tree for a sample

Jack fruit

Cocoa plant

We were taken to a local house for lunch. 

After the tour, it was back onto our mini bus where we moved to another area of the island.  Here we were on a hotel on the beach.  Went swimming in the ocean and got a bit of a burn going.  Have booked a snorkel trip tomorrow, looking forward to it!

Off to Zanibar!

It was quite a journey to get there to the island.

• 20 minute ride to get to the ferry
• 10 minute ferry ride across the water (which was before the traffic snarl getting off as it was people and cars)
• 20 minute walk to the Zanzibar ferry office
• 1.5 hours pm the ferry
• Arrive and get stamped by immigration, even though we aren’t changing countries.
• Have our bags checked by security
• Find our guide outside

Inside the ferry, we were in the air conditioned area

The wake

Just one of many areas we passed

Got to the hotel and had a short nap as I wasn’t feeling so great after the boat.  Had a walk and found some ice cream to get me through until supper.  Several of us decided to go to the night market together to see what we could find for some food.

A bed, yay!

 Hanging out around the dock

 Walking down to where the Night Market is

  Walking around Stonetown

The night market had all sorts of food options.  I was expecting it to be more of a market with food and craft type things but as we are on a small island, this was more like island fast food.  Many vendors had the same types of items on their table so you ultimately just picked one and made your choice.  I had some chicken and coconut bread.  

One of many stalls

One of our trip mates bought us sugar cane juice.  We were able to watch the vendor squish and squeeze the juice directly from the cane.  It was quite nice and refreshing but not overly sweet.

We had also heard all bout Zanzibar pizza’s so we had to try it.  I wanted one with pineapple and chocolate but the booth I was at didn’t have pineapple.  Instead, I ordered one with Mars bar, banana and chocolate.  It was very good.  :)  I wouldn’t call it a pizza, more like a crepe as they spread some dough out thin and then put the toppings on it and then put another layer on top.

Prepping

Cooking

All done with extra chocolate sauce

Unfortunately, there were a lot of stray cats looking for food.

Let the Long Days Begin

October 2

Usual start to the morning by taking down the tents, having breakfast and then we were off.  We hung out in Arusha for a few hours so I sent off some more postcards and mailed them.  Most of relaxed at a coffee shop that had free Wi-Fi although it wasn’t very fast with all of us attempting to use it.  

We were to have a guide and driver change here but our guide was still having passport issues so that didn’t happen.  We did have a driver change though.

After that we headed off to our next stop at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the mountain when we arrived or when we woke up in the AM.  Due to the elevation, this was one time that I actually wished I had a little bit more for bedding.  I ended up using my blanket as well as my hoodie to stay warm.  

Walking to the bar area

Oohh.. shadow person!

A path at the campground

At this point a duty roster was introduced.  Why they didn’t do this before, I’m not sure as it had been mentioned at the orientation.  The tasks are:   dishes, pot scrubbing, cooking (chopping) and truck sweeping.  

October 3

Today is a long drive to get to Dar Es Salaam.  It’s about 600 km which isn’t that far in Canada but here, with the way the roads are, it is a long day.  All said and done, it took about 13 hours to arrive at our campsite.  Getting through the city centre wasn’t too bad but we got stuck in traffic around a huge market which took a long time to get through.

Just one part of the market

Arrived in camp around 6:30 and did my chore of cooking ie. chopping up way too many veggies.   Once I was done that, I went to the ocean where several others were swimming.  I didn’t feel like swimming at that point as I didn’t want to deal with a shower before supper so I just waded in a little bit but the waves got me to mid-thigh.  The water was great, I hope when we return we get back earlier so that we can enjoy a little bit more.

We ended up having to put up the tents while it sprinkled

Tomorrow we head to Zanzibar!