We're back in Stone Town, Zanzibar after three days in paradise on a northern beach village.
Before taking off to the beach, we all went on a spice tour since Zanzibar is known for growing spices and fruit. It was so interesting to see how vanilla, pepper, cloves and so many of the other spices are grown. We were all shocked to find out that pineapples were grown on the ground - I had always thought that they came from a tree. We spent the morning sampling all of the different fruits and spices. One of the locals climbed a palm tree to knock down coconuts as he sang to us. We were also invited into a local home for spicey rice and henna tatoos.
From there, we headed up the coast to our beach resort for three days. It was how I would describe paradise. I've been to the carribean once before but I've never experienced the white sand and aqua blue water, so I was in heaven! The village was big enough to have some cute restaurants overlooking the beach, but small enough that it didn't feel too commercialized.
We spent our time relaxing on the beach, swimming, eating, and hanging out with one another. Our whole group really had a lot of fun together. Of the 22 people, the majority of people are women my age, so it's great fun! The food was delicious and so cheap. The first night, we all went to a beach bbq by candlelight where there served us heaps of fresh seafood. The next nights, we chose from the different seaside restaurants. Bow and I couldn't get enough of the fresh mango, pineapple, and passionfruit juices.
Every afternoon at 5pm the beach turned into a volleyball court and football pitch and anyone could join in. Bow had a riot getting to know a lot of the locals playing volleyball each night. As we would walk along the beach the following days I would hear "Jambo Bow" or "Jambo Mr Volleyball".
Yesterday afternoon one of the guys in our group organized a sailing trip for us on a traditional sail boat. A group of seven locals took eight of us out to snorkel, sail and watch the sunset. It was the highlight of the week.
Now we're back in the main town on Zanzibar. Everyone's emailing and buying local art before we head back to the main land this afternoon. Because it's an overland trip, we can choose what we want to do next, so we're not really sure what the plan is for the next two weeks. We think we might be heading off the tourist track to do some bush camping and exploring. The truck is equipped for off roading. It's a large truck, seven sit in the front and the other 15 sit in the back which is open-aired with a roof and back wall. We each have a locker where we keep our clothes. On the outside of the truck, we can pull out a stove to cook on. We'll keep you updated the next time we hit a town or city...
Cheers!
Jill
Posted by jill at December 10, 2003 08:31 AM