Zanzibar

After arriving on Zanzibar we made a beeline for the northeast coast to the beach. We stayed at the charming Matemwe Beach Village and were treated to excellent weather...until yesterday afternoon when we watched a rainstorm arrive from the south east...wow! Our stay at the beach, despite the rain and monumentally sized mosquitoes was glorious. I wished I had more than 7 words of Swahili to engage with the women tending their seaweed aquaculture in the inner reef. [ed. note: Zanzibar has a number of women's cooperatives - seaweed aquaculture and clothing and textiles are a major way of generating money for women...who generally use the moola to send their kids to school --- because past primary school, parents must pay to send children to school.]

The beaches at Zanzibar are beautiful - a fine coral, nearly white sand against the glorious aquamarine of the Indian Ocean which was bathtub warm. We had a very cool complementary short sail on a ngalawa dhow. I spent much of the rest of the time reading, pasted to a chaise until about 1030 am when the fierceness of the sun became too much for my pale and admittedly sun averse exterior forcing me under the cover of the nearby mini-gazebos...same position, in the shade. Dad, as ever, managed a longer in the sun than I...but we both agreed sun or shade it was a fine way to spend a few days and did the time fly!

 

Next was Stonetown - the city. Here the Swahali culture is alive and thriving and well documented at the Zanzibar Museum. Trade on the Indian Ocean was conducted mostly by dhows (of various sizes and slightly different shapes) riding the tradewinds that blow in alternate directions with the two main seasons. So, once you reach your destination (India, Arabia, East Africa) you are stuck there until the wind switches and you can catch a ride home. Upshot - you get to know the locals and might even share some food, drink, words, religion, a bed and viola Swahili is the result - a people, a language, and a culture!

 

Stonetown is fantastic - the town buildings are built impossibly close together to protect from both sun (as noted, fierce-some) and rain (equally fierce). The winding lanes are a labyrinth that is ... um... well, you'd better not be in a hurry to get anywhere! But, along the way, there is much to see and enjoy. We were lucky to get a room at the Tembo [Elephant] Hotel a charming spot right on the ocean. I dragged Dad to the Forodhani Gardens every night so I could feast on Zanzibar Pizza, washed down by Tangowizi [ed. note: Swahili for ginger, it's a sharp ginger ale made by, you guessed it - CocaCola]  yum!