Zanzibar is technically part of Tanzania, but it feels completely different. Here is a little brief history:
The mainland used to be called Tanganyika. On the 26th of April 1964, Tanganyika and Zanzibar gave up their autonomy to become the United Republic of Tanzania. Since the Union of 1964 the mainland has never had a separate government. Zanzibar does hold a separate government, but the powers were not transferred to the Union government.
Zanzibar has had many cultural influences over the course of its history. The first round of outsiders were the Portugese. Zanzibar is well known for its spices. The Portugese controlled the trade routes until the mid 1700's. They were thrown out by the Omani Sultanate of Arabic descent. They help power until about the turn of the century when the Brits came in. The large white building on the far right was the Sultan's Palace. I am not sure if it is even used for anything now.
Okay, enough history. Time for some fun!
So, we stayed at the Jambo Beach Bungalows for $20 a night. It included breakfast. It definitely is not the place to stay if you are looking for peace and quiet, but the people are so nice and friendly and have good tast in music--which is playing all the time.
The water goes out so far during low tide. So many people come out to work on the exposed sand during that time. I watched them for hours as I lay on the beach trying to figure out what they were doing.
This woman was digging something up from the sand for hours. I asked around and found out that they bury the fibers on the outside of the coconut. They leave it buried for a few months up to a year and then dig it back up. They dry it out and continue to work with it to make it into rope. Just fascinating.
They mark the fibers that they have buried with sticks. The sticks are only exposed at low tide.
Women working everywhere...
These ladies were coming back in with the tide.
We spent our first three nights on Paje beach. It wouldn't be a beach vacation if I didn't include some bikini pictures, right?!
This is me and Natalie
So much sunburn. I stayed under cover mostly. It doesn't matter how many times I put on sunscreen. I am on doxycycline for my anti-malaria pill and it makes you burn.
Also, men here like to dance. They like to pull you off of your chair, even if you are refusing. This man, who is Maasai, did just that. So I danced with him on the beach.
He got such a kick out of the fact that I could jump repeatedly....so we did. Repeatedly. Until I couldn't jump anymore!
We also took a spice tour. Zanzibar is known for it's spices such as cardamom, turmeric, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, henna, etc. It was cool to see all of them in their natural state. They made us lovely necklaces!
After three nights of relaxing on the beach, we headed into Stone Town, which is the historic part of the larger Zanzibar town. You could really feel the Arabic and Portugese cultural influences in the architecture and carved wooden doorways.
The streets were so narrow.
The doorways were beautiful....
Here is one that is either newer or has been maintained...
We ate at this restaurant totally geared towards tourists, called Mercury's. It is named after Freddy Mercury of Queen. He was born on Zanzibar. It was such a beautiful place to watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean and watch the locals go about their way of life.
Bringing the boats up on the shore is a group effort
These guys were doing repeated backflips for about an hour. It was so fun to watch.
So, that was our trip in a nutshell. It was a really nice little get away. We were able to take Fastjet, a local plane service, roundtrip for $60. The flight took 45 minutes as opposed to 8 hours on a bus and then a two hour ferry ride, which would have also been more expensive.
I thought it was time for a more lighthearted, pure fluff post!
See you later! Love, Sadie
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