My son Isaac came to Africa to visit us and we started with a grand vacation in Eastern Congo: both Virunga park outside of Goma and Kahuzi-Biéga park outside of Bukavu. However, that trip will require a long blog post and so I wrote up our trip to Zanzibar first!
After a few days of downtime in Lubumbashi, Isaac and I left Karen behind and flew to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is made up of 2 large islands, Unguja and Pemba, and is a “semi-autonomous” part of Tanzania. I’m not sure what that means, exactly. The southern island, Unguja is usually called Zanzibar Island and has most of the people, industry, etc. It appears small here, but is 85km by 39km.
Zanzibar always had a real exotic sound to me, even before I knew anything about it. But a few months ago I researched Zanzibar and it sounded like an interesting combination of Arabic and African cultures, and I was also impressed by the visible architectural history. I considered visiting during the Zanzibar International Film Festival that includes music and other arts from the “Swahili Coast” (also called the Dhow festival), but July was very poor timing for us and I read that it was packed with European tourists, which didn’t seem too interesting. We had the opposite experience: we arrived at the end of the rainy season, and everything was very quiet. Some restaurants were still closed for the off-season.
We stayed at the Mizingani Seafront Hotel right in Stone Town. It was a fully renovated older building with great architecture and details, like the famed hand-carved wooden doors, arches, and courtyards. The hotel was located just across the road from the beach at Stone Town, and just farther along was the ferry terminal and the shipping port. This was not a sun-bathing beach, but a working beach.
We spent many hours our first day walking around Stone Town, much of it with a self-recruited guide, Rashid, who took us to the many markets in Stone Town – meat, fish, produce, spices, clothing, etc., and we ended at a cheap, local restaurant with so-so food. We also visited the old slave market and saw the exhibits about slavery. Zanzibar was one of the largest ports for the Indian Ocean slave trade with slavery occurring as early as the ninth century. The slave trade was halted in 1873 under the threat of a British naval bombardment. I noticed that the exhibit focused on the trade to the Americas and minimized the longer-lasting trade to the Middle East.
Zanzibar definitely has an Arabic feel – the architecture is much different than all of the places we have visited so far in Africa. The dress, too, was different: probably 90% of the women we saw wore head scarves (and a good proportion of girls, too), and it seemed that just as many women went without scarves as those who went fully encapsulated, with only the eyes showing. Men, too, frequently wore a small cylindrical hat – kofia – and occasionally wore the traditional long robe – thawb or jalabiyyah. The old, whitewashed stone buildings, the mosques, and the different styles of dress definitely gave Stone Town an Arabic feel. In my experience, this was not true outside of Stone Town.
The next day we hired a boat to take us to Changuu, also called Prison Island because the British bought the island and had a prison built on it with the plan to house criminals from the mainland. However, before it was used as a prison it was converted to a quarantine hospital, primarily for yellow fever. We visited Changuu for the snorkeling, which was good, but discovered that the island also shelters a couple hundred giant tortoises. In 1919 the British governor of Seychelles sent a gift of four Aldabra giant tortoises to Changuu from the island of Aldabra. They multiplied rapidly but became victims of poachers until about 20 years ago when the enclosure was built. The small, young tortoises are especially protected because they are easy to carry. The adults weigh 500 lbs. The males had their age painted on their shells (the oldest was 151 years old), but the females' shells were blank because the males rubbed the paint off during mating. At least that's what we were told.
The snorkeling was good – colorful coral & fish – but the water seemed a bit dirty and the bright sun, which really highlights the color of the sea life, was frequently obscured by clouds. The most interesting thing we saw was probably the large, active sea slugs.
After snorkeling, we went back to the hotel, showered, and drank spiced tea and played cards for a bit.
The next day we visited a spice farm and the Jozani Forest Reserve, home of the Zanzibar Red Colobus monkey, which is endangered, and only found in Zanzibar.
Zanzibar has been known for spice plantations for over 200 years. In particular, the islands produce cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and black pepper. Besides these, the farm we visited also had vanilla beans, ginger, turmeric, cardamon, and lemon grass, but I'm not sure how many of these were produced for export. The farm had larger fields a little ways away from the demonstration plants that we inspected. Although most of these weren't in season, it was pretty cool to see the actual plants and smell the leaves, bark, or roots.
We visited Jazani forest mostly to see the monkeys – both the Red Colobus and the Sykes monkey. The visit included a tour guide and a walk along a path to see the larger trees, and then through the smaller trees where the monkeys are found, and then, after a short drive, a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp. The mangrove swamp was interesting because the tide was coming in and we could see the water gradually cover all of the ground in the swamp.
The last day we decided to see a renowned beach of Zanzibar. There are too many spectacular beaches to see them all, so we chose to visit the eastern side of the island at the town of Paje. A coral reef protects much of the eastern coast of Zanzibar, so the waves reaching the island are quite tame and the water is shallow. We heard that it is possible to learn kite-surfing in Zanzibar ("Zero to Hero in 10 Days") because the warm, calm water and the consistent wind makes it more predictable. I was tempted, but we didn't have 10 days, so... next time!
We walked a bit on the beach and saw some interesting shells. I only took some cowrie shells home, though. The beaches were a fine, white, coral sand and we saw almost no garbage of any type, which was unexpected and appreciated. We developed an appreciation for the previous days' cloud cover and learned that near the equator, at sea level, the sun is very hot.
At the end of the trip, Isaac and I both flew to Nairobi, at which point we split up and he returned to Seattle via Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam. It was great hanging out with Isaac in Zanzibar, drinking spiced tea, playing cards, hearing about his year at college, and seeing the sights. I returned "home" to Lubumbashi.
We've visited 5 African countries south of the Equator (DRC, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa) but Zanzibar had a different, Arabic identity. It was also somewhat more developed than the Congo. I joked that there were more miles of paved roads on the island of Zanzibar than in the entire DRC. This is probably an exaggeration. I wonder if Tanzania's socialist government can take credit for the development or just for the nasty cement apartment blocks built with East Germany in the 1970s.
After a few days of downtime in Lubumbashi, Isaac and I left Karen behind and flew to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is made up of 2 large islands, Unguja and Pemba, and is a “semi-autonomous” part of Tanzania. I’m not sure what that means, exactly. The southern island, Unguja is usually called Zanzibar Island and has most of the people, industry, etc. It appears small here, but is 85km by 39km.
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| Zanzibar between Mombasa, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
We stayed at the Mizingani Seafront Hotel right in Stone Town. It was a fully renovated older building with great architecture and details, like the famed hand-carved wooden doors, arches, and courtyards. The hotel was located just across the road from the beach at Stone Town, and just farther along was the ferry terminal and the shipping port. This was not a sun-bathing beach, but a working beach.
 |
| Where we had breakfast and afternoon tea at the Mizingani Seafront. |
Zanzibar definitely has an Arabic feel – the architecture is much different than all of the places we have visited so far in Africa. The dress, too, was different: probably 90% of the women we saw wore head scarves (and a good proportion of girls, too), and it seemed that just as many women went without scarves as those who went fully encapsulated, with only the eyes showing. Men, too, frequently wore a small cylindrical hat – kofia – and occasionally wore the traditional long robe – thawb or jalabiyyah. The old, whitewashed stone buildings, the mosques, and the different styles of dress definitely gave Stone Town an Arabic feel. In my experience, this was not true outside of Stone Town.
The next day we hired a boat to take us to Changuu, also called Prison Island because the British bought the island and had a prison built on it with the plan to house criminals from the mainland. However, before it was used as a prison it was converted to a quarantine hospital, primarily for yellow fever. We visited Changuu for the snorkeling, which was good, but discovered that the island also shelters a couple hundred giant tortoises. In 1919 the British governor of Seychelles sent a gift of four Aldabra giant tortoises to Changuu from the island of Aldabra. They multiplied rapidly but became victims of poachers until about 20 years ago when the enclosure was built. The small, young tortoises are especially protected because they are easy to carry. The adults weigh 500 lbs. The males had their age painted on their shells (the oldest was 151 years old), but the females' shells were blank because the males rubbed the paint off during mating. At least that's what we were told.
The snorkeling was good – colorful coral & fish – but the water seemed a bit dirty and the bright sun, which really highlights the color of the sea life, was frequently obscured by clouds. The most interesting thing we saw was probably the large, active sea slugs.
After snorkeling, we went back to the hotel, showered, and drank spiced tea and played cards for a bit.
The next day we visited a spice farm and the Jozani Forest Reserve, home of the Zanzibar Red Colobus monkey, which is endangered, and only found in Zanzibar.
 |
| A good shot of the red pelt and the 4-finger hand. Photo by Isaac. |
We visited Jazani forest mostly to see the monkeys – both the Red Colobus and the Sykes monkey. The visit included a tour guide and a walk along a path to see the larger trees, and then through the smaller trees where the monkeys are found, and then, after a short drive, a boardwalk through a mangrove swamp. The mangrove swamp was interesting because the tide was coming in and we could see the water gradually cover all of the ground in the swamp.
The last day we decided to see a renowned beach of Zanzibar. There are too many spectacular beaches to see them all, so we chose to visit the eastern side of the island at the town of Paje. A coral reef protects much of the eastern coast of Zanzibar, so the waves reaching the island are quite tame and the water is shallow. We heard that it is possible to learn kite-surfing in Zanzibar ("Zero to Hero in 10 Days") because the warm, calm water and the consistent wind makes it more predictable. I was tempted, but we didn't have 10 days, so... next time!
We walked a bit on the beach and saw some interesting shells. I only took some cowrie shells home, though. The beaches were a fine, white, coral sand and we saw almost no garbage of any type, which was unexpected and appreciated. We developed an appreciation for the previous days' cloud cover and learned that near the equator, at sea level, the sun is very hot.
At the end of the trip, Isaac and I both flew to Nairobi, at which point we split up and he returned to Seattle via Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam. It was great hanging out with Isaac in Zanzibar, drinking spiced tea, playing cards, hearing about his year at college, and seeing the sights. I returned "home" to Lubumbashi.
We've visited 5 African countries south of the Equator (DRC, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa) but Zanzibar had a different, Arabic identity. It was also somewhat more developed than the Congo. I joked that there were more miles of paved roads on the island of Zanzibar than in the entire DRC. This is probably an exaggeration. I wonder if Tanzania's socialist government can take credit for the development or just for the nasty cement apartment blocks built with East Germany in the 1970s.
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