Dar and Zanzi

Hello everybody and greetings from the island of Zanzibar! We've had a really great time exploring two awesome Tanzanian cities: Dar es Salaam (Dar) and Zanzibar (Zanzi, not actually a city, but a whole archipelago, my bad.)

Dar was a fun town. We found a cheap hotel right in between the Muslim and Hindu districts. Every time we went for a walk, we saw cool mosques and temples. We settled in on Tuesday and wandered around. We walked to the ferry port, through a raucous fish market and then saw the botanical gardens. We had to wait out an epic rain storm all morning, too.

Wendesday we headed north to Coco Beach. We stopped at a really cool place on the way called "Wonder Welders." It is workshop run by a local group of handicapped artisans. They sell cool art pieces made of recycled metal and glass as well as handmade soaps, jewelry and paper. We hung out on the beach but swimming was difficult because the shores around here are long and shallow and rocky. It wasn't quite high tide anymore so the rocks were hard to walk out on, which was necessary to find a place deep enough to swim.

Thursday was a nice lazy day in town. We had some good local food at the Kariakoo market and wandered around that neighborhood (the native or black part of town.) Each district has its own distinct feel to it. I have also been practicing my Swahili at every opportunity and I have just now begun to train to climb Mount Kilimanjaro (or Kili). It's going to be tough, so I need to get in the proper mental and physical state.

Friday we headed out to Zanzibar on the afternoon ferry, called the Flying Horse. It took us about 3 hours to get out here. Zanzibar is the name of the whole string of islands so technically we are on Unguja, the largest island, the capital of which is Stone Town. We found a hotel in Stone Town's winding, maze-like streets and explored a little.

Saturday we spent in Stone Town and had a very cool day. We saw the old fort, the national museum and the beach. We ate local food with a group of rastas and then helped cook our own locally spiced and caught (octopus) dinner at the hotel. We went out that night to a reggae party and met 2 girls from Macedonia. We also happened to run into 2 people that we met on the train (Mike and Caitlin) and they came to the reggae party with us.

Sunday we decided to relax for another day in Stone Town. Everything here seems to move a little slower, us included. We ended up going to the beach in town and swimming. The water here is undescribably gorgeous! The beaches are full of white sand and the water is every conceivable shade of blue!

Finally Monday we moved on to a new city, still on the same island. We took a minibus, called "daladalas" here. We went southeast to a town called Jambiani on the eastern coast. It was so amazing! There is a 7 km long beach that runs uninterrupted all down the coast. 7 km long, that is, during low tide. The tide shifts by nearly a kilometer every 6 hours because here, too, the beach is very shallow and long. At high tide, the water rushes all the way up to the barrier walls and the waves get pretty big. We found a nice guesthouse and got comfy.

The next few days were all pretty similar. We ate good local food and relaxed on the beach. We swam in the waves and wandered around the town. I went snorkeling for a morning and saw a lot of cool underwater life.

Today is Thursday and we are back in Stone Town. It is taking us longer than we expected to tear ourselves away from this beachy paradise, but we are making progress. Tonight, we are taking the ferry back to Dar es Salaam before we head up toward Kilimanjaro! Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Cheers.