The Spice Island
Zanzibar ~ Island, African, Muslim
After the safari, I flew to Zanzibar, a group of small islands just to the east of Tanzania. It’s all about the beach! My flight was to Zanzibar City, which is on the western coast, and then I had a one-hour taxi ride to the east coast, to a village called Jambiani.
Because of historical influences, 98% of the people who live in Zanzibar are Muslim (compared with around 30% in Tanzania proper)!
I had a few days in Jambiani, and then one day in Stone Town, which is the ‘old town’ part of Zanzibar City. My plan for my time there was to relax on the beach and sleep a lot, and that’s what I did😝.
yummm tuna… food at the hotel was deliciousss
bitter lemon soda😍
sunrise
free breakfast
beach clouds
hotel at night
greens and blues
not a bad view:)
There were some amazing sunrises (enjoyed with my new friend).
Every morning, I woke up at 6:15, opened my door to see if the sunrise looked nice, and if it did, I would walk on the beach, and if not, I would go back to sleep😂!
For some reason, I was feeling nauseous for a few days, and I couldn’t eat much. This was my dinner one night…
yogurt & granola
this is what DEET does to the paint on a cheap watch…
I am so happy to be ending my anti-malaria pills in a few days. And I’m also excited that I’ll be out of mosquito alley for the first time in over two months. YAYYYYY!
artwork in room
There are two low tides a day.
low tide
The people who live in the villages harvest seaweed and they fish (mainly for octopus, but also some small fish). The tide goes out really far, maybe a mile?, so, every morning, the local women go far out during low tide, where the water is half of the time, and farm the seaweed. Once it’s ready, they harvest it to sell… you can see them in the far background in the pictures. These boys were digging for worms to use for bait when fishing:
Karibunisana : You’re most welcome
They say “You’re welcome” a lot, which is kind of funny to hear because they’re using it to say, “Welcome”, but “You’re welcome” just sounds like what you’re told after thanking someone. It’s cute though.
Zanzibar is the Spice Island – everything grows here!! So I did a really fun spice farm tour…
turmeric
turmeric
nutmeg
nutmeg
nutmeg
green orange
cacao
dragonfruit
vanilla bean + sweet guide Yobo
farm
pretty hibiscus:)
lemongrass
lemongrass
pepper
henna
chicken with small head and body but big legs😂
me henna… this was so fun
she was super cute.. and loved my answer when guide asked why i didn’t have a boyfriend
why does my head look so big? opposite of weird chicken
clove
cinnamon
coffee
spices purchased😍
Mucho divertido on the Spice Island, sleeping 15 hours a day😆☀️🙋🏼!
Next up: Stone Town & quick Abu Dhabi stop (take two)
The Tree of Life
The Ngorongoro Crater is a caldera, not a crater. I’m not sure what that means, but it’s true.
Either way, there used to be a huge volcano here, until it exploded and caved in the earth. ‘Ngorongoro’ was so called because it’s the noise that the bells around the Maasai’s cattle make walking up and down the hills, and I also heard that it is the Maasai word for something like “hole in the earth”. The Maasai use the outside of the crater and the hills around it for their livestock to graze. Inside, Ngorongoro is only 264 sq.km. (whereas the Serengeti is almost 15,000). It’s relatively small, but it is the most densely populated area for the Big Five in Africa. Fertile land and lots of other animals to eat😃 The edge of the crater is 2,000 feet higher in elevation than the center.
Maasai herd
Crater rim
view
ostrich + zebra
posin’ w/tha big booty
one boy and one girl
hungry, hungry hippos!!
toilet, in the crater… for some reason, it’s ‘safe’ to walk around here
grey crowned cranes – love these😍
more cranes
ngorongoro street
hyena skulking about
You can’t see them, except for maybe a faint pinkish color, but this is the very shallow lake that has thousands of flamingoes hanging out on it! We couldn’t get any closer unfortunately, but it was cool to see nonetheless.
millions of flamingoes….!
#4 of 5 Big Five: Cape (African) Buffalo
cape buffalo
with bird friends
this one was particularly curious, staring at us
These were impressive to see in person, and very formidable… easy to see why they’re part of the Big Five. I love their crown of horns… all that beastliness, and the horns make them look noble at the same time💜.
lone elephant on pano
Fantastic Mr. Fox
wildebeests
wildebeests & zebra friends
somewhere back there is the Universe (G-O-D)
sun rays
warthog pumba
clouds
it was cold. no hairbrush. sucker. marko. i call shotgun.
I needed to add this soundclip about impala mating because: 1.) to display Marko’s lovely accent 2.) what he’s describing is interesting.
some kinda eagle
wildebeestes
baboons. lady friend had JUST given birth to that bundle of joy in her arms… the umbilical cord was dragging on the ground!!
squad makin’ moves
wildebeests
lions 9
squad! sleep!
colorful Maasai market nearby Ngorongoro
Giraffes aren’t in the crater because it’s too steep for them to climb into (I think)… so the only ones we saw were on the crater rim, creating a majestic skyline…
do you see the giraffes?
Our campsite WAS ON THE CRATER RIM. When we arrived, these wonderful, ugly storks were standing watch…
marabou storks guarding campsite
marabou stork = avian version of old british man
And it also had a wonderful tree that reminded me of The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom in Disney World (which, I would later come to find, that tree is modeled after a baobab tree in The Lion King😄! – this is some type of fig tree).
tree of life
Most amazing tree.
Tree of Life at Walt Disney World
Tree of Life at Ngorongoro
and, when you get to see the Tree of Life, you should spend time with it
and why not get upside-down next to it and rub your feet on it?
Love Love Love.
#5 of 5 Big Five: Rhino (too far away for a pic, but we saw him!)
Alas, my safari ended. But it was a magical four days that I’ll never forget.
Next up: Beach :: Zanzibar
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