Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. It is technically made up of two islands, Zanzibar, with a population of about 1 million, and Pemba, with a population of about 300,000. Most individuals that live between the two islands are Muslim (not sure on the percentage since our tour guides gave VERY conflicting numbers), but probably around 80% practice Islam. That said, both emphasized that there is wonderful religious tolerance throughout the islands, with individuals practicing Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, and local religions, living together peacefully. Because of the heavy Muslim presence, it is expected that everyone dress conservatively, covering your shoulders and knees at all times. This can be quite a pain considering IT. IS. HOT. Wearing a floor length skirt in 90 degree heat is more than a little painful! But I digress :-p.
We took about a two hour tour of Stone Town itself, walking through the fresh fish markets (where there are auctions every morning for the largest fish) and the fruit markets, before visiting the only Anglican Church between the two islands. Our tour guide was keen to point out the different types of doors that exist on Zanzibar - Arabic doors, Indian doors, and Zanzibar doors. Arabic doors are usually inscribed with a piece of the Quran on them. Indian doors often have long, sharp, protruding knobs (to keep away elephants he said!) And Zanzibar doors are beautifully hand-carved with intricate patterns, usually of flowers.
I didn't take this picture (found it online) but we did see this door, which shows examples of all three types of doors!
It was interesting to note the differences between the doors and then see how some individuals integrated different pieces into their own front doors.
From there we headed to he "Speaker's Corner", the local spot where men will meet daily to talk about the day's event's, politics, etc. Funnily, there was a sign in the middle that said "Make Free International Calls Please" with a telephone on a poll about 10 feet off the ground. Not sure what it was about, but it looked quite silly!
Another fun fact - Fredy Mercury was born in Zanzibar. His childhood home is now a museum (which we stopped at, although didn't enter).
From there, we took a short tour on the slave trade in Zanzibar. While many locations in Western Africa shipped slaves to North America, East Africa shipped slaves off to India and other places in the Middle East and Southern Asia. Zanzibar was an important port for slavery, with slaves coming from all over Eastern and Southern Africa (Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, etc.) to be sold. As such, when slavery ended here and the captured slaves were freed, Zanzibar became somewhat of a melting pot where cultures from all over those countries combined.
The tour was quite interesting, with our guide showing us the location of the former auction block (which is now the site of an altar in a Catholic church), the outdoor "holding pen" - an outdoor hole in the ground where potential owners could come to look at the slaves before bidding, and finally to an indoor holding cell. Slaves would stay in the cell for up to three days before being put up for auction. There was one cell for women and children, which would house about 75 people, and another for men, which would house about 50 grown men. We sat in the one for women and children with only about 10 of us in it, and I'm not quite sure where you would have put more than another 5-10 people.
Our guide also showed us the restrictive chains the slaves would have worn during that time, showing that each would be standing or sitting with literally no space between them.
The chain around his neck would have fit up to 4 slaves chained together.
Overall it was quite a depressing, yet interesting and educational tour.
After learning about the slave trade, we took off for less depressing locales, including a spice farm to see how many spices are produced :). We were able to see, touch, and taste the raw forms of many different kinds of spices including: lemon grass (smells so good and locals use it as a mosquito repellent!), curry, pepper (did you know there are 5 different kinds/colors of pepper??), cacao (chocolate!), coffee, tumeric (which turns your fingers BRIGHT orange), ginger, cloves, cinnamon (the shaved bark tasted amazing!), vanilla (which is apparently only native to Mexico, otherwise it must be germinated by man since there aren't bugs in any other place in the world that germinate it!), iodine (which comes from a tree - who knew!), and hot peppers about the size of your pinky nail (which Jon of course insisted on trying! He said it was the hottest thing he's ever eaten in his life!)
There were local boys following us around and making us necklaces, bracelets, and rings - they even made Jon this snazzy tie out of palms!
As part of the spice farm tour, we also watched a crazy man (known locally as the butterfly man) climb to the top of a coconut tree (about 50 feet) while doing tricks and stunts.
When he got down, he cut up some coconut for us and we got to taste the water from young and ripe coconuts, as well as the meat from them. Apparently young coconuts' "meat" is fairly gelatinous - it kinda reminded me of flan. Not my favorite.
After the tour we ate lunch at the farm. Everything was delicious (curried rice, cooked plantains and zucchini, fried fish). Unfortunately that's when my stomach started to feel not great :(. After lunch we hopped in the car and drove to our hotel and luckily I slept the whole way so I wasn't worried about my stomach.
We arrived at the hotel around 5 pm... to a gorgeous, waterfront hotel just steps from the beach with a pool, spa, and restaurant. What more could you want for a few days reprieve in paradise??
We spent the rest of the day between the pool and beach, although now Jon was starting to not feel too great either.
When we went to dinner, we were pleasantly surprised to see buttered chicken on the menu and happily ordered something plain to help settle our stomachs. Well. Our meals came (after only about 2 hours... getting a little better! And dinner was under the stars which was pretty spectacular :)) but they were DOUSED in curry. Seriously one of the spiciest meals I've ever eaten! I didn't understand! I'd ordered buttered chicken! Jon and I said something to some of the girls on the tour to which they all replied - what do you mean? In India, BUTTERED CHICKEN is a curry-filled meal. Apparently "butter" is a type of curry!!!! WHHHHAAAATTTTT?!?!??? WHO KNEW!?? Definitely not US - that's for sure! Neither of us really touched our meals, mostly just sticking to the rice before heading off to bed.
Jess' highlight of the day: spending time at the beach (even though I got pummeled by a few waves :-p
Jon's highlight of the day: arriving at the beach
I wanted to thank you for this great read. I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.Vacations and Travel consultant
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