Enjoying Zanzibar’s east coast

Hibiscus flower, a common site throughout the island of Zanzibar

And now we have reached the final destination of our family holiday, Jambiani, the east coast of Zanzibar Island.  The town of Jambiani is relatively small and simple, as most places are on this east coast.  We rented a wonderful beachfront villa for three days of rest and coastal relaxation after our arduous safari.  ;-)  We found the rental on the web; it is owned by an Italian living in Italy, as are many of the properties along this coast [our taxi driver one time referred to the area north of where we were living as “Milan South”.]

Our rental, Kipepeo Lodge, was a great place and the swimming pool wasn’t too shabby.  It was great to be able to just sit back and relax and have three days of not switching beds.  We were ready for visitors, because the place had enough beds to accommodate about 14 people at once.  In addition, the fact that the place had a full time manager, house cleaners and cook who lived in adjacent houses inside our little compound was also another greatly appreciated amenity.  We were living in style.  You could imagine, we didn’t want to leave…

Mohammed, the house manager at Kipepeo
Lodge, presenting Bill's lobster dinner  

From this wonderful location we left the next morning to explore more of Zanzibar.  Kevin and Patrick headed out to snorkel on the reef off the coast, whereas Nana (aka Bibi), Donna, Roberta and Bill were off to a spice tour -- Zanzibar is world-famous for its spices.  Kevin and Patrick had a traditional dhow pull up to the beach to bring them out to the reef.  Cool.  The others hopped into our taxi and headed west, back into the central part of the island.

Traveling the roads of Zanzibar (or mainland Tanzanian for that matter) is a bit of an exercise is hoping not to get noticed.  Let’s just say that you commonly get pulled over by the local police and commonly the driver is required to answer a series of questions about his vehicle, most of which there is an expectation that one of the answers will provide an opportunity for a traffic violation, no matter how small or insignificant, and this will lead to the levying of a fine, which goes into the pocket of the policeman. Of course, don’t expect to get a receipt.  We knew about the practice, but our taxi driver (he was with us for all the traveling we did after leaving Stone Town) gave us his frank opinion about his perception of the corruption occurring on the highways of Zanzibar.  Sure enough, we were stopped many times on the way to the Spice tour.  It wasn’t until the last stop, only about a mile from the spice farm where we were going, that the policeman pushed his demands the greatest.  I suppose there was a desire to not be too blatant in front of the mzungus (white people), so the policeman took our driver’s license and sent us all on the way, with the full expectation that our driver would let us off for the tour and come back to “pick up his license”.  Yes, as expected, our driver returned with a little less money in his pocket.  [Mind you, we are not really taking about large sums of money, as our driver lost 2000 shillings in the deal, which is about $1.30.]  But, I suppose this adds up for the cop on the street.

A nutmeg seed surrounded by mace, the red filament material.

The Zanzibar Archipelago is also known as the Spice Islands and our Spice tour was fantastic. The photos clearly show the happiness of the moment.  Once we arrived, we were immediately introduced to tumeric, a root that will readily coat you in the typical Halloween yellow-orange color once you break it open and touch the inside of it.  We went on to see cinnamon, vanilla, pepper (white and black), lemon grass, ginger, star fruit, nutmeg, mace, and cloves.  Our guide and his assistant were super; they were full of all sorts of stories and very happy to accommodate our questions and needs.  At one point Nana was struggling a bit and so the assistant went off and brought back a chair for her to sit on in between stops.  Of course, she objected to the pampering, but readily gave in.  While walking from area to area looking at the various plants, the assistant was all the while making things with the materials of the forest farm, hence the attractive accoutrement that we ended up wearing. The tour was informative and eye opening.  We were amazed at how much of the materials are used for cooking and various medicinal purposes.  Although we were dutifully told how one of the plants gave rise to the famous Chanel Number 5 perfume, a check of Wikipedia (for what’s that worth) did not reveal any links, but I should ruin a good story with too much fact checking…

Bibi and her court at the Spice farm on Zanzibar

The Reef tour was somewhat different, but nonetheless enjoyed by Patrick and Kevin.  The dhow and its drivers took them out to the reef, which was a boat ride about a kilometer straight out.  When they got there, the driver just stopped the boat.  Kevin wondered for a minute and then asked him are we here and he replied, perhaps in nearly all the English he knew at the time, “here, ndio”.  [Ndio, a handy word in swahili; it means yes.] They both had a great time swimming in the famous “Sting Ray Channel”, as the reef area is identified in the tour book, and Patrick especially when he took his turn at the helm of the mighty ship.  I’m certain that Patrick was listened to stanza of Klaus Baudelaire’s Pirates of the Caribbean music as he steered his Black Pearl back to port!

Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Patrick) keeping a steady
course with his dhow on the Indian Ocean

Our next day in paradise was spent doing the more pedestrian activities of a beachcomber, including walks, shell collecting, sleeping, sun bathing and, of course, a vigorous game or two of canasta!  Patrick’s collection of shells, after about 30 minutes and 30 yards, was most impressive.  There was a lot to be harvested from the beach.

Only part of the shell harvest from the beach!

Finally, we could not leave our Zanzibar adventure without telling you about lunch at the local cooking school.  It was super, but we went overboard on the desserts.  The school is for locals of Jambiani and surroundings.  Canadians started this nonprofit school that teaches the students about cooking, restaurant and hotel management, accounting and other useful aspects of the tourist industry, but with its central focus on cooking.  The meal was a big hit and so too were the desserts, although they alone were a meal.  We met our match and could not complete the challenge of finishing our desserts; even Patrick found it impossible to eat more than just his.  But these were just some of the challenges that we faced on our great African safari.