Spring Break 2012 - Part 1 - Zanzibar, Tanzania

The time had come! I was finally going to Africa. My good friend, Stacy, whom I met in Haiti, was working in Uganda for a year and she agreed to meet me in Zanzibar for a week before I went on safari.

I couldn't have been more excited as it has been my dream for years to visit Africa. I met up with Stacy at the aiport in Dar Es Salaam before we headed to the little island of Zanzibar. It felt like nothing had changed since we saw each other last and it was fantastic to be laughing with Stacy again.

We stayed in Stone-Town for the first 2 nights. I had heard that it was a nice little place, and so I was surprised by the poverty there. The town felt dangerous, as the local men were very agressive and would follow us around begging us for things. Seeing some "cops" chase and beat down some thieves with their clubs did not help our sense of security. The Hakuna Matata attidude was a little bit much at times. People would say "oh ya, it's safe to go out at night. Just don't take your purse or somebody will cut it off your body".....because that's safe. haha.

We learned to be very cautious as we explored STone Town. Our first night we went to a place called Mercury's for dinner. Apparently Freddy Mercury is from Zanzibar...who knew?! We saw an old museum, dedicated to the slave market that used to be in the town.


We also saw the local market, the old fort, and some of the windy side strets full of souvenirs. We did a walking tour of all of this with our new Australian friends that Stacy had met on the airplane. They were in need of a place to stay and so they came to our hotel and found a room with us. It ended up to be a great blessing for all of use because they found places to stay with us, and we felt secure having them around.  We had lunch together and then did some souvenir shopping to end off the afternoon. I bought 2 pairs of very confy Jasmine pants.

We spent our Stone Town evening in the night market which was full of some very tastey and cheap food. The atmosphere was fantastic and the tourists came out to enjoy the delicious food.

The time had come for us to venture off to the other end of the island where we could enjoy some relaxing beach time. Beeing the albino that I am, the sun proved to be a bit hot for my white skin, but the scenery was very beautiful. Trunko (our class mascot) was along for the trip and also posed for a few pictures.

 The next few days were willed with relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery. I really didn't do much else, besides trying to get rid of a few persistant tourist trappers that strolled along the beach.  The dhow ships also came to shore around sunset and were very nice to watch.

This little stay on the North side of the island included a few memorable moments. There was a bird/rat stuck in the ceiling of our little hut and we had to move because it's freaky shrieks and scuttering kept me from sleeping soundly. lol. I also managed to burn myself to a crisp while sitting in the sun. The sunburn stayed with me for about a week and I felt the effects weeks later as I could not stop peeling. It turns out that the hot sun and white sand make a deadly combination, burning albinos who spend their days hiding in the shade. Shocking. I was forced to transform into a lady of the shadows, showing my knowledge of the Arabic life by fashioning a Burquini for myself so that I could keep covered and yet still go swimming. Fun!

Stacy and I said goodbye to our Australian friends before heading off ourselves to the East side of the island, where it is more peacful.

Our next hotel was very quite and was the perfect place for relaxing, complete with pool and hammocks! We lazed around, spending our days reading and chatting with our new Canadian friend, who was also on vacation from working abroad in Brussels.



This was also the place where I was walking along a sketchy mini bridge when I said "this thing is sketchy" and immediately fell through the boards, banging up my sunburnt leg nicely. I woke in the night, with terrible pain in my leg, to find that some ants had found their way into my fresh wound. Yum. I avoided vommiting and was able to cleane it out. The cute little shack we stayed in did not have A/C and while I did enjoy spending time with Stacy and seeing the amazing scenery, it had been a long week of sun and heat and I was ready to leave Zanzibar.

I am thankful that I had such a good friend with me to help me through the heat sickness and sunburnt pain that was my last few days in Zanzibar.