SWIMMING WITH THE FISH
(Gorilla Tales Part 9 - The End!)
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under the Gorilla Tales heading.
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etc. are welcome. Please e-mail me.
To the question: Are you glad to be home?, my answer was a definite
"No"! I would have been fine traveling for another month or more. On
the other hand, Lois was glad to be home, to see her cats again and to sleep in
her own bed every night. It's also hard to finish that last installment of the
travelogue once you are home. Coming home after 8 weeks away is difficult,
especially when you are transitioning from bright sunshine and warm weather to
snow and cold weather. It takes a while to adjust to a different schedule,
reestablish old routines and reconnect with friends.
Has the experience changed our lives or us? Not really, but traveling is a
continual stream of different experiences and acquaintances. We have a greater
appreciation of the stability, security and prosperity of our lives in the US.
The trip was a wonderful experience - some of the time. This was not a
"great" trip, but it did have some great moments - number one seeing
the mountain gorillas and number two is discussed below. Do we regret our
decision to take this particular trip? No. Looking back, we were probably
overly concerned about getting sick or picking up some sort of parasite (Africa has this reputation...). We had been told the food
in Africa was nothing special and that proved
to be 100% true. The question of "where next?" has been asked by a
number of people. Nothing stands out at the moment, but here are some ideas
that are percolating: Bhutan,
India, Sri Lanka, Mongolia,
China, Myanmar, Vietnam,
Ethiopia, Malawi, Zambia,
Turkey and Jordan. What do
YOU recommend? Please let us know. Thanks for listening and here's the final
part of this travelogue:
Having decided to fly to Zanzibar, we left Kigali on February 10,
2003. At the airport, we found that security was not exactly tight. Lois set
off the buzzer walking through the x-ray machine; the security guard looked at
her and said "go ahead"! However, our flight to Nairobi
and our connection to Zanzibar
both went without incident. When we landed in Zanzibar, we knew we wouldn't have to worry
about it being chilly at night. It was HOT.
The U.S. State Department, along with the English, Italian and German
governments issued a travel warning for Zanzibar
about one month prior to our arrival. The U.S.
warning on January 10, 2003 said: "This Public Announcement is issued
to alert Americans to the potential for terrorist actions on the Tanzanian island of Zanzibar... The Department of State has
received information that a terrorist group may be planning an attack on an
unspecified location frequented by Westerners... This may include restaurants,
clubs or hotels. American citizens visiting Zanzibar
or other near-by coastal locations in Tanzania are cautioned to take
appropriate measures and carefully evaluate their security posture.".
This warning, along with the possibility of war with Iraq
drastically cut tourism to Zanzibar.
The hotels and guesthouses were pretty anxious for business. We found a large,
comfortable room with A/C, cable TV, a small sized refrigerator and breakfast
included for $20.
Stonetown, the only Zanzibari city, is a major attraction in and of itself.
The maze like quality of the streets in the old city can be compared to Camaguey, Cuba
where they laid out the streets to confuse marauding pirates. The carved wood
doors and the balconies were reminiscent of Lima, Peru, The narrowness of the
streets, to the point where many are only for pedestrians or motos, was
reminiscent of the Arab section of Jerusalem or the Italian town of Amalfi (but
without the hills). Since the streets are so narrow and the buildings three or
so stories high, it's hard to figure out where the sun is and orient yourself
making it possible to get lost and walk in circles for an hour or two before
you find your way.
We stopped to admire one place as the houseboy happened to open the door. He
invited us in to take a look. We climbed up to the roof where they had an
observation deck from which we could view the whole city. Mohammed spent a
while sitting and chatting with us while we enjoyed the scene. We could hear
the call to prayer being broadcast from one of the local Mosques. When we
continued on, with the exception of one old man who indicated Lois should be
wearing a head scarf (she had long pants and a short sleeve shirt on), we found
the people to be very warm and welcoming. Karibu (welcome) and Jambo (how are
you?/hello) were the two most common things we heard. The Zanzibari were very
upset about the various warnings and sought to reassure us that it was safe in Zanzibar and there was no
reason to worry.
Zanzibar was
a major producer of spices but the export industry has mostly died out. We went
on a "Spice Tour". Stuff fifteen tourists in a bus and take them to
see a number of old spice plantations. Of course, it wasn't just spices we saw.
I can remember: vanilla, nutmeg, mace, clove, cinnamon, allspice, curry leaf,
ginger, lemongrass, cardamom, black pepper, turmeric, aloe, henna, starfruit,
bread fruit, jack fruit, avocado, pineapple, coconut, cassava, taro, coffee,
cacao and a few others! It was interesting to see the natural form of some
spices that I had only seen previously in a bottle. After touring the spice
plantations, they took us to a beach for the afternoon. There were about 10
other people besides our group. Warm, crystal clear water, no surf and a sandy
bottom - not a bad way to spend the afternoon. I think I'm going to like Zanzibar!
The other tour that everyone in Zanzibar
pushed was "swimming with the dolphins" (yes, I know they are mammals
and not fish, but I take a little poetic license on occasion...). The driver
took us for an hour and a quarter drive to Kizimkazi at the south end of Zanzibar
Island. Once in
Kizimkazi, four of us picked out snorkeling gear and got into a small boat. It
felt like the boat was chasing the dolphins. They looked for the dolphins to
surface and then steered the boat right to that spot. Of course, by the time
the boat got there, the dolphins had gone down under the water. We jumped into
the water only to find nothing but each other to swim with. After a few false
starts, we figured out that we could see the dolphins swimming about 20 feet
below us and we could swim along with them waiting for them to surface again.
One little flaw in the system was that dolphins can swim a lot better than you
or me (especially me)! We still had pretty good views of the pod's 15-20
members swimming together in formation. A calf was swimming directly beneath,
almost touching, what we assumed to be his/her mother. Some of the dolphins
were at least 12' long. As I was swimming above them, one of the dolphins
rolled over on its side and appeared to be checking me out. Finally, we got the
timing right and swam to a point where the pod was surfacing. They ended up
surfacing all around us, with a few within touching distance. So, there we
were, in the middle of a pod of dolphins. I think Lois was so excited; she
swallowed about a quart of seawater! Next to seeing the gorillas in Rwanda, this
was easily the most exciting and thrilling moment of the whole trip.
To celebrate our swimming with the dolphins and watch the sunset, we went to
Africa House. It's a hotel and restaurant, right on the beach and it faces due
west. The view included about 20 locals playing soccer in the sand at the water
edge, a few boats floating on the gentle waves and a sailboat passing in the
distance. Four different nights we went there hoping to see sunset but had the
same experience every time. There was always a strip of clouds just along the
horizon so we never actually saw the sun go down. Each night, it just went
behind the clouds and then it became dark. However, just about every tourist in
Zanzibar was
there each night since the view was excellent and the drinks strong!
We went to a music and dance performance at the cultural center which was
housed in the old fort. It consisted of a live band and a group of ten men and
women performing "traditional" dance. The women were thrusting and
shaking, dancing and grinding very sexily with the men. When the performance
was over, we saw the women put on their long black robes and head scarves
before leaving. Sort of makes you scratch your head a little...
There was a festival to celebrate the end of the Haj - the holy pilgrimage
to Mecca and we
decided to wander over. It was almost exactly like a carnival in a small
American town. All sorts of cheesy, plastic kids toys for sale (water guns,
yo-yos, etc), a bunch of games like a ring toss where you can win prizes, some
gambling games with dice (I thought Muslims don't gamble?), a number of
screened off areas for music and dancing and photo booths. It was packed with
people, mostly families and teenagers.
Having limited time, we decided that besides Stonetown, we would go to only
one beach area for a few days of doing absolutely nothing (my favorite
activity) before returning home. Nungwi is one of the more popular beach areas
in Zanzibar and
we were warned before going that it might not be real relaxing. We took a van
which charged $2 per person to pick us up at our room in Stonetown and take us
for the hour and a half drive to Nungwi. The tourist part of the town is one
hotel after another, all along the beach. But they are all single or two-story
buildings and all rooms face the water so even if every room at every hotel was
booked, it wouldn't be too crowded. As it was, we hooked up with two other
couples, checked out all the places on the beach (which were mostly empty) and
found a very nice place for $25 per couple per night.
The roads in Nungwi are all just sand paths with the only traffic being the
occasional minivans to pick-up/drop-off people. Further along the beach is the
real town of Nungwi,
consisting of fishermen and dhow (local fishing boats) builders. In the
morning, everybody is out working: sanding the sides of their boats clean,
repairing leaks, organizing their nets and digging for worms for bait. Our days
were a little bit easier - we walked on the beach, slept on the beach, bought
some fresh mangoes and/or pineapple to eat on the beach, read on the beach and
ate fresh fish, rock lobster, shrimp, calamari or octopus at restaurants on the
beach. There's not much more to say about Nungwi except we would recommend it
to anyone...
From Nungwi, we went back to Stonetown, spent a night there and the next
morning flew from Zanzibar to Dar
es Salaam to London to New York to Washington
DC. Arrived in DC at about 2:00
am February 18, the day after the huge snowstorm. A trip of approximately 26
hours non-stop! And thus, our adventures came to an end...
Final Notes on Zanzibar
Spent 8 days in Zanzibar
|
$ 372
|
on food, accommodation & local transport =
$46.50/day
|
|
$ 100
|
on plane tickets to Dar es Salaam
|
|
$ 45
|
on Spice tour and Dolphins
|
|
$ 44
|
on souvenirs
|
|
---------
|
|
|
$ 561
|
total expenditure in 8 days.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average Cost For A Room: $22
|
|
|
Total Miles Traveled: 100 (small island!)
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Grand Totals
|
$1970
|
27 days in Uganda
|
|
$1852
|
16 days in Rwanda
|
|
$ 561
|
8 days in Zanzibar
|
|
--------
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|
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$4383
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total expenditure in 51 days.
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Things we miss about traveling
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Things that are nice about
being home
|
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Wearing Tevas and shorts everyday
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More than 3 t-shirts to choose from
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Being together 24X7
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Not being together 24X7
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Hot Weather
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Hot Showers
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The great Flora and Fauna
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No More Mosquito Bites or Malaria Medicine
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Sand between our toes
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Rick shoveling our driveway for us (THANKS)
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Fresh Mangoes everyday
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Fuji
or Gala Apples
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Meeting new people
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Seeing old friends
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THE END OF GORILLA TALES
all content is copyright
© Paul Schneider, 2003.
