This Weekend I Swam with Dolphins

Our Boat to Zanzibar

The Hotel

The view of Zanzibar from the Museum

Stone Town

The Fish Market

Lunch! Pilau, Curry, and Spinach

Drinking Coconut Water

The Nighttime Seafood Market

The Beach

Rainforest Tour

Red Colobus Monkey

Dinner at Monsoon Restaurant

The Band at Monsoon

Giant Tortoises on Prison Island

Zanzibar, Zanzibar, Zanzibar.  I can safely say that the best part about this weekend was…well…everything.  It was spectacular.  Friday morning we left the dorms at 5:30 a.m. in order to catch the 7:30 ferry from downtown Dar to Zanzibar.  The ferry was a big yacht-looking ship with two stories.  We sat below in economy class and it was freezing because they had the air conditioning cranked to about 50 degrees!  The water wasn’t too rough and most of us handled it quite well.  We got to Zanzibar around  9:45 and walked to our hotel-the Princess Salam Inn.  It was right next to the fish market and we could definitely tell…the whole street reeked like fish!  The hotel was great and we each got rooms with a bathroom and shower in them.  The best part was that the hotel: 1. Had water  2.  The water was heated!.  We were so excited to take warm showers.  We left the hotel midmorning for our tour around  historic stone town where we visited a museum and got to see some of the old stone buildings.  I really enjoyed the museum; it had a ton of history on Zanzibar, Dar, and the people of Tanzania.  I learned that they used to construct their ships by sewing the planks together rather than nailing them.  Sound like hard work to me!  We then hopped on our bus to head to the spice farm where we ate lunch.  It was a wonderful lunch under a little hut where we sat on mats on the ground and ate pilau (rice spiced with cinnamon, curry, cardamom, pepper, and a variety of other spices) and vegetable curry.  Then, it was off to the spice tour!  We wandered about the jungle with our guide who pointed out all of the different fruits and herbs that they grow on the farm.  It was incredible to see all of the things that they can grow in Africa.  We got to try everything from jackfruit to starfruit to cloves to cacao.  It reminded me so much of living at Finca Sarita in Ecuador.  We headed back to the hotel in the evening and then off to dinner at Mercury’s.  Before dinner, a few of us went shopping at the little art market downtown and I spent way too much money!  But, the good news is, I have most of my gifts for everyone now!  And I finally bought a kanga, which I am very excited about.  Dinner at Mercury’s (named after Freddie Mercury, who was born in Zanzibar) was good and I enjoyed  seafood pasta and salad.  We were all exhausted after a whole day’s worth of activities and we crashed at the hotel after dinner. 

Saturday morning I woke up, showered, and ate breakfast.  The breakfast had to be one of the highlights of the trip-they had cornflakes with cold milk, fruit, rolls, sambusas, eggs, toast, and pretty much everything you could imagine.  I was so excited for cereal with milk!!!!  Then, it was off to the other side of the island where we got on a boat and headed out to sea.  We all had our snorkeling gear with us and our bathing suits on.  Our mission was to find the spinner dolphins that inhabit the waters around  Zanzibar.  We spotted a group of 4 dolphins rather quickly and raced to catch up with them.  Then, we prepared ourselves for launch, putting on our snorkeling equipment and cozying up to the side of the boat.  When we got close, our guide yelled, “Jump Now!” and we all jumped in the water.  We adjusted our snorkels and masks and started swimming.  And there we were, swimming with dolphins.  I was literally swimming a foot above dolphins.  It was one of the coolest things I have ever done in my life.  Mom and dad, if you guys come, I am absolutely taking you to do this.  I followed the dolphins for a good several minutes and then they picked up the pace and I couldn’t keep up.  I swam back to the boat and then prepared for round two.  Basically, the tour continued like that for the rest of the time, with us chasing a pod of dolphins, jumping in, and then following the dolphins for as long as we could.  The funniest thing happened when I was following one of the groups of dolphins…a dolphin actually peed on me!  There I was swimming about a meter behind it and all of a sudden it just let it all go.  I luckily was able to move and avoid it in time.  We were out on the boat for a good 3 or 4 hours.  The guides then took us to the reefs to snorkel and Karen and I taught all of our Swahili teachers how to swim!  They were so scared that they would drown even though they all had life jackets on.  Basically, we would help them into the water and then hold onto them until they were comfortable to let go of the ladder.  We even gave them a mask and showed them how to look at the coral under water.  They were so excited!  This was the first time that any of them have gone snorkeling and it was really cool to see.  We headed back to the beach for lunch and I had fish and chips.  It was delicious and they even brought us fresh fruit for dessert.  We all got super sunburned from snorkeling, but it was totally worth it.  Sunburn is definitely one concept that the Tanzanians don’t understand.  Their skin is so dark that they don’t have to worry about getting sunburned.  After snorkeling, we went to the nature reserve where we got to see the famous Red Colobus Monkeys of Zanzibar and learn about the medicinal plants that grow on the island.  It was really neat.  When we got back to the hotel, I headed to the fish market to buy some spices.  Zanzibar is known for all of the spices they grow and I purchased some pilau masala, saffron, and cardamom.  Plus, I even found a pharmacy for Colleen that sold contact solution!  It was wicked expensive, but hey, when you need contact solution, you need contact solution.  Then, we ate dinner at Monsoon, a Zanzibarian Restaurant.  I had pilau with vegetable curry.  It was delicious and had loads of veggies in it!  Others had stuffed eggplant or other curry dishes.  On our way back we walked past the park on the beach which was full of people.  We wandered in to see what was going on and there were rows and rows of tables set up with chefs behind them in huge chef hats and tons of seafood.  We had just walked into the coolest seafood market ever!  Basically, every night on the island, all of the chefs come to the park and cook their seafood-everything from octopus to squid to prawns to fish-and then people can come eat the food.  It was one of the coolest things ever.  A couple of us tried the seafood and many said it was the best seafood that they had ever eaten.  We crashed again, and were exhausted when we finally fell asleep. 

Sunday we woke up as usual and ate breakfast.  We left by boat at about 9:30 to head to Prison Island.  We got to see the old prison buildings as well as the giant tortoises on the island.  We snorkeled off the boat and then headed back.  I ended up not snorkeling since it was raining out and I was already cold.  Then, back to our hotel where we gathered our things and headed to lunch before getting on the ferry.  Lunch was excellent and was at an Indian restaurant.  I had Vegetable Jaipuri, which was a veggie dish with corn, carrots, and green beans mixed with cheese and served with rice and tortillas.  It was awesome.  We all boarded the ferry and headed on back.  The sea was exceptionally rough and nearly everyone got seasick.  I was even feeling a little queasy myself and I rarely get sick.  Several of us ended up having to use sick bags.  Basically, we spent the entire ferry ride plugging our ears so we didn’t have to hear the noises of everyone being sick around us.  We finally reached land (thank goodness) and hopped on a bus back to the university.  When we got back, we found out that we have water (hooray) and wireless internet.  Today is just a great day.  Now, I’m off to Swahili, Research Methods, and Human Evolution.  Although apparently our Human Evolution Teacher got his computer stolen so I’m not quite sure how we are going to hold class today.  Then, off to Mwenge to pick up the dress that I had made for me and then out to dinner with our host families.  It’s going to be a busy day!  I’ll try to post pics later if the internet is good.  Have a fabulous Monday.  And if you ever get the chance to visit Zanzibar, you should.  It is definitely worth it.  They have the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen.  (I think they may be even better than Hawaii’s).  Anyway, adios, and I send hugs and kisses from Africa.

Erin

Swahili Word of the Day: Bahari (Bah-harr-ee)-Ocean
[Bahari ya Hindi-Indian Ocean]
And FYI, the stress always falls on the second to last syllable in Swahili. Always.  So Bahari would be baHARee.