Mbudya

On the Boat!

At the beach

Lobster at lunch

The beach

I love my chacos! Thanks mom and dad.

Today we visited Mbudya, an island off the coast of Tanzania.  It’s near Bongoyo, the island that we visited during our first weekend trip here.  But before I get to today, let me fill you in on last night.  Last night we all went to Addis in Dar, an Ethiopian restaurant in downtown Dar es Salaam.  The food was fabulous!  Mom and dad, if you guys end up coming, I am so taking you there!  Colleen and I shared a plate for two which consisted of Chickpea cakes, brown lentils, red lentils, and a curry sauce.  It was all served to us on a giant plate of bread and we got Ethiopian sourdough rolls to go with it.  We were stuffed by the end!  The bill for all 22 of us came out to be 480,000 Tsh (about 300 dollars) but it was so worth it!  My meal cost about 10 dollars, which is quite pricey for Tanzanian standards, but pretty average for American standards.  We caught a daladala back to the dorms around 11:00 and then crashed. 

So, back to today.  This morning we met at the cafeteria at 8:00 to leave for Mbudya.  We hopped on a daladala to Mwenge and then headed to Kunduchi where the boat would leave to take us to the island.  Surprisingly enough, Kunduchi is home to one of the only waterparks in Tanzania.  We scoped it out when we went by and it looked entertaining, but probably not as big as anything back in the states.  We met our captain at the boat house and we all piled into the boat.  This was the same boat and same captain as we had when we went to Bongoyo Island.  The University of Dar es Salaam has a marine wildlife department in Kunduchi and the boat is university property.  It only took a short while to get to the island and it was beautiful as expected.  The ocean was so blue!  There were adorable little bandas for us to stay in and we dropped our stuff and got ready to snorkel.  The water was surprisingly warm, much warmer than last time.  This time we snorkeled right off the beach instead of taking a boat to the reef.  I saw so many fish and so much coral!  I saw a huge starfish, an angel fish, some clown fish, anemones, and sea urchins.  It was great to see all of the marine wildlife.  I dried off and went on a seashell hunt.  I found a gigantic conch shell about 8 inches long and 5 inches wide.  I kidnapped it and plan on bringing it home with me.  We ate lunch on the island which consisted of French fries with your choice of fish, kalamari, or lobster.  I had the fish and it was excellent!  Plus, I got to try lobster for the first time.  I thought it was pretty tasty.  After lunch, a group of us went on a hike to explore the rest of the island.  We decided to take a path which cut across the middle of the island, and then follow the beach to get back.  In theory, this was a good idea, but the beach wasn’t continuous around the whole island and we ended up hiking through some brush and wading through some tide pools.  We made it back just in time to depart, and we headed off the island around 4:00 pm.  The boat took us back to shore and we made our way back to the dorms.  I just finished dinner at the cafeteria (rice and okra per usual) and now am working on some homework.  I am very excited because tomorrow I am going to Josephine’s house and she is going to teach me how to cook!