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| Nungwi Beach in Zanzibar was a gorgeous and welcome sight |
So we landed from our surprise Jet at the Zanzibar airport around 7pm. Zanzibar is a small island off the coast of Dar Es Salaam. The island is known for its beaches (and probably other stuff that I just haven't researched) and is 99% Muslim. We got a cab to a hostel in Stonetown where Jen (Global Health Corps living in Lilongwe) and Amanda (Grassroot Soccer Intern living in Zambia) had already booked a room. Unfortunately they’d only booked a room for the two of them. They managed to convince the guard to let the 3 of us in to just “store” our luggage, where the plan was for us to shower and rest before going out and then sneaking back into the hostel later where we’d all just cram in that one room, but of course that didn’t work out. We went out to a plaza on the water where lots of street vendors were serving food and drinks. Honestly I didn’t think very highly of it outside the chocolate mango pizza which was divine. After that we all went to a bar on the beach and stayed out much later than I would’ve thought possible after the grueling travel Hasmin, Mel, and I had just finished. We got back to the hotel some time after 2am and snuck in, but just as I was falling asleep I heard the guard yelling at us that we had to leave or he was going to call the police. I guess operation hostel stowaway was not a success. Luckily they had another room open that they let us take for the night (grudgingly). In the morning we walked around the city, first avoiding the fish-smelling streets at the docks and then heading over to a couple art markets.
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| Stone Town art market in the courtyard of an old fort |
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| View from the plaza in Stone Town |
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| Narrow Backstreets of Stone Town |
At around 1pm the cab came to pick us up to bring us to our “villa” in Nungwi at the northern tip of Zanzibar. In typical fashion the driver rode recklessly along a two way, one lane road that frequently left us racing into near head-on collisions. We arrived after about an hour pulling off the paved road into a typical African dirt road, absurdly bumpy and riddled with giant holes and ditches. Then we pulled off into a dirt drive way almost overrun by tall grass and weeds. Past all the unkempt vegetation we arrived at our villa, a surprisingly cozy two story house of which one of the upstairs apartments was ours for a couple nights. We met the staff, only one of which spoke English, and then headed out to the beach which was 15 minutes away, walking by nicer resorts along more dirt roads. After avoiding beachside vendors we finally reached the promised land as we looked out onto a bright horizon over white sands and four different shades of blue and green calm ocean waters. We all wasted no time getting into the water.
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| Nungwi Beach resorts (not where we stayed) |
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| At high tide the water crashed into the upper part of the rocks on the left |
The rest of the time in Zanzibar was filled with a ton of beach time (too much judging from the sunburn), fine breakfasts of eggs, bread, and fruit prepared by the Villa 24 hour staff, and nice dinners at other hotels or local spots. On New Years we went to a party the famed Kendwa Rocks resort, just a short cab ride away from our lodgings. There was dancing, a weird card pre-purchase bar system, lots of music and smoke, and fireworks at midnight. We all made it home safely that night and the next morning it was back to Stone Town to catch a ferry to the mainland. It was all a journey back to Lilongwe now, and what I didn’t know at the time was that that journey would take 3 days. It was a wonderful learning experience and an adventure filled trip, but after everything getting back to my bed in and under my mosquito net in Lilongwe was one of the most rewarding moments I’ve had here.
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