we have traveled through Tanzania and currently we are in Zanzibar an island of the coast, which became owned by Tanzania in 1964. There are still conflict and tension because Zanzibar would like more freedom from Tanzania. There was a bombing in a non-tourist area while we werer visiting.

It is a very old island with lots of history, especially with slave trade. It was a very wealthy place for Europeans to live and vacation and therefore they got the first electricity in Africa. Now there are lots of old fancy buildings that are currently very dingy and fallen apart. The center of town is called stone town and is a maze of narrow alley streets and houses. There are lots of Muslims, Arabs and Indian influence and reminds me of Egypt. The people are nicer than being on the main land Tanzania. Yesterday we went on a spice tour which is a tour of all these trees and shrubs that we create our spices from such as cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, nutmeg, vanilla. It was really cool and then we got to taste all these spices, tea and fruits, including cacao fruit. yummy.

We went to northern part of Zanzibar Island called Nungwe Village, which is a tourist beach with back packer style hotels. It has beautiful beaches, white soft sand, multiple colors of blue water, good coral and colorful fish. It had only a few bar and restaurants to visit so you ran into the same people a lot and became friendly with the other tourists. It was nice to talk to new people and have a break. I went into a nearby traditional village and ate dinner from a local man’s kitchen and it was the best meal I had on the whole trip because it was so spicy. I met about 10 other Americans in Zanzibar and one bar had organized a going away Disco dance party for a group of them and they played a great mix of old and new tunes. It was so much fun, I was dancing with Maasai tribe men to all kinds of music such as Madonna and Brittney Spears, now that was an interesting culture experience. Zanzibar beach experience was not as much as a culture adventure and just a lot of fun.

Journal Entry Zanzibar Posted On: 5/20/2005