Stone Town
ZANZIBAR
Group Travel Begins
By LYNDI
Saturday, April 2, 2011
After over a month of independent travel in East Africa, Aaron and I were ready to join our Tucan Travel tour down to Cape Town. We would be saying goodbye to cramped bus rides, sketchy hotels, and worrying about being ripped off at every turn and saying hello to a luxury bus, camping in tents, and hanging out with members of our group that were sure to become our new best friends.
Our tour started on April 2nd in Stone Town, the main port city and capital of Zanzibar. We met up with our tour leader Tanya and seven other group members at the Safari Inn Hotel in the center of town and headed out for a late lunch to get to know everyone. Being a former tour leader, I know that the first group meal can actually reveal quite a bit about how the tour will go, so the fact that everyone got along great, there was lots of conversation, and people were already joking with and teasing each other, I knew it was going to be a great tour.
We had free time that afternoon to wander around the city, so I headed to the “House of Wonders” National Museum. Aaron could not think of anything he wanted to do less, so I was flying solo. And I must say, for a total museum nerd like myself, I had a great time. Because Zanzibar played such a vital role in the thousands of years of trade ships, there was a lot of information about the Swahili, Arabic, Portugese and Indian cultures that have inhabited the island on and off, information about spices, textiles, and slaves that brought so many traders to the island, as well as ancient navigation techniques. Needless to say, Aaron would have been bored out of his mind as he tends to look at the pictures in museums while I read every single placard, so it was a good thing he headed back to the hotel.
By the time I got back to the hotel, it was time for Happy Hour! The group was meeting at Mercury’s (named after, yes, Freddy Mercury – a Zanzibar native) where we watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean and enjoyed a few Kilimanjaros. Afterwards it was out to dinner, though we had to walk through the Forodhani Gardens where there was an enormous outdoor food market, so Aaron and I sat patiently through dinner at the fancy restaurant and then ate cheaply at the food market. One thing we’ve learned time and time again is that street food will always be better than an expensive tourist restaurant, and our pizza pies for $2 proved that again.
Funny enough, we left the next day to head up to Nungwi Beach where we stayed at a little hotel directly next door to the Langi Langi Hotel we’d just come from. En route we had a half day spice tour where we got to try all the different spices that Zanzibar is famous for – ginger, pepper, lemongrass, and much, much more. Our guide also told us lots of information about what herbs and plants locals use for everyday remedies and we even got to try local lipstick from a smashed berry – not my color, but lovely nonetheless.
And then we were back on the beach – we felt right at home. And we were even able to talk our group into eating at LangiLangi each night – so we could get more of our shrimp coconut curry.
Since Aaron and I had done everything we’d wanted to do while at Nungwi the previous days, we spent the final day and a half relaxing on the beach – not a bad end to a week on Zanzibar.
And the best part? We didn’t have to do anything! Tanya told us what time to get up, a private driver drove us around the island, Tanya paid for our accommodation, and then got us on the ferry back to the mainland. It was soooo easy.
Our enthusiasm for our tour is pretty much based on how exhausted we were from doing it on our own, so we’re hoping that enthusiasm prevails for the next month on our way to Cape Town! Stay tuned to find out!
