10 Days in Zanzibar: giant tortoises love collards

Day 8, Wednesday

Breakfast:
Kochuri, more "beef fighter" (see the post from Day 7), ratatouille, bananas cooked in a creamy cardamom sauce (yum!), dates, yoghurt, coffee w/ milk, some kind of bran muffin, mini bananas, sweet donut hole w/ honey and cardamom

As you can see there is a LOT of food made available for sampling.

The hotel booked us a snorkeling trip to Changuu Island (also called Prison Island) when they booked yesterday's spice tour. Another stout barefoot man arrived to pick us up, and we followed him the few blocks to the beach. We waited in a little shack that served as both boat repair shop and snorkel equipment storage and rental station. Our escort gave us snorkels and fins to try on and then disappeared. While we waited for him to return, another group arrived and tried on snorkels and fins of their own. They quickly boarded a dhow and set sail. There were at least 8 people in their group, but it looked like Nate and I would have the ship and crew to ourselves again. Soon, though, our escort returned with two additional people who would be on our trip with us. Fortunately, they were a brother and sister who had been on our spice tour yesterday! They were Chilean-born Norwegians, about our age, who were on vacation. The sister was very outgoing and spoke excellent English. The brother was petite and shy.

We soon boarded the dhow and had a very pleasant sail to the island. Our escort, who would also be our captain, finally introduced himself as Ali. He had a mate, too; a quiet man who clearly has spent his life at sea.

We toured the island and its sanctuary of giant tortoises. We fed them cassava leaves, which look just like collards. The former prison grounds are now a super-exclusive resort.

After feeding the tortoises we went back to the boat to snorkle. The Chileans decided not to go. While we were suiting up I found a strange spine-like bone on the beach. I showed it to Ali who quickly broke it with his teeth to make sure no one would step on it and get a puncture wound. The water was extremely rough, which made the snorkeling difficult and the water cloudy with stirred-up sand. The boat was parked pretty close to the reef, too, which made for some very close calls! We called it quits after only about 20 minutes and went to lounge on the beach until time to return to Stonetown.

starfish

Changuu pier

The trip back was difficult because the water was REALLY rough. More on this tomorrow.

We disembarked, said farewell to the Chileans, and walked north along the beach until we got a little lost. Eventually we found our way back to a recognizable part of Stonetown and decided to find a lunch spot. We stumbled on the Silk Road Restaurant, which we recognized from one of our guide books. We'd heard good things so we decided it would work. The restaurant is located on the top floor, is mostly open-air, and has fantastic views of the city and the water beyond.

Lunch:
Ndovu beer, appetizer of flatbread w/ crudités, mint sauce, mango chutney (spicy and vinegary w/ the peel still on), and a sweet dark thin sauce of unknown name. Nate ordered Murg mirch tikka, which is a tandoori chicken marinated in a chili paste - it came with fries. I ordered fish tindaloo. According to the menu, tindaloo is big in Bollywood. We thought this was pertinent information to include in the menu.

view from Silk Road

After lunch we wandered in town a bit more and then returned to the hotel to dress for supper. I wore a full-length yellow dress with a long black cardigan, gold strappy sandals, and dangly earrings (this is my favorite outfit so far).

Supper:

House white wine (goiya?); appetizers of pumpkin soup w/ cardamom and calimari in a passion fruit sauce; main courses: I ordered ratatouille, mango chutney w/ red onion, chapati, fried potatoes, and spinach in coconut sauce; Nate had grilled snapper (turns out that's Changuu), beef stew, rice, stewed bananas in coconut sauce



our apologies to the chef - the photos don't do the meal justice

For dessert we shared halua, which we had been hoping to try on this trip. Halua is a dense, gelatinous confection made with a grain flour such as semolina.

We wrapped up the evening with beers at the Sunrise Cafe, which we declared to be our favorite bar of the trip. We were so exhausted that we could barely keep eyes open.

you know you love the cheetah-print label

10 Days in Zanzibar: spicy!

Day 7, Tuesday

Breakfast:
Mango (not nearly as good as the mango we had in Fumba - read: we're officially spoiled), a new kind of triangular andazi that was spiced and far less greasy than any of the previous ones, beef fajita (mis-spelled "beef fighter" on the buffet sign) with baked beans and flat sponge bread, mini bananas, coffee with milk, and a croissant

After breakfast we went to the lobby where we met a tour guide who would be taking us to a spice plantation outside of the city. He didn't introduce himself to us (the desk clerk simply told us to go with him) and he walked very briskly through the streets of Stonetown - barefoot, by the way - until we reached a very compact little van full of other western tourists, most of whom were our age or younger. We piled in, quickly identifying who among our companions were interested in making friends for the day. The van made two additional stops - one to pick up more tourists and one for gas - before beginning the 30-minute drive to the plantation. The driver never identified himself. Along the way we mostly chatted with a cute British girl who was studying water infrastructure as part of an internship for a global engineering firm.

Once we arrived at the plantation we were greeted by an energetic and well-spoken guide who flooded our brains with some much horticulture it made our heads spin. It was difficult to take notes and keep up, so please forgive us for publishing a basic list: 

turmeric

rambutan, or shoki-shoki - akin to the lychee

unripe rambutan presented by our guide

rice (we think??)

ginger root cut straight from the plant - VERY pungent!

cassava (or yucca) and sweet potato field - cassava leaves are boiled and eaten like collards, cassava is like a potato: used to make chips and ugali, though corn based ugali is more popular on Zanzibar vs cassava on Pemba

annato - strong color but little flavor - used mostly for dyes, it's the color in tandoori

annato in the pod - incredible color, right?!?!

elephant apple - used in hair gel

cocoa - hard outer shell, the inner core is made up of white gelatinous seeds that have a citrusy flavor and are used to make cocoa butter; they hide the dark inner core that is used to make cocoa

cloves (caracul in Swahili?) out of season in July, 90% grown on Pemba, export controlled by the govt

vanilla - grown in a raised bed covered with coconut leaves and husks b/c the root system is shallow

also (not pictured):

-Lemongrass

-Cinnamon: taken from the bark, which grows back in 2 weeks. The leaves are also boiled with porridge. Cinnamon root can be used like menthol: boil it and put it under a blanket with the sick person.
-Coffee
-Starfruit or carambol
-Cayenne Chili pepper, stays red when dried
-Cardamom
-Breadfruit, which we learned is known here as a Zanzibar apple (not yet ripe)
-Peppercorn, used for white and black pepper, also red and green Soursoap, used for juice and ice cream


Nutmeg: the outer fleshy white-ish fruit is used for marmalade; the red veiny membrane around the nut is used for mace

After the tour, we bought some spices to bring home and share with our families. Our favorite was a little plastic envelope of dried red chili peppers with a label that warned not to put them in your "sense organ." We'll be giving that to Landon.

A group of children were playing outside where the tour bus was parked. One was wearing an Auburn University t-shirt.

The best part of the tour was lunch! We sat on the floor of a covered open-air hut and shared bowls of rice, spinach, and potatoes cooked in spices from the plantation. Everything was absolutely delicious and we loved passing plates around with the other tourists and chatting. Some of the children eventually came into the hut hoping to relieve us of any leftovers (they were successful).

Lunch:
Rice boiled with cardamom, cinnamon, and other spices (there were large pieces of cinnamon bark in it), spinach with coconut milk (this was my favorite), and potatoes in a turmeric sauce, which was mostly flavored by the whole peppercorns in it - we were told the turmeric is really just for color

After lunch we were all taken to a beach, where we were told we could pay one dollar each to see a cave. Nate and I wanted to go but we didn't have a small enough bill and they couldn't make change. Later the tourists who did go told us wasn't worth it so apparently we lucked out. The beach was small, rocky, dirty, and littered with dead fish bait and some interesting abandoned fishing boats.

We returned to town, went to the room to relax and clean up a bit, then made a stop at an ATM and browsed through a book store and a couple of tourist shops. Back at the Dhow palace we lounged by the pool before gearing up to try out the Forodhani Gardens.

making shwarma

Zanzibari pizza

Forodhani Gardens

Nate enjoying his shwarma

Supper:
Shwarma with chicken, yogurt, and chilli sauce; Zanzibar "pizza" with beef, mayo, finely diced red onion, tomato, and scrambled egg; a tuna kebab that we each took one bite of and then tossed, some kind of soup with a thick delicious broth

10 Days in Zanzibar: moja, mbili, tatu

Day 6, Monday

We woke early and decided to explore the south side of the resort. Along our walk we saw lots of monkeys starting their day, too. Soon we stumbled on an area called Siri Beach. It was so peaceful and beautiful in the early light.

some videos with more goofy commentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCpUIogLxRg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj9hhD4uH8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnDskXye8-o

Breakfast:
Coffee w/ milk; poached eggs w/ toast and grilled tomato and zucchini; dates, mango, yogurt, toasted cashews; raisin bread w/ a spiced marmalade; some kind of yummy little walnut bread muffin; half of a very tart passion fruit; two shoki-shoki; and a small flaky turnover sprinkled with sugar - whew!

Side note: salt, pepper, and sugar are served in small wooden pots without spoons.

I guess the wedding diet is officially behind me! I want to try absolutely everything I can while I'm here. The fruits are by far my favorite - probably b/c they are the most "local" food we've encountered. Even though the resort food tends to cater toward western tourists, much of it is still foreign to Americans.

After breakfast we finished packing, checked out, and went to lounge by the pool for one last hour before our taxi arrived. We read a little about Stone Town and discussed the things we'd like to do there. There is a LOT to see and do there! I was excited to go to Stonetown but also a little sad because I knew it would be the last leg of the honeymoon.

The cab ride to Stonetown was similar to the previous rides. The roads are busy busy busy with travelers and commerce.

We arrived in Stonetown and our hotel, the Dhow Palace. Our room is on the third floor, which is accessible only by a grand staircase. It's an old building (built by Sheikh Mushin bin Mujbia in 1559) that has had many owners and many uses from private palace to office building to apartment building to hotel. We checked in and asked the concierge to make us some reservations for the following morning, then went to see our room and explore the hotel a little.

The hotel is across the street from a landmark, the Africa House, which we'd read about in one of the guide books. It's a hotel with a well-known expat rooftop bar, so we changed and headed over there for drinks. Back to conservative clothes now that we're in Stonetown. I wore a full-length linen skirt with a white v-neck and my now well-worn black flip-flops. At the Africa House, I had a Tusker; he had a house white. It was HOT up there on the roof, but the view of the water was worth it!

After the drinks we decided to wander around town a little to get the lay of the land. Nate wanted to stop at an exchange to get some cash in the local currency (even though american dollars had been fairly widely accepted he felt it would be a good idea to have both - and he was right). We waited in line until a teller called us, then Nate tried to speak Swahili to ask for the exchange. When he spoke, the teller and several others around her smiled and laughed - they loved hearing a tourist try to speak their language! The teller finished the transaction in English ;)

We continued wandering for another half an hour, finally stopping for lunch at a place called Clove Garden. It is all outdoor seating on a terrace that is a few feet above street level. The food is cooked in a shed-like structure with a bar counter. The "toilet" just a hole in the ground. We had read about this restaurant in one of the guide books, and it got great reviews (especially for "real" Swahili dishes) so we decided to give it a try. While we waited for our orders, Nate gave me a lesson in Swahili numbers.

1. Moja
2. Mbili
3. Tatu
4. Nne
5. Tano
6. Sita
7. Saba
8. Nane
9. Tisa
10. Kumi

Our order took a very very long time, but it was worth it.

Lunch:
Green bananas (very much like potatoes in both texture and flavor) in a savory brown sauce, vegetable curry, and a chai tangawizi (ginger tea)

After lunch we continued our blind wandering, checking out the various neighborhoods and getting lost. At one point we found ourselves in a large market full of tons of fruits and vegetables, large squid in heaps on the ground, and some fish and other meats. It was lively even though it was clearly the end of the selling day. Many of the merchants were packing up their stalls. There wasn't much seafood left for sale and what was left was pretty picked over. I was too embarrassed to take any photos - didn't want to seem like I was gawking. I wanted to keep wandering to see if I could find a breadfruit, but Nate was uncomfortable with the crowds so we pushed on.

We wandered back in the direction we thought felt right, hoping to make our way toward the House of Wonders. It wasn't difficult to find. Most of the streets are very very narrow with 3- to 4-story buildings on either side. The House of Wonders, though, sits in front of a large open green space looking over a plaza and the ocean.

The House of Wonders is several stories, each with a variety of exhibits on the history of Zanzibar and Swahili culture - music, clothing, pottery, weaponry, and (my favorite) cuisine. There is a large atrium in the center with a full rebuilt dhow on display. The upper floors featured displays of recreated kitchens and bedrooms. One room exhibited kangas, a popular printed cloth worn by Swahili women. These featured political slogans and proverbs.

The top floor is a library with a beautiful wraparound porch on all sides. The view was stunning, but truth be told the structure didn't exactly seem sound. It was scary and we didn't fully trust it. We snapped a few photos and hurried back down to the ground floor!

Side note: the men's pill cap I described on the ferry ride is called a Kofia. Thanks, House of Wonders!

After the House of Wonders, more wandering (I love wondering). We saw a female car driver for the first time! We tried some skewered chicken (we think) from a street vendor. It was actually a little bland despite the spicy-looking sauce all over it. We didn't know what to do with the skewer after we finished b/c there aren't public trash cans like there are in the US.

We had hoped to have supper at The Livingstone, another well-known expat hangout, but it was closed for the summer, so we went to have supper at the Africa House instead. The restaurant is different from the bar we visited earlier in the day. Much of the restaurant is indoors in a series of elaborately decorated rooms with painted ceilings, much like a European palace. We were seated on a small outdoor terrace overlooking the waterfront along with two other couples. From about 6:40 - 7 there was an island-wide power outage. As I mentioned in the first post, the sun sets pretty early here so it was truly a candle-lit dinner! We could barely see what we were eating, but it was tasty!

Supper:
Tusker, salad of prawns and mango