An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Another night cocooned within our netting, waking periodically not knowing just where we were. One of us was quite glad to be within four walls, listening to only the white noise of the ac; one of us really misses the tent/outdoors life. We breakfasted at the terrace dining room where, thankfully, it was not quite as hot as last night (or maybe we’re getting more used to it) Milton then went to the office to try some emailing. AOL’s local access # in Dar es Salaam (yes, they really have one) was of no use - as these oddball ones rarely are - so we paid the $8/minute and logged on in New York to send out our backlog. Unfortunately, the whole process took so long that we only could download a few incoming emails before exceeding our entire per diem spending allowance, so we logged off and figured we’ll catch up in Nairobi on Tuesday.
It was then time for our morning tour of the old Stone Town. We were driven into town where we picked up our guide Rasheed. First stop was the museums of local history and natural history. The former was an eclectic collection of Zanzibar historical artifacts and pictures; the latter was a tired-looking assemblage of preserved specimens of local creatures (monkeys, butterflies, bushbabies (so named because their cry is eerily baby-like), fish, etc.), including an old tortoise the size of a linebacker in the backyard. (there had been several turtles living there, but the rest had evidently been stolen)
Next, we went to the old slave auction house. The Arabs who ruled Zanzibar ran the slave trade in Eastern Africa in the mid 1800s before it was abolished by Queen Victoria in 1873; we saw the conditions where the slaves were kept and it looked like the Nazis had gotten some of their ideas from here. Next door was a large Anglican church (though only about 2% of the population here is Christian) built in 1873. It is a pretty stone structure, but as services were going on, we could only peek in for a few seconds. Two interesting facts: the marble pillars in the front are upside-down, since the Bishop overseeing construction was away when they arrived and were installed; and the cross in the front is carved from the tree that David Livingstone’s heart is buried under in Zambia (his body is in Westminster Abbey, but his heart remained (literally) in his beloved Africa). Livingstone is quite a revered figure throughout almost all of Africa that we’ve visited, with monuments to seemingly every structure he slept in, occupied, or looked at.
We then spent the next hour or so walking the old Stone Town. The island (which seems to be quasi- independent, sort of like Puerto Rico) has a history of being ruled by the Persian, Portuguese, Arab, English and African, but it is the Arab influence that seems to have remained. The population is 98% muslum, and the architecture is primarily Arab. The old town has winding, narrow streets (inaccessable to cars), and reminded us very much of Morocco, though on a smaller scale. We browsed some shops, but they had pretty crappy offerings. (plus, it was mostly arabian stuff — who wants that as a memory of Africa?!) We also saw the Old Fort, a Portuguese stone fortress that is now a large open-air amphitheater. By then, we were really sweltering and schvitzing, so we reboarded the non-air-conditioned van and saw a few more sights from out the windows, before being dropped back at the hotel.
We spent the afternoon with the weird and wonderful Whittle at her Holistic Health Centre, getting a little shiatsu, some essential oils, and basically recovering from countless hours of being bounced around in Land Rovers. We then relaxed in the room, enjoying the sunset over the royal blue Indian Ocean. Though it is not really allowed, we sweet-talked the nice waitress into bringing us dinner in our room. As they were a bit short-staffed this evening, Pia the chef (from Denmark) assisted our favorite waitress in bringing us our dinner. Dinner was as excellent as last night — cream of garlic soup, crab salad, roast chicken, and seafood in a creamy curry sauce with rice, plus the two local beers. It was like the EJ’s of Zanzibar. . .
That did it for us for the night, and we shortly crawled back inside our netting.