Our flight from Moshi to the island of Zanzibar, formerly an important trading post bridging Africa and the Middle East, was just over an hour long.
We spent a couple of quiet days on the beach, still recuperating from the Kilimanjaro climb. Since I was the only one of us who wasn’t going back to the land of washing machines in a few of days, I bought some detergent, grabbed a couple of buckets, and washed my foul smelling clothes from the Kilimanjaro hike. Viraj was excited to see me do laundry like a pioneer, but I pointed out that I had learned how to bucket wash when I lived in Uzbekistan, so I think he was a little disappointed that it wasn’t a messier fiasco. I can’t begin to tell you how gray and brown the water was when I dumped out the buckets! By the next morning, my clothes were dry and smelled like soap and sunshine!
We traveled to Stone Town where we met up with a family friend of Shailey’s. He was extremely generous with his time and gave us a private tour of Stone Town, the island’s main hub.
I hadn’t been very impressed with crowded, dusty Stone Town upon our arrival, but walking down the narrow alleyways and little back streets, I changed my tune. We explored parts of town that I probably wouldn’t have seen on my own, mostly for fear of getting completely turned around in the breathing labyrinth. Kids played soccer in the streets, motorcycles buzzed past us, store owners coaxed us to enter their souvenir shops.
As the name suggests, most of the buildings were originally built out of stone.
Stone Town’s architecture reminded me a bit of Marrakesch’s. The buildings with balconies were historically built by Christian or Hindu families and Muslims typically inhabited those without balconies so the women would remain unseen by the outside world. Many of the doors were decorated in ornate carvings.
It was the afternoon, so the food market was pretty quiet, but it wasn’t hard to imagine the chaos that must take place every morning as locals come to do their grocery shopping.
Fresh coconut milk!
I don’t know much about photography, but I was impressed by the contrast of sunlight and shadow, so I started to snap away in black and white.
For sunset, we headed to Africa House. It was a cloudy evening, but it was wonderful to see so much activity in the park below and to watch the dhows sailing past.
