Manta Reef Lodge Pemba Island

Hey,
Just a quick update from Zanzibar. It is great here! What an interesting place. I went on a tour of a spice plantation because afterall Zanzibar is the spice island. Have you ever wondered where cinnamon or cloves come from? Well, now I know :) I have a couple more days on the island and then I'll be flying to Nairobi and then to Kisumu for the water project. I am now going to try to put up a few more pictures.

... minutes, "cus they're too old and fat" (their words).

So I sat out dive two (that's how I know so much about Mohammed's family tree) and we went back for the typical massive buffet lunch which always had elements of indian food.

Maxine, the dive instructor from South Africa, was now back on the island and I had my first pool diving session ever. It felt like the fall of the mighty but you know what? It did the trick. I headed out with the grumpy geezers for dive 3 of the day ...

... only eaten chilli cassava crisps picked up at Zanzibar airport only that day).... re-arranging the beds to give maximum distance between myself and Echalottes snoring....

THe next 5 days of diving were INCREDIBLE. Wade, our dive master, is a LOVELY guy who, me being a girl, was my father figure under the water as I found my fins after 3 years off and learnt to love going from beautiful 14m coral beds to abyss drops down sea walls of coral, learning to listen ...

... via Zanzibar where we weren't allowed off on the 2 hour stopover - a testing situation as Pemba island is very Muslim and un-touristy and hence has practically no alcohol!. This is probably for the best as the catamaran back was very choppy and about half the passengers were throwing up.

Dar is a busy old city but the stories of this and our journey to Lilongwe will have to wait as we are being thrown out of the internet cafe.

Hope you are all well

A&L xx

We left Kendwa beach on Monday morning with the plan of making train reservations in Stonetown and then flying to Tanga. However our plans were altered. We went in the morning to the Riverman Hotel, which the Lonely Planet says can make train reservations for the Tazara train. Unfortunetly the man who makes the reservations was not available until 5pm, 3 hours after the only plane to Tanga leaves. So we had two options, we could ...

... because he spied another lion. As
he walked to where the other lion was (which we couldn't see) he
roared. It was awesome. The female lions and the babys were like 100
feet away from us, sitting up and the cubs were playing with eachother.
We watched the male lion for another 20 minutes, he ran to a bunch of
wildebeests and zebras and tried to catch one but no luck. Then we
drove down the road back to the lodge for breakfast (at 8 am), when we
came ...

In Zanzibar where the weather is balmy, beautiful and warm (sorry, ya'll, I don't miss the subzero temps). Palm trees and the Indian Ocean are right on my doorstep today and I am looking forward to a bit of a holiday. There's a big Indian influence here so last night's dinner was heavy on the Masala. My ...

... no more daladalas) and we hopped on. The town of Chake Chake is small, but homely and cute. We met some Canadians and Brits, as well as a New Zealander coming from working a 2 year stint in Uganda. Together we decided to hire a boat to the small island of Misali for a day of laying on the beach and snorkling. Man, paradise is an understatement. White beaches, reclining chairs, a really incredible coral reef with fish to boot, this was the ...

... party. It was totally fun and I danced to reggae all night with a bunch of African rastas!!! I could have swore that I was back in Jamaica, except for the fact that there weren't many women out. I think that the muslim women aren't allowed out, and there aren't many rasta women here. I met a young univerity student the other day namend Mohammed and we sat and talked for hours. He told me all about the muslim customs ( wife purchasing, the importance of ...

... We have plenty of pictures but will not download them now because it would take too much time. People here are great, especially the children. They are amazed at our white skin and feel sorry for us, most of them think we are sick with a fever. Almost all of them come running up to us waving and saying ...jambo mzungu, which means hello white person. We'll be back on Saturday with plenty of pictures and stories. We're safe and having a great time! Love, Linda and Scott