Warere Town House Stone Town

... beautiful, the food is delicious, there's seafood everywhere, everything smells good, the flowers are so colorful and pretty, it's hot 24/7, the water is everywhere, everybody is nice and you're far away from the rest of the world. Sigh. i don't care if we don't go anywhere else for the rest of the trip, because it's soooooo awesome here. we're in stone town right now ...

... diver instructor who goes to the market every morning for fresh ingredients. It's so good and about $7 for an awesome meat-lovers pizza. <br>Today Zach and I took a local "dalladalla" (minibus) 10km down the road to a beach. Lonely Planet said it was the closest place to swim so we were expecting other tourists. Nope. So Zach loved it. It was just a bunch of fishmen and their little boats ...

... Zanzibar is most probably as justified as<br>one of the main reasons of visiting Tanzania as are Kilimanjaro<br>mountain, Serengeti and Ngorongoro. 90% of tourists visiting Tanzania<br>end their safari with few nights in this beautiful island. Deeply<br>immersed in the history of colonialization and slavery, rich Arabic and<br>Islamic culture, together with pristine beaches along the Indian Ocean<br ...

... to drive my camera manually and got a reasonable shot of the leopard spots.<br><br>A pride of 5 lions was witnessed with 2 of the cubs in a playful mood while mum and dad were contempt in staying put.<br><br>The next day we drove into the Ngorongoro Crater. A 6 am get up start meant a misty pea soup foggy drive down into the crater some 700 m below from where where we were camping overnight on the crater's rim. Yes, I started the morning wearing my beanie, 2 layers of merino and 2 ...

... guesthouse and being quite intrigued by Stone town, we decided to spend the remainder of our time there. I am so glad we did: we had such a lovely weekend! We got a bit of culture going to the House of Wonders museum (well worth the $3 entry). We watched the sunset sitting in the Mercury bar (Freddy Mercury was born on Zanzibar!). We listened to taraab music, ate at the night market (you have to try the sugar cane, lime and ginger juice, it is the most delicious drink I've ever ...

... there necks and shoulders were very soft. It was really cool. I didn't bring a camera, so no pictures. Sandi's mom had a catscan and they found that her tumors are half their original size. She also heard that her CEA levels (indirect measure of cancer's activity) dropped from 11,000 to 2,000 since starting chemo. This is very good news. She is also stopping one of her medications and she now has more energy. Thanks for the good wishes everyone!

After getting back from Nungwi we did a one day trip to Prison Island. Juma, a local fisherman, took us out in his boat to the island, which is only a 30 minutes boat ride from Stone Town. It is called Prison Island because a prison was built on it in 1893 for the purpose to house Zanzibar's criminals. However it has actually never been used for this purpose, but ...

... a bit, and not to be camping! It was also a real bonus to get our washing done and have some clean clothes at long last! The ferry ride back to Dar was probably the most eventful part of the time on Zanzibar. We were only about 5 minutes out of the harbour when the crew came around handing out sick bags, a hint of what was to come! I was told the swells were only 1-2 mtrs, but they were coming on an angle at the boat so ...

... one in the group. But now, 6 weeks later, I could talk with the best of the travellers. I now had my share of experiences to share. The night was pretty quiet. I watched the Italy France soccer match at the guesthouse next door. Kendwa isn't the party area of Zanzibar (except during the monthly Full Moon party) but it has the nicest beach. Tomorrow I am going to Stone Town. I will spend a few days there and return to Kendwa for the Full Moon Party.

... br> lees of zie, doet het me weer veel. Zo ook hier weer, opnieuw lezen dat <br> families gewoon uit elkaar getrokken werden en apart verkocht. <br><br> <br><br> En die cellen... echt onmenselijk. Met z'n 50-en hutje-mutje in een ruimte <br> waar je net kan zitten, maar eigenlijk misschien met maximaal 20 man. <br> Dus wie er stierf door verstikking of uitdroging, werd de zee in gegooid. <br> <br><br ...