Prison Island and Giant Turtoise

Trip Start Aug 15, 2008
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Trip End Dec 16, 2008


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Flag of Tanzania  ,
Monday, September 22, 2008

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 was instead used for the quarantine of ships and cargo. 

Turtle love
Turtle love
 Prison Island also has a giant tortoise sanctuary. They used to roam freely around the island, but they now all live in a  protected enclosure. They are HUGE!!! and many years old. We were allowed to walk amongst them and feed them. Amazing the speed they possess as soon as they find out you have food in your hands. Also if you scratch them on the neck, where they obviously can not scratch themselves, they stand up and stretch their necks as far as they can. Very funny.

What's up dude?
What's up dude?
 After seeing the tortoises and a quick walk around in the prison, which is now a restaurant and hotel, we had a packed lunch on the beach. After lunch we did some snorkeling around the reef and spent some time on the beach.

Once we got back to our huts we went to visit Bente and her husband Sulli. Bente had invited us for a traditional Swahili dinner, which was really really nice. We had banana, vegetable, and beef stew and spinach in coconut sauce with sweet potatoes for dessert. We spent all night talking and it was quite late before we made it back to the huts.
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