Z is for Zanzibar

Nicole predicted 9 months ago that we would be totally exhausted at the end of our Safari. In fact, while I was trying to tack on more days in Rwanda, or Botswana, she put her foot down and suggested a five day, do-nothing-at-a-beach trip would be necessary. She was dead right.

The five nights following our Safari were spent doing more or less nothing in a remote beach town in Zanzibar called Paje in a beach bungalow called Ndame Beach Lodge. It's not exactly my style, but by the third day, I grew to appreciate the time out.

We pretty much sat under the left umbrella for four days.

Paje is on the East coast of the island of Zanzibar overlooking thousands of miles of endless Indian Ocean. It is protected by a reef about one mile offshore, and is subject to a huge change in tide. Between the reef and the line of make shift lodges lies a super flat expanse of perfectly white sand beach. We know it is a mile to the reef, because during low tide, you can walk most of the way without getting wet, and the rest you are only waste deep as you tip toe thru urchins and star fish. At high tide, the water is no more than 20ft from the lodge. Given the twice tolling of tide changes in a day, it was constantly changing and a bit awe-inspiring. Our days, except one, pretty much consisted of sitting in beach chairs and watching it unfold, while the boys either collected shells and hermit crabs when the tide was out, or body surfed when the tide was in.

Sunrise... We're facing East...

Low Tide

Low Tide

High Tide

Reef. 1 mile straight out from our Lodge. The walk was long, and a bit treacherous. 

Bryce wasn't afraid of picking up some of the sea life.

This was our umbrella for four days.

The tire magically appeared on the beach one morning. Made for hours of fun.

I'm thinking about making some of these when we get back home.

1 foot of water for 1/2 mile!

We were in a shoulder season, so we pretty much had the entire beach to ourselves but for a handful of other lonely souls, the house dogs and cats, and a few groups just passing through. We befriended a splendid old chap from Bristol named Vic, retired and wandering the world to find remote coastal getaways.

Vic

It wasn't all paradise though. We're not exactly tropical folk, so the room without AC and only ceiling fans took some getting used to. Add to that, our room bordered the neighboring lodge which apparently hosts a beach bash to the wee hours of the morning on Friday night (our first night). This was the first time we strongly considered a change in lodging, but we decided to give it one more night. While it still wasn't exactly what we were expecting, we stuck it out, which was a good thing. The only other blip in paradise were the beach boys - not the Surfin' Safari dudes, but these super annoying people that walk up and down the beach dressed as Maasai (but with gaudy sunglasses, designer sandals, and man purses) trying to be your best friend to sell you trinkity crap. They backed off when Nicole told them about the two days we spent with real Maasai and Bushmen...

We extracted ourselves from our beach chairs for one day to travel to the opposite side of the island to visit Stonetown, the original town and once thriving trading center. Given it's location, Zanzibar was the clearing house of all manner of trade, including, most regrettably, the slaves. It is also a very eclectic town that marries many different cultures and religions. After a walk through the market place, we hopped on a Dhow boat (traditional fishing vessel) and motored over to Prison Island, once a quarantine facility for people with yellow fever and malaria, but now the home of 100 Giant Tortoise. One of the tortoise is 192yrs old!

Central Fish Market. Let's hope the cooking process will address the sanitary conditions.

The streets of Stonetown are narrow, only really allowing for Mopeds.

Our guide Yousef talking about the numerous Zanzibar doors. Borrowing from Persion and Indian customs.

View through the front end of our dhow.

192 years old!

Tortoise jam.

I Should have charged a portage fee.

Some rules are meant to be broken.

A new Chapter, Cape Town...
We are just over three months now on our journey around the world. So far, our longest stay at any one place has been six nights. As we kick off the second quarter, we've decided to pump the brakes a little, and we will be squatting in Cape Town for four weeks. It's our chance to fully unpack, put our luggage away, and live "normally" for a while. We'll take stock of our gear, recharge our batteries, get caught up on school work, and look a little further in to the future.

Our view for the next four weeks. Feels like being in Yosemite Valley, but with a white sand beach at the end. 

Tanzania for Autumn

I took A LOT of pictures. To make the process of showing them all to you shorter, I have created google photos albums of each day of the safari and each day of Zanzibar. I take a lot of photos, just a warning. You do not, in any way, have to look at all of them. ALL of the photos are mine, shot with either my Nexus 6p smartphone or my Cyber Shot Sony Compact Camera. I hope you enjoy the photos!

The links for each album are below (in chronological order from the end of the trip to the beginning):

Zanzibar

End of Trip Culture Day

My Birthday in the Ngorongoro Crater

Serengeti Day 2

Serengeti Day 1

Driving from Manyara to Serengeti

Lake Manyara

Mto Wa Mbu+Masai Village

Tarangire Day 2

Tarangire Day 1

Arusha

Now, those are just pictures. I've been told many times that y'all love hearing my thoughts. So....here goes.

I have a list of things that I am now more grateful for than ever. Mom and Dad have shown me and told me how lucky I am since I was born, and so I thought I already knew how lucky I was. I was completely aware of other people on Earth that have less than me, and I felt bad for them, and I was grateful for what I had-to a certain level. This Tanzania trip has taken my gratuity to another level, a level an infinite amount of times higher. No one who hasn't been to an impoverished place in Africa (or any other 3rd world country for that matter) will EVER truly understand how lucky they are. I sure didn't. (Sorry for the complicated and confusing sentence, what I'm trying to say is hard to put in words)

Some of these things might seem silly, but I am truly forever grateful:

Seedless fruit (oranges, watermelon)
A clean place to live
Good infrastructure
Bakeries
French's yellow mustard
Books
Good public school
Being able to brush teeth with the tap/uncontaminated tap water
Wood or stone or linoleum flooring
Parks
Musical instruments (piano, flute, etc.)
Fresh fruit
Clean clothes/being able to afford new ones
Shoes that always fit
The ability to feel safe at night
A mattress
Tender meat

 And so so so many other things, but I bet you're getting bored by now, so I'll stop.

 I think that the African people are beautiful (So does my mom). Their braids and twists are so intricate and pretty, and they are all unique. So many colors of clothing go with their skin tone, and their features (eyes, lips, body shape) are beautiful as well. They also have amazing voices and rhythm (I got to experience this the multiple times when they sang for me for my birthday :)  ). Both my mom and I agree that we completely do not understand how people are racist. The African culture is amazing, friendly, and just...beautiful.

 During security at the Zanzibar airport, my piccolo almost got taken away. I kind of had a mental breakdown after the fact that that was possible, even though I eventually got to take it on the plane. The reason for this is because I love my piccolo. It allows me to be able to have a chance at doing marching band in high school, it reminds me of Grandma and Grandpa back at home, and it reminds me of all of the band people (especially Lizzy, Ella, Rachel, Lydia, Emmy, Analise, Molly, and Julie) (Hi guys!) back at home. It's one of the only extracurricular activities I do that I could take with me on this trip.

 I don't really know what other thoughts to share...hmmmmmmm....if any of you reading this have any questions to ask me, feel free to ask! (about how I felt, how I thought about something, how a condition actually was etc.)