Zanzibar!

As SJ mentioned in the last post, we spent this past week on the island of Zanzibar in the country of Tanzania. It was most certainly an adventurous and relaxing time.

We arrived on the island Monday afternoon and were greeted by 34-degree heat and what seemed like 100% humidity. Waiting for us outside the airport doors were two Tanzanian gentlemen holding a sign that read “Coral Rock Hotel”, which was to be our home for the week. They led us to our transport which was nothing special, an unmarked 4x4 SUV. We loaded our gear, hopped in and were off on our hour drive clear across the island (east to west). We first passed through Stone Town, the capital of Zanzibar. This “city” was busy with people shopping, working and just hanging out and is apparently the birthplace of Queen’s former front man Freddie Mercury. Zanzibar by the way is a very remote and underdeveloped island whose main industry is tourism and fishing. Zanzibar also is an island without power. Lanterns and generators are widely used and therefore, needless to say, the people and businesses go through a heap of petrol (gasoline). So…on our way through Stone Town we stopped a very random, run-down gas station and picked up 8 large jerry cans full of petrol. This made our hour drive across the island less enjoyable.

Our hotel was located on the Southwest coast in the remote village of Jambiani. There was actually very little separating our hotel from the village itself, which made for a neat experience. We had a little beach bungalow overlooking the beach, which unfortunately due to a recent storm was covered in seaweed, and the beautiful Indian Ocean. The ocean was brilliantly blue in color and crystal clear. At around noon everyday the tide would go out about a kilometer creating a very large beachfront full of little pools and coral to explore. These pools were home to many tiny fish, crabs and starfish. At around 4 in the afternoon the tide would make its way back in, until noon the next day, right up to our front door.

During our stay we explored the beach, snorkeled in a little channel, did a lot of relaxing and reading and embarked on a dolphin tour. The dolphin tour was located on the island’s most southern tip, about a half hour drive from our hotel. At 5:30 in the morning one day, before the sun rose, we made our way to Kizimkazi. When we arrived at the beach we experience a scene right out of Jesus’ day. Coming into shore were dozens of large, rustic wooden sailboats, which had been fishing all night and were eager to show off and sell their catches. The beach was lined with tuna, marlin, kingfish, eels, manta rays, barracuda and even the odd shark. It was quite a scene. After each grabbing a pair of flippers, a mask and snorkel, Sarah and I made our way to our very our rustic wooden boat and were off to find some dolphins. Now in comparison to the vastness of the ocean you would think that finding a very specific mammal would be almost impossible, and SJ and I even began to think that this trip was simply going to amount to an expensive boat ride. But after searching for about 30 minutes we had our first dolphin sighting. At that moment our “captain” and his “first mate” were shouting at us (nicely) to get our gear on and get ready to jump in. This chasing and jumping in was abrupt news to us, but I was not going to miss out on jumping into a school of dolphins. Sarah opted out of the first go but was ready and eager on the next one. So…I quickly geared up and before I knew it we were along side the school of dolphins and I was jumping overboard. Once I hit the water I began to swim as hard as I could in the direction of the dolphins. As the whitewater from my not so eloquent dive and the boat passed, I could roughly see about 25 dolphins underneath me. It was an exhilarating sight. Now clearly I could not keep up with the school so I surfaced and was picked up by our boat only to repeat the process 3 more times with SJ by my side. It was quite an experience.

After a wonderful getaway we made our way back “home” to Uganda on Friday. Saturday was the 24th birthday of yours truly and I had an absolutely wonderful day planned by a wonderful wife. I awoke to a pancake breakfast and the gift of a new iPod Touch. I was very surprised. I have a very sneaky wife. In the afternoon we had George, from the babies home, over and had a fantastic time. We played, decorated birthday cookies and had supper. It was fun to have George over, check out the pics on Facebook. The evening ended with Sarah, Susy, Beth and I watching the new “Sherlock Holmes” movie. What a great day!

I have written far too much and if you have read this far your eyes probably hurt…so until next week.