One thing we did not want to do was drive into Dar Es Salaam. Guess what we ended up doing? We had a couple of extra days, so we decide to fly over to Zanzibar. Our dilemma was what to do with our Rav4, filled with all of our camping equipment and personal belongings. We ended up booking a room at The Triniti Airport Hotel. It was a great hotel near the airport with friendly staff, secure parking, and airport shuttle service. We booked a room for 4 nights even though we were only going to stay for 2 nights. For a total of $152.00, we had a room we used for 2 nights and a safe place to park our car in Dar Es Salaam while we were in Zanzibar. A real win, win for us!
The flight was 30 minutes and there were only about 18 people on the plane. We arranged for our hotel to pick us up at the airport.
We arrived at the Best Western Plus Hotel in Stone Town, and went to the top floor to have lunch.
Our hotel was right across from the Zanzibar Ferry Terminal and two ferries came in while we were waiting for our lunch. It was very interesting to see everything going on with the arrival of the two ferries.
Later we went out exploring the town. The style and the condition of the buildings in Stone Town reminded us of Havana, Cuba. Stone Town has newer cars than Havana and lots of narrow alleyways which make it easy to get lost. Getting lost can be a good thing sometimes!
We went to Freddie Mercury’s house from the rock band Queen. This is where he lived when his family lived in Zanzibar. There is a sign above the door and some pictures of him on each side of the door. With us being Queen fans we had to go by his house. As it turns out, where his house was located we actually ended up walking past it many times during our stay.
Walking around Stone Town there are many interesting shops.
There were many alleyways to explore.
Wandering around, we found lots of elaborate doors from the past.
Notice how they lock these antique doors.
In the evening at a park down by the water, street vendors set up their booths to sell Zanzibar pizzas, seafood, and shawarma. We wanted to try the Zanzibar pizza. We walked around, and checked out all the booths before we decided on Mr. Nutella‘s booth. We wanted a dessert pizza. We ordered his banana, Snickers, and Nutella pizza. Zanzibar Pizza is not your typical pizza. They take a ball of dough, then roll it thin into about an 8 inch circle and grill it on each side. Then they put the filling inside the middle of the circle. They put a smaller round piece of dough on top and fold the sides to make a square.
They grill the Zanzibar Pizza on both sides, cut it into pieces and serve it on a plate with a toothpick. It was really good!
As we ate our Zanzibar pizza, we watched the kids jumping off the pier and swimming in the ocean. It was a very enjoyable evening.
The next morning we had breakfast and wandered through the tiny alleys and finally made it to the Former Slave Market. To get there we did make many wrong turns.
We hired a guide at the Former Slave Market and she did a great job telling us the history of the Slave Market.
In this area they would put 50 men to test their endurance. If they survived 3 days with no food or water, and in the extremely cramped conditions, the slaves would be sold for a higher value. Their sewage would be washed away with the high tides from the ocean entering the building.
In this room they would have 75 women and children locked up for 3 days. Again they were checking their endurance.
The slaves came from many areas in Africa in caravans, and some slaves took years to get to Zanzibar.
When we were finished we had lunch at a local eatery just a couple of blocks away from the Former Slave Market called Al Jarby on Tharia Street. We arrived before they were ready to serve lunch. The owner made us feel very welcome, so we went in and sat down had a cold drink and talked to him while the food was being prepared.
His employees kept bringing out food as it was being prepared and put it into a glass steamer. When everything was finished he asked what we wanted to eat? Everything looked so good and fresh, we asked if we could have rice and a little of 4 different vegetarian items, so that we could try more of his food. He was willing to give us whatever we wanted. The food was very good. The price for 2 lunches and 2 sodas was about $ 4.50.
After returning to the hotel and resting we were ready to venture out again. Next we went to the Princess Salme Museum. We took the tour with a guide and our private tour lasted about 1 ½ hours. Princess Salme was quite the lady and we want to read her book “Memoirs of an Arabian Princess”.
For dinner we went and had a delicious pizza at Tamu Gelateria Italiana. We had a zucchini and eggplant pizza.
For dessert we had to have a gelato.
The next morning we went on a half day spice tour with the tour company, Colors of Zanzibar. Our half day tour included lunch and it cost $60.00 total, for both of us. It was really interesting to see how these spices grow. Their lunch was very good also.
Lemongrass can be used as a herb, and is found many times in Asian cuisine. The lemongrass oil is used as a pesticide.
Cloves are Zanzibar’s number one exported crop.
Turmeric really surprised us. We did not know that it was a beautiful orange root.
If you have ever wondered why vanilla beans are so expensive it is because the plants grow 3-5 years before they produce flowers. When the plants do finally bloom, their flowers only last one day for 12 hours and they have to be self pollinated. Then it takes months for the vanilla pods to grow, and then another month to dry. Vanilla is the number 1 most expensive spice.
Cardamom is the 3rd most expensive spice. The pod grows for 4 months, dries, and then it is picked by hand.
This a ginger plant, but we eat the root.
Our guide called cinnamon the “Queen of Spices”. To get cinnamon they cut the bark off of a cinnamon tree. The tree will repair itself and the process can be done over and over. The roots of the cinnamon trees are used for medicines. The leaves are used in teas.
This is nutmeg.
This is a video showing how they climb up a coconut tree.
They had an amazing lunch for us at the end of the Spice Tour. We really enjoyed the Spice Tour and they did show us, and tell us about a lot more spices and fruits that we did not include in the blog.
Later that afternoon we flew back to Dar Es Salaam. We had to check in at the office to receive our boarding passes. The office for Precision Air was a little difficult to find.
Even though we only spent two nights in Zanzibar, we really enjoyed our stay! It was very different from what we saw and did on the mainland of Tanzania. We were so glad we took the time to at least get a taste of the Spice Island, Zanzibar.
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