Africa Part 9: Zanzibar

Our final stop in Africa was Zanzibar.  We flew via Precision Air on a short flight and arrived in time to check into the Kaponda hotel in Stone Town.  The room was more expensive than our place in Arusha, and was more like a hostel than hotel.  I was disappointed, but it served its purpose.  The sheets had old stains on them, the bathroom/shower was in the hall, you had to pay extra to use the old air conditioner, you had to take heavy bags up the oddly shaped stairs (with no railing), there was no hot water one of the nights, the toilet would sometimes stick once you flushed it, and there were no garbage containers in either the bedroom or bathroom.  One thing that's interesting about this (and several other hotels in Stone Town), are that the taxi cannot drop you off at the door to your hotel because many of the alleys and roads are so narrow that only bikes and motorcycles can fit.

As a result you have to carry your bags (of which we had several large ones due to the Kili climb and safari) a few blocks.

Once we unloaded everything, we stopped by the diving place so Lukasz could get that set up, and we found out the time and price of various tours.  Then we had a nice dinner, enjoyed the heat of a lovely shower, and fell asleep.

Our first destination was driving to a spice farm.  Zanzibar is famous for its spices.  In the 18th century, it was used as a spice plantation by the Omani Empire.  Since neither of us really cook, we would probably be learning more about these spices than anyone else. :-)  There were a handful of other people who came along on the tour with us - one of whom was a lovely young lady living in Canada.  She heard Lukasz' accent and asked him (in Polish) if he spoke Polish.  How is it possible that everywhere we went, we found someone either from or with ties to Poland?  Anyway, she was in Africa doing research and was absolutely fascinating to talk to!  We quickly became friends and ended up spending the next couple of days traveling together.

There were a lot of fruits as well as spice at the farm, and I'll try to identify as many of them as I can.

These are jackfruits.  They are absolutely HUGE and the largest fruit that grow on trees - even larger than the giant passionfruit - and each tree can produce up to 200 jackfruits a year.  That could feed a lot of people!!!!

Since we would be receiving samples of just about every fruit and spice, our guide made us cups out of these leafy plants.  Mine ended up very full, because (after being sick most of the trip) I opted against trying much of the food.  Lukasz, on the other hand, ate pretty much everything...and still didn't even get the slightest tummy ache!!!

This is turmeric, which comes from a root like ginger.

And next to the turmeric was a lot of grass known as lemongrass.  Lemongrass is used as an herb, in medicine, in tea, and in many dishes such as curries and soups.  Its oils are also used as a fragrance to make soap and massage oil - some of which I bought as a souvenir.

If you smell the lemongrass, it actually smells like lemon.

One other interesting fact is that lemongrass oil is used to attract honeybees, because it works the same as the pheromone created by the honeybee.  Although it's not usually eaten raw, Lukasz wanted to try it out. :-)

This is our guide shaving bark off of a cinnamon tree.  (Who knew that my favorite spice is actually just bark from a tree?)  Notice how the tree has many thick stems growing out of it.  To do this, you plant the cinnamon tree seeds, let it grow for about 2 years, and then cut the stems very low to the ground.  The following year, up to a dozen new shoots can grow from where it was cut.  While harvesting the cinnamon, you cut the stems, and then while the inside is still wet, you remove the outer bark, beat the branch to loosen up the inner bark, and remove it in long rolls.  The woody bark is thrown out and the cinnamon sticks roll up while drying.  After about 5 hours of drying, the sticks are cut and packaged - ready to be sold to people like me! :-)

We got to taste the cinnamon fresh off of the bark of the tree.  Tasty!

These are peppercorn, used to make black pepper.

This was another interesting type of fruit, though I don't remember what it was called.

Next, we saw a tree with red and green coffee beans!  (Red are ripe.)

They don't really look like coffee beans, but you have to peel away the red outer layer first...  How many do I need to make a cup of coffee?  :-)

And this was by far my favorite plant on this tour!!  These plants grow on achiote trees, which are sometimes called "lipstick" trees, because they will stain your lips red (and are actually used as a lipstick or for paint).  I wonder why I didn't think of painting Lukasz' lips red or putting it on my face like war paint...

The seeds of this plant can be ground and used in recipes.  The waxy outside skin of the seeds is called "annatto" and is used as food coloring.  Opening this plant reminded me of the movie "Little Shop of Horrors".  LOL

These are carambola (more commonly known as starfruit) in this tree.

When you cut them open horizontally, they form star shapes.  The fruit is not only edible, but tastes great!

There were several pepper plants.  I'm not sure what kind these are, but they sure look spicy!  (I should have brought some home for my sister's husband, who enjoys making our eyes water...)

Finally!  A fruit I'm familiar with!!!  Bananas! :-)

This is a cardamom plant.  The pods are underground like onions, ginger roots, and carrots are, so we had to pick one to get a pod.

These pods are dried and used to make tea, used in rice, and also used in many other local African dishes.

Next, we came across a tree filled with giant passion fruit.

Our guide cut one open and gave us all a taste.

Yummy!!  Lukasz enjoyed it so much, he kept asking for more slices until he had most of what you see below (the rest of us all had one thin slice).

While we were getting our hands sticky and enjoying the fruit on a warm humid day, the guides made decorations for our wrists, a necklace for me, and a tie for Lukasz out of palm leaves.  (It reminded me very much of when we'd braid and decorate the leaves we'd get on Palm Sunday from church.)

Here is Lukasz wearing the palm tie and licking his lips after a delicious bite of passion fruit.

We are sporting our tie and necklace in this photo, and I just love Lukasz' expression!  He learned shortly after consuming 1/2 the plant, that passion fruit leaves behind a very sticky film, and he had trouble opening his mouth because they kept sticking together.  That had to be one of the funniest moments on the tour. :-)

This is a tree that grows nutmeg.  Nutmeg is one of the oldest spices.

This is a nutmeg cut in half.  Nutmeg is a hallucinogen, but you have to eat the entire nut to get a "high", and expect severe nausea and other side effects if you do this.  It is also an aphrodisiac, and many Muslim women use them during holidays to loosen up and get in the mood for a little romantic evening with their beau. :-)

Our guide is cutting off the red part that covers the nutmeg.

This is what the mace looks like (the red lacy thing in my hand below), once it is removed from the nutmeg.  Mace has it's own unique fragrance from nutmeg and is often ground to a powder and used in curries.  The small tan colored item in my hand to the right of the mace is a piece of the nutmeg.

When you add nutmeg to recipes, it's usually recommended to grind a fresh nutmeg plant and then add it toward the end, because the heat dulls the nutmeg's flavor.

This is a lime tree.  There were many small green limes on this tree.

We all got to take a lime back with us. :-)

What looks like a bean plant was actually a vanilla plant.  A group of seed pods holding vanilla sticks grow out of this orchid plant.  Vanilla extract comes from these plants.  The pods only bloom once a year, and the blooms die if they haven't been pollinated by noon, so farmers have only hours to hand-pollinate all of the orchids individually with a stick.  It's such a small window of time that usually bees don't have time to pollinate the vanilla flowers themselves.  The pods grow for 9 months and then must be picked, boiled, and then set out in the sun to dry for no more than one hour.  Because they're so high maintenance, vanilla is expensive.  It isn't particularly nutritious (though it does have iron), but tastes great in just about everything!

My leaf cup is quickly filling up!!! :-)

Zanzibar used to be the world's largest producer of cloves, so much so that you could actually smell the cloves when you arrived to the island.

This is our guide pulling off branches of cloves.  Harvesting has to be done by hand and is hard work, because you have to climb the trees and often the flower buds are far back and hard to reach.

The flower buds (in my hand to the right of the leaf) are left on large mats on the ground to dry (which can take about 3 days) and they are then used in cooking to add flavor.  These buds are also used as medicine.  The leaves are dried, and are then crushed and used in perfumes or oils.

This is ginger, which is the underground root from a ginger plant.  It's used as an herbal medicine to cure GI issues, reduces inflammation, and is an antioxidant.

This is a closeup of a slice of the root.  Ginger adds flavor to many Asian stir fries and other dishes.  I actually cooked using ginger for the first time after returning home from the island. :-)

These trees had fragrant leaves.  I don't remember the name, but when our guide ripped off some leaves for each of us and we could smell them, it was a very familiar smell.

These were cocoa pods high up in the tree.

When we reached the end of the spice farm, we saw spices and vegetables laid out on a table.

There were massage oils and perfumes made from the spices we just saw.  (We ended up buying 3 of them).

This perfume smells good!

And then we came to a large table full of spices for us to buy.  I purchased 8 packs of spices and some coffee and tea.

If you're going to pay with colorful shillings, why not use one of each color? :-)

Before leaving the spice farm, we took off our shoes, sat down on the mats, and had local food, including pineapple, rice with curry, veggies that looked like spinach, and bread.

We then stopped by the slave caves.  The slave market in the 1800s was very big.  Africans on the main land of Tanzania were captured or bought, forced to walk long distances while chained together, carrying heavy ivory tusks back to the city, and many were imprisoned or killed.  A large number of slaves were packed tightly into boats called dhows and taken to Zanzibar.  The Arabs used to sail to Zanzibar from Oman to buy spices, ivory (from the elephants), and slaves.  In 1973, the currently ruling sultan on Zanzibar was forced to shutdown the slave market when overseas buying/selling of slaves became illegal.  However, people found ways to continue the slave trade in the black market.

They discovered caves, where they could keep slaves undetected.  They would hide them in these dark caves, and move them through underground tunnels they built, where the slaves would surface again near the sea.

The coral cave had a pool of water in the bottom.  Our guide filled a bucket of water before we headed out of the cave, but it wasn't water we'd be drinking.

At the end of the tour, our final stop before heading home was to spend about an hour on the beach.  It was low tide, but by the end of the hour, the tide had come in, and everything was about 4-5 feet higher than before.

The ground was rocky and had barnacles and other living things mixed in.  You had to keep your shoes on and still pay attention to where you stepped.

Here are some live barnacles.

There were a few boats, but not many, and the water was very calm!

"Hey Lukasz, what would you think about applying a little sunscreen to that white top of yours?"  "Come on MJ, we'll be here less than an hour - not enough time to get sunburned..."   One of us came back to the hotel looking like a tomato.  Can you guess who? :-)

Not the kind of beach you want to go swimming in, but there were lots of little crabs mixed in with the pebbles and in shallow water.

And this is a close up of what the boulders looked like.

There was a lot of life in those boulders!  These little guys, as well as small crabs.

There doesn't appear to be anything in this shell.  Should I take it home with me?

Wait!  What's that hiding inside?

It's a little hermit crab!

Despite being about 3-5 inches long, you could only see these crabs after disturbing the area where they were sitting in the water.

Can you find him before my walking disturbs him and he runs away?

It had started drizzling toward the end of the spice tour, and rained a little bit more while on the beach as well.  It felt pretty good considering the heat and humidity!!!

We returned to the Kiponda Hotel and had a couple of hours before we needed to leave for the Stone Town tour.  Lukasz took a nap and I got caught up on emails and set up a custom tour for the following day.

Our guide for the Stone Town tour was awesome!  Very knowledgeable and also accommodating.  This tour consisted of Lukasz, me, and our new Canadian-Polish friend. :-)  The first place we stopped (very briefly) was to see the tomb of Ahmed Naamah, whose gravesite had recently been restored by the Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society.

As we walked around the narrow streets and alleyways of Stone Town, most of the buildings were white and dirty, the ground littered with trash, yet the carved wooden doors were a rare jem.  They stood out, being very old, solid, and ornately decorated.  There were several different styles that reflect primarily Arabic and Indian styles.  Many of the doors had large old fashioned locks that were still used to secure the doors.

 

  

The Arabic style doors typically are square and have geometric patterns.  Doors with the Indian influence typically are arched and have a floral design, such as this one.

There were many mosques in and around Stone Town, and you could hear the bells ringing 5 times each day when the Muslims would go to pray.  This is the Aga Khan Mosque. 

 

It has a gorgeous Gujarati style door.

The mosque also has unique Gothic style windows.

An ornate door was the sign of high social status or rank.  This is an example of a door with brass studs that looked rather intimidating.  According to our guide, the spikes on the doors were used in India to keep elephants out.  Even though there used to be a lot of elephants in Zanzibar (there aren't elephants anymore), this design is likely borrowed from that Indian tradition rather than put up to actually keep elephants in Zanzibar out.

 

Anyone thirsty?  This was an interesting find in one of the alleys.  Old metal cups chained to a sink.

I took this picture primarily for my friend Nathan, who is a big Manchester United soccer fan.  I saw "Man United" at the bottom of this and had to do a double take.  They are big on soccer out here and keep track of the scores right on the outside wall of a building. :-)

Tanzania is made up of 2 parts: (1) Tanganyika, which is the part on the main land where we spent the first couple weeks of our trip, and (2) Zanzibar, which is made up of 2 islands - Pemba and Unguja (the large one we were on that most people simply refer to as "Zanzibar").  Stone Town is the capital of Zanzibar, and got its name from all of the coral stone buildings built in the 19th century.

The black flags/banners we saw in the alley near a mosque are what is known as the "black flags of Jihad" used by Islamic extremists, such as al-Qaida and the Taliban.  They stand out from other Islamic flags by having a black background and the white religious message (shahada).

Some Islamic extremists also use solid black flags.

We came to a fancy hotel during the tour that had some fun swinging chairs - a hammock and porch swing.  Naturally, us girls had to try them out. :-)

As we walked through town, we came across many shops and markets.  Our guide pointed out which ones were for the tourists and which the locals used (these had the same items, only cheaper).  During the tour, we found several places that had really great items and spent some time browsing and (dare I say it) shopping. :-)

In one of these places, the locals took some of the old ornately carved doors and turned them into small chests, jewelry boxes, picture frames, etc.  They let us walk around in the back, where the old doors and other scrap wood were found.

All this walking around made us hungry!  We spotted a coffee house nearby and stopped inside to have an espresso shot and some cake.

The food was excellent!!!  As well as the company.

We walked through a local market and saw giant bananas (and lots of beans, spices, vegetables, and fish).

People are constantly trying to sell things to the tourists, which can get rather bothersome.  I'm very good at firmly saying "hapani asante" (which means "no thank you" in Swahili) and then walking on quickly.  I normally walk much faster (think New York pace) than Lukasz, so going slower meant being stopped by more people.  This was very annoying to me, but Lukasz seemed to like it and would stop and haggle over prices for long periods of time with them.

Across the street from the market was an auction held in a park in Stone Town.

There were hundreds of people in the area between this auction, the park, and the market.  It seems we found the place the locals like to hang out over the weekends.

Although the primary religion in Zanzibar is Muslim and there are 51 mosques, there are also several Catholic churches and Hindu temples.  You can find the mosques, churches, and temples right next to each other.

In this photo, you see an Anglican cathedral (on the left) and an Islamic mosque (on the right).

These red, white, and blue flags represent the opposition and are political in nature.

 

There was a game on TV that the locals were watching in this square, and in the middle on the white pole is a telephone with a sign that says "free international calls" (which is a joke, but I wonder how many tourists actually try to use it).

Near the post office (where we needed to remember to return and buy stamps for our postcards), there were a lot of pictures and signs of Freddie Mercury.  I was the only person who did not know who this is.  Apparently he is the lead vocalist for the band Queen, and most of you reading this are probably rolling your eyes at my lack of pop culture. :-)  Anyway...  He was born in Zanzibar, so this a tourist stop, with many popular shops on this block.

There were also many Tanzanite shops.  Tanzanite is a bluish-purple stone that was found in Tanzania about 50 years ago.  Similar to buying spices on Zanzibar, people often buy Tanzanite in Tanzania. :-)  I'm not big on jewelry, but it was nice to look at.

For those of you history buffs...  This may be of interest to you.  David Livingstone was born in Scotland and lived during the 1800s.  He was a missionary and an explorer obsessed with discovering the source of the Nile River in Africa.  He was against slavery, and when he learned that they may be able to abolish the slave trades in Africa by bringing Christianity and other legal goods to trade, he headed to Africa.  He spent many years trying to abolish slavery through commercial trading and spreading Christianity.

While in Africa, he was attacked by a lion, but survived.  He is noted for being the first European who saw Victoria Falls (the 2nd largest waterfall in the world), and gave it this name due to Queen Victoria.  He also was noted fro crossing the entire span of Africa - something very few people had done due to disease and local tribe opposition.

At one point, people traveling with him deserted him, left for Zanzibar, and spread the word that he was dead.  He had traveled light as it was, so without the porters and staff, most of this things were stolen (including precious medication) and he became very sick with pneumonia and cholera.  He recovered and a few years later saw hundreds of African slaves murdered.  At this point, he stopped searching for the source of the Nile.

Livingstone died in 1973 from dysentery and malaria.  His two best friends who were with him removed his heart and buried it where he died.  They then dried out his body for 2 weeks before it was sent back to the UK to be buried.

I enjoyed the story our guide told about Livingstone so much that I ended up buying a book about him before leaving Africa.

One of the last parts of the tour was along the waterfront.  The sun was setting and we had the chance to see the local boys playing ball, running and playing on the sand, and enjoying the cool water.

It's also interesting to note that none of the girls are allowed to play in the water with the boys.  This is because there is too much chance of the boys looking at or touching the girls inappropriately, which is sad, because they miss out on the fun.

Because 98% of those living in Zanzibar are Muslim, it's respectful to cover your head/hair as a woman, and to dress modestly, wearing long sleeved shirts and long pants or skirts that cover the knees.  I kept my hat on most of the time and avoided wearing shorts while in town, and Amanda covered her hair as well.  Many of the female tourists we saw did not show this same level of respect, and walked around in short shorts, sleeveless tanks, low-cut shirts, and no covering over their head.

Just past the beach on our way back to the Kiponda Hotel, we passed by the harbor.  The House of Wonders and Palace Museum are found here, as well as several restaurants.

 

The big open area between these buildings and the water is known as the Forodhani Gardens.  They aren't much as far as gardens are concerned, but every night starting at 6 pm, the locals get together and sell food, reminded me of a fair.

There were numerous stalls that sold anything from full meals to finger food, and had kebabs, the locals version of "pizza", octopus, fried fish, cassavas, and just about any other type of local food you can think of!  Following the tour, we decided to go there and check it out.

Despite the fact that our guide specifically told us not to eat any of the food that needs to be cooked, because they don't boil it, the first thing Lukasz did when we got there was order a large cooked vegetarian platter.  (He must have a steel stomach, because nothing seemed to make him sick!)  Amanda and I also tried local dishes including their famous Zanzibar pizza.  We watched them make the pizza by frying eggs like an omelet, and then instead of adding cheese and vegetables, they added nutella, mango, bananas, and chocolate.  We also had a popular drink made out of sugarcane.  Rather than eat at the market (I was a little bit concerned with safety at night), we ended up taking it to go so the 3 of us could share it back at our hotel.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by the place where there had been a sign for Italian Gelato, thinking a little ice cream would be the perfect way to end the day.  However, at this time of night the sign was gone, the store was clearly closed, and the locals tried to lure us down a dark alley, where we saw 2 other guys lurking.  We wisely decided against it and headed back to the hotel.  I tend to go overboard on being cautious and tried getting our team to walk a bit quicker - with purpose - to reduce the risk of getting mugged, stuck with a knife, or just harassed.  However, that was pushing my luck, so we maintained moving at our leisurely (what I call "poli poli") pace.  At least we were 3 people rather than one.  Within minutes, we were back in the comfort of our hotel, relaxing by the restaurant, eating our Zanzibar "pizza", licking chocolate off of our fingers, and telling stories.  We even saw an owl perched on a ledge watching us.

The next day, the 3 of us met for an early breakfast and then headed off on our customized tour outside of Stone Town.  Our first destination was about an hour long drive toward the bottom of the island at Menai Bay, where we'd attempt to find dolphins and swim with them.  The dolphins were in the wild (in the ocean), so there was no guarantee we'd see them, but we got our snorkeling gear and headed out on the boat toward a number of other boats with the same idea as us. :-)

Looking at the expressions on our faces (see above) reminds me of something Amanda had said.  She compared Lukasz and my personalities to those of Lana and Sterling Archer, and I have to agree with her.  LOL  (For those of you who have been missing out all these years, that reference is from the adult animated TV show "Archer".)

Forodhani Gardens

beach is the famous Forodhani Gardens, not much of a place as far as gardens are concerned but it serves as one of Stone Town’s main gathering area and at night, this place comes to life as locals set up food stalls as part of a nightly food market. More on this to come. - See more at: http://xdaysiny.com/10-days-zanzibar-tanzania-beach-itinerary-guide/2/#sthash.IWffRR4Z.dpuf

Unfortunately, Amanda wasn't able to join us in the water, but she offered to take photos.  As you can see by the great pictures, she did an amazing job!!!!

As soon as we saw the dolphins jump up over the surface near the boats, we were told in a panicky voice by the guide to hurry and jump in or we'd miss them.

The dolphins keep swimming, so if you don't get in the water right away, you're out of luck.  They tend to swim pretty far under, but it was fun to watch a school of 4-7 dolphins swimming directly underneath you.  Unfortunately, because they kept moving, we only had a few seconds before they disappeared and we had to get back into the boat to try to find them again.

After a few times where we saw dolphins within minutes of getting back into the boat, we had a stretch of about 15 minutes with no sign of dolphins despite motored the boat to other areas.  Just when I started to think they were gone for good, we spotted some fins, put on our masks and snorkel, and jumped in!

The dolphins only stay above water for a second or two (and to be honest, it's just as exciting to see them above the water as below the surface, especially when they jump).

Unfortunately, Lukasz' snorkel kept filling up with water so he didn't get to enjoy it as much as I did, but he was a good sport about it.

We only had another 2-3 times to spot them and I decided not to stay in one place - I would try to swim with them and be one with the dolphins!  They moved quickly, so I wasn't sure that would work, and I was nervous about running into the motor of another boat (the boats formed a big circle around us).

They were far underneath, but I swam on the surface with my head under water as fast as I could, past all the boats, and was excited when they started to come up in the water next to me!!!!

I reached out a few times to touch them as they approached the surface of the water and was amazed at how close they were to me!!!  One even looked over at me (and I swear he was smiling). :-)

A few seconds later, they would go back deep under the water and be gone.  Then, completely out of breath with my body feeling like it ran a marathon, I'd take a minute to figure out where the boat was and get back on.

That was one of the best "workouts" I got on this trip!!!  We made it back to shore, washed off our feet with a hose, and while waiting to dry off a little bit, went over by a nearby Baobab tree to marvel at its wide trunk.

We're not exactly centered, but you can see that even with all 3 of our arms stretched wide, the tree still has us by a few feet!!!

After swimming with the dolphins, we headed over to Jozani Forest to check out the Red Colobus Monkeys.  At the visitor section area, we learned that Red Colobus Monkey often eats charcoal.  As many of you know, humans are often given charcoal if they consume poisons to mitigate the effects.

 

In a similar way, these monkeys likely are able to eat poisonous leaves without dying (or becoming sick) due to the poison being absorbed by the charcoal they consume.

Once the park fee was paid, we headed out on foot along some trails to see the monkeys.  After about 30 seconds of looking up into the trees, we saw so many of them peeing that you couldn't tell the difference between the occasional rain and the pee.  I decided to call them "the peeing monkeys".  Unfortunately, the path was directly underneath the trees, so there was really no way to avoid having a monkey directly overhead...  It was like Russian Roulette.  Will he pee or poop on you?  Or will you get away clean?  LOL

We've seen a lot of different types of monkeys on this trip, but these are the rarest ones in Africa.  They are only found in Zanzibar and their total population is < 2400.

There are other Colobus monkeys, but they have remained separated from these monkeys (thanks in part to being on an island) for over 10,000 years.  Their coat pattern, food habits, and the noises they make distinguish them from the other Colobus monkeys.  In particular, they have long white fur along a red colored back.

This is an interesting video of one monkey checking the other one out as he sticks his rear end in the air and hangs upside down.  Lukasz thinks he's checking the other one's vital signs. :-)

And this guy is taking a little nap.  Must be worn out from all the tourists!

Jozani Forest is a conservation area for the Red Colobus monkey.  Even though they are protected, they are highly endangered.  Those on Zanzibar speak Kiswahili, which is a form of Swahili.  The Kiswahili word for "Red Monkey" means "Poison Monkey".  Locals used to believe that when these monkeys ate in an area by them, the trees and crops would all die, and if dogs ate the Red Colobus monkey, they would lose their fur.

Red Colobus monkeys can live to be 20 years old.  When they are about 5 years old, they are considered mature adults and able to procreate.  Females give birth to one baby about every 2 years.  Here is a mother and her baby.

 

This little baby quickly jumped way up in the trees.  He didn't want to sit and hang out with his mother all day.

Babies < 3 months old have black backs which turn to red at about 6 months of age.  Babies breastfeed for about 1 1/2 years, but what's interesting and unique about these monkeys, is that sometimes young and adult males will also suckle.

He (or she) was much more active than all of the other monkeys combined!!!  And the most fun to watch!! :-)  Toward the end of the video you can see the monkey has a black back, which means it's less than 3 months old.

These are the baby's feet.  It makes you want to put your finger in the middle and see if he will curl his toes around it like a human baby grips your finger.

This guy shows off the red stripe they are famous for.  He looks like he's just waiting for some unsuspecting tourist to walk underneath him before he lets go and pees.  LOL

In contrast to the one above, this monkey had only a light hint of red, but some odd black markings all over!

By the time we got back in the minivan, at least one of us had gotten peed on - probably all 3 of us.  To make matters worse, it had been raining off and on, so there was water falling from the trees in addition to the monkey urine, making it hard to tell what you were wet from.

We drove back to Stone Town and said goodbye to Amanda.  Then we went to visit the Mtoni Palace Ruins, which was just on the outskirts of Stone Town.  It's name means "Palace by the Stream", and was named this for being located right by the ocean.

There was an armed guard standing by the sign where we were waiting.  Since we had a few minutes to wait while our guide paid the entrance fee, we spent that time talking with him and learned that he was monitoring who was going into the mosque next door.

When our guide returned, he spent a few minutes going through each of the pictures in the sign above and giving us the history.

Sultan Sayyid Said reigned in the Palace in the mid 1800s, and there were over 1000 people living in and around the palace at that time.  However by 1890, the palace was abandoned and left alone until it deteriorated into ruins.

The sultan had many women living as a harem in the palace.  They were not allowed to be seen by strangers, so visitors to the palace couldn't go much further than the main hall.

We climbed up this tall, mossy, deteriorating stone staircase that led absolutely nowhere, but to overlook a long narrow courtyard or hallway.

This is the view from the top of the steps.

Princess Sayyida Salme is one of the most famous people from Zanzibar.  She was born in this palace, and is one of the sultan'syoungest daughters.  She grew up speaking both Arabic and Swahili, and taught herself in secret how to write (this was not usual for women in this time).  When her dad died she was 12 years old and inherited a plantation and a lot of money, and her brother Majid became the next sultan of Zanzibar.  When Salme was 15, her mom died, and she inherited another 3 plantations.  While in Stone Town, she fell in love with a German merchant who was her neighbor and became pregnant.  When the baby started to show, she eloped to Germany and married him.  To make matters worse for her family, she became a Christian and changed her name to Emily.  She was no longer welcome in Zanzibar after that.

 

The Princess wrote a book called "Memoirs of an Arabian Princess", where she documents her memories of the Mtoni Palace and what she saw when she returned to Zanzibar after the palace had been abandoned many years later.

The short video below shows the palace, particularly the narrow courtyard and large open reception hall.

From Princess Salme's Memoirs: "Orange trees as tall as the biggest cherry trees here in Germany, bloomed in profusion all along the front of the bath-houses, and in their hospitable branches we frightened children found refuge many a time from our horribly strict school mistress!  Human beings and animals occupied the vast courtyard together quite amicably, without disturbing each other in the very least; gazelles, peacocks, flamingos, guinea fowl, ducks, and geese strayed about at their pleasure, and were fed and petted by old and young.  A great delight for us little ones was to gather up the eggs lying on the ground, especially the enormous ostrich eggs, and to convey them to the head-cook, who would reward us for our pains with choice sweetmeats."

This is part of one of the many pages from her book helping tourists like us learn her story.

This is an example of a Persian bath, which was like our equivalent of a hot tub for the residents of the palace to relax in.  There was a mat on each side of the tub where people could kneel and pray or use to rest.  Whenever they prayed, they had to put on a perfectly clean white garment.

There were arched stone bridges and steps leading to individual apartment type rooms and baths.

This is what the bathroom looked like.  There was probably something on top of this I would guess, but all that remains is a hole.  Courtiers / concubines would use bathrooms all along one side of the hall, but the sultan and his first wife had a special domed bathroom area just used by them.

Talking about her father (the sultan) in another page from her book, Princess Salme writes:  "Despite his pleasure in war and conquest, he was a model for us all, whether as parent or ruler.  His highest ideal was justice, and in a case of delinquency he would make no distinction between one of his own sons and an ordinary slave.  Above all, he was humility itself before God the Almighty; unlike so many of great estate, arrogant pride was foreign to his nature, and more than once, when a common slave of long and faithful service took a wife, my father would have a horse saddled and ride off alone to offer the newly wedded couple his good wishes in person."

Outside the back facing the ocean was a lot of sand and some construction equipment.  Tractors are one of my favorite types of vehicles, so naturally, I had my picture taken by one. :-)

They were working on building a new hotel behind the ruins.

When we left, we drove to the nearby Maruhubi Palace Ruins.  At the front of the palace, what looked like grass and weeds, was mimosa plant.  (I had only heard of the drink mimosa prior to this and enjoyed watching the plant close when you touched it.)

This is a picture of what the palace looked like before it deteriorated. 

Sultan Barghash, Zanzibar's 3rd sultan, built this palace in 1880, and used it for his wife and 100 concubines!!!  He actually didn't live here himself, but resided in Stone Town.

The palace was ruined by a fire in 1899, and all that remained were a few stone columns and the baths. 

If you look through the window, you will see another window, and then another, and then another.  There were about 10 bathrooms in a row down one side of the hall.  These Persian-style bathhouses were for the concubines, while a special large bathroom was for the sultan.

Another bathroom hole.  Hopefully there was something like a toilet over the top of this!

This is the dome part where the sultan's large bathhouse resides.

There is a large Persian bath on the other side of these steps.

This bath was about 3-4 feet deep.

This is just a large millipede curled up and taking a bath in one of the dark corners.  There was also a bat flying around in one of the bath areas.

The grounds were littered with large trees for shade (that some locals were climbing while we were there).  There was a vast open lawn with 3 water reservoirs that I had thought were round swimming pools or ponds.  There were also mango trees that had been imported a long time ago from India.

As the guide was talking about the water reservoirs and overhead aqueduct system that supplied water to the palace, Lukasz was looking at the purple water lilies and daydreaming about magical gardens with fairies and princesses needing rescuing.  At least that's what I imagined he was thinking about when I shot this. :-)

In seriousness, you really could imagine this being a colorful and beautiful place, where the sultan and royal family would spend time entertaining guests.  In particular, I loved the purple water lilies and lily pads, which had drops of water on them and were quite lovely.

When we left the ruins, we took our guide out to dinner at a nice restaurant that had a beautiful view of the ocean.  On the shore below us was a tree with a white spider residing.  As it started to rain...again, you could see the drops land on and around the web.

 

Underneath the tree, you could see people building and repairing the famous wooden Arab boats called dhows.

Then, on the way back to the hotel, he showed us a few places ideal for watching the sunset.  This was my last night in Zanzibar, and we had narrowed it down to 2 options - a sailboat ride or restaurant on the water.  I was in the mood for ice cream.  We first stopped by the hotel.  Lukasz took a nap and I packed up my things and wrote all of my postcards to friends and family.  Then we headed over to an Italian restaurant that had many flavors of gelato, and enjoyed ice cream outside by the water while watching boys playing soccer near the water or doing flips and back handsprings in the sand.

Here are a few pictures to capture my final sunset in Africa.

I couldn't have imagined it any more beautiful than it was.

The skies was painted with an orange, white, blue, and rust-colored palette, reflected in the smooth ocean water.

Every few minutes while the sun set behind clouds, the colors changed, so it looked like the sky was on fire.

And it looked like there were at least a couple of people who decided to watch the sunset while sailing.

As the sky shifted from orange to red to pink, we watched the sailboats glide across the glass surface of the water toward the harbor.

In the morning, Lukasz helped me carry my bags to the taxi and we said goodbye.  I was headed to the airport to catch 7 flights home (all of which were miraculously on time) and Lukasz headed to off to go scuba diving and enjoy more of the history and culture found in Zanzibar.

Until next time!!!