Part II : East Africa - Tanzania - Discovering the Indian Ocean on Zanzibar!

Well, it feels like we've done so much and the trip has only just begun. Here are some key highlights of our latest activities ;

Before meeting our tour group, I walked around some more in Dar es Sallam ("Haven of Peace") and found myself, yes not surprising, in a supermarket!! Key purchases of weird stuff : Lime Chocolate bar (very tasty!! Zingy really!) and Heinz Marmalade with the inscription ("Any dissatisfaction of this product will not result in hurting your human rights", something of that sort anyway).

Our overland carrier was this huge and long mothership of a vehicle... they actually called it a moose. And, with a group of ten, it looks like we'll have plenty of room for all our lion and other animal chasing activities.

Before our overland trip, our travels took us to the beautiful islands of Zanzibar. Well, if Dar es Salaam is a very real African city (where it's practically impossible to find postcards), Zanzibar is a tourist haven.

As I am travelling on a group tour, our first meal together was in this smashing and not at all tacky bamboo lounge. ie. The light covers were emptied out gourds (a type of squash vegatable) full of holes, which made for a very impressive lighting effect. For dinner, I had barracuda - just wanted to taste something that is not usually on seafood menu. For those that are interested, barracuda is a tough fish with pretty thick meat... not bad though.

After dinner, we looked around with our guide for a bar. However, we were dissapointed that we couldn't dance to any music because someone had stolen their music system the previous week.

If you think that's odd. One of my colleagues on the tour had quite a story - She was flying in from London and - all the planes to Dar also make a stop in Kilimanjaro (only 1/2 hour away) - when the plane was about to take off to continue heading to Dar, the pilot announce "Sorry for the delay, a person that was supposed to board the plane got shot at the airport." Well, my friend was really comforted - a great way to start this type of trip.

The next morning, we took a spice tour - In one village, we tasted the following plants and bacteria that were actually being grown of trees, etc in this village on Zanzibar : Passion Fruit, Custard Apple (Also known as soursop - my favourite), Jackfruit, Chilis (ok, we didn't try this one), Green peppercorns (Did you know it is Bacteria?!), Vanilla beans (Bacteria), Cloves, Cinnamon, Starfruit, Turmeric, Ginger, Pinneaple, Coffee, Lemongrass, Coconut -- I can't remember the rest!! Plus, we actually saw a guy climb a huge coconut tree with his bare feet.

Even more strange were the almost carnivorous chickens that were following us all the way nibbling at the ginger and such that we dropped along the way.

The most impressing part was this berry that when squeezed provided a natural paintlike lipstick coloured reddish orange. One of the guys on the tour tried it out, but I don't think it was his colour.

We also went to see some arabic ruins - harem palaces - which reminded me of the ruins in Thailand, Ayuthaya. But my favourite memory was that of the alcove next to the ruins... 3-4 ships achored in the water, sitting diagonally... just about ready to sink it seems. And around them, you'll see a dozen of small flat canoes that are actually fishing boats... a beautiful sight... They will probably be the best pictures.

The same afternoon... we hopped on a mini-bus for two hour journey to the north end of the island. Well, I know this journey puts any roller coaster or amusemant park ride to shame. The road were a pothole haven!! For two hours!!

Well, the interesting thing on the way was all the people waving and saying Jambo!! And if you're lucky, they say "Jambo Mambo", which means "Hey how are you?", to which you answer "Poa" ("Poo-ah"), "I'm fine!". This is incredibly funny for this French Canadian because this response in French is an _expression for disgust. Really quite funny - take my word for it.

Today, I went for a swim on the NorthBeach area where we are staying... we sat around a lot, chatted with some Germans guys, and I went for a fantastic swim in the Indian Ocean, where the water is unbelievable clear and slightly blue/aqua coloured.

Lastly, every African here seems massively bent on convincing us to relax... reminding us "Hakuna Matata!" ("No worries")... even when we decide we don't want anything else to eat or drink and we try to get them away - they tell us Hakuna Matata and carry on (They keep reading the menu... as if we'll change our minds when we hear something tasty... no of course that would not happen!).

I'm looking to do some snorkeling tomorrow and then I hope to go visit some Columbus Monkeys in the rainforest in the south end... but I'm really dreading that ride back to the main town...

The next email might take quite a few days (I've got to give you guys some time to catch up to these last two anyways!)...

Kwahari ("Cheers")!