Zanzibar
Here’s an update; last week we went to Zanzibar and Tanzania. It was a wonderful experience. As we’re in Africa and there aren’t many opportunities to travel here we decided to do some touring. Zanzibar was a choice. We were working through a travel agent at Voyagers who came up with a great agenda. The price was extremely attractive. October is the off season in Zanzibar. It isn’t cold up North and it is hot in Tanzania. Normally there are two each 737’s from Milan and Frankfort per week coming into Zanzibar plus all the other tourists.
What a beautiful and historical place. I’ll touch on some highlights of our journey. We spent two days in Stonetown, four days at the beach, and two days in Dar Es Salaam.
Zanzibar was the last place to ban selling slaves. The Sultan of Zanzibar stopped in 1873. An Anglican Church is built where the slave trading occurred. The slave chambers still exist. The alter of the church is the same location as where the auction block was. There is a photo of the church. Also there is a picture of a slave chamber which held 75 men chained together for about two weeks before being sold. The left window has been enlarged, it really wasn’t that big. Others didn’t suspend slave trading. At the North end of the island there is another location where slaves were sold. This was discontinued in 1906. Unfortunately today there is still a lot of slavery; men and boys sold into bondage, women and girls into prostitution and also bondage. We’ve seen some newspaper articles from South Africa where shipments of people have been foiled.
Our hotel had a rooftop restaurant where the picture of the sunset was taken. It was 99 steps up to the restaurant, 86 to our room on the third floor. The steps were wooden and like grandmother’s house in Indianapolis none of them were the same. We huffed and puffed to get up. Interestingly we met a group who had just come back from their accent of Mt Kilimanjaro. They were from Australia and Scotland. They were out of shape, had more trouble on the stairs than we did, did not prep for the trip, yet, of their group 11 of 13 made it to the top of Kilimanjaro.
We went on a spice tour. That again was very interesting. Spices were brought to the island about 1830 by Indians (from India). The climate was attractive. We were shown about 30 different kinds of spices being grown. In the 19th century (and even today) spices were expensive and a lot of money could be made.
After seeing Stonetown we next traveled to a resort on the eastern beach. My ‘o my, was that beautiful. Attached is a photo of the beach at low tide. You could walk out a half kilometer. The sand was fine and white. In the photo there are some Massi worriers. They are hired for security. Their tribe is located in northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya. They are nomads and as such they are tall and skinny. They are the ones who win all the running events and marathons throughout the world. 
We were at a marvelious resort called Sultan Sands. It was beautiful. The landscaping and flowers were breathtaking. I’ve attached a photo of a room. There are two units in each house. Tours could be scheduled from the resort and they had a lot of programs offered as part of the resort. Plus they had entertainment after every evening meal. There were many, many resorts on the island and I would guess you could pick and choose to fit your needs.
Another tour we took was to a National Park they had on the island. They have a monkey called a Red Colubus. It is highly endangered. There are only about 2500 and they all live in this park on Zanzibar. It has a beautiful red back. The photo is of a baby.
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