Day 13: The Beaches of Zanzibar

For the second part of our stay, we moved over to the Kilima Kidgogo lodge on the East side of the island. Our host is a matronly South African woman named Dina. She is wonderfully sweet and almost plays a bit of a self parody with her rolled r's and hooted o's, “Looovely Maya”. It was nice to see another part of the island on the drive over to the East Coast but we were really struck by the limited economic circumstances of the population. Much of the transportation of goods, and pretty much all transportation of agricultural products such as wood, grasses, and the like is done by oxen pulling home-built two-wheel wooden carts. People get around on foot, by bicycle, by moped, and by small buses built onto the back those little snub-nosed Japanese transport trucks. What little work there is available is done by hand. We just passed a gang cutting roadside grasses by hand with machetes. It looked to be hot, sweaty, dusty work. As we get closer to town we pass people with roadside fruit stands but most people seem to be just hanging out chatting and smiling. On the way to and from the airport we pass the Jazuri forest, the one place in the world that is home to the red colobus monkey. They don't survive anywhere else in the world. They must like showing themselves off as we've seen a couple quite close to the road every time we pass by.

The white sand beach over here is fantastic. The shallow water inside the reefs reflects many shades of blue and is warm but refreshing. The lodge is open to the beach and has a wonderful outdoor bar and dining tables directly on the white sand. I'm currently sitting in a wood and rope bench swing with Mom and Dad while sipping beer and wine and looking at the white breakers far out on the reef. Earlier, we walked North along the beach to a bar built on pilings far out over the water in front of the Spice Island Resort. One of the most beautiful picturesque settings I have ever seen for a bar and beer and wine were only $3/glass. We’re celebrating Mary’s birthday in absentia.Electricity has been an issue throughout our travels; everywhere we have gone we have had to deal with power outages. On both the mainland and on Zanzibar, the power went out for extended periods of time although generators were used at hotels in both cases to soften the inconvenience. Even at the Kilimanjaro International Airport, the lights would flicker, go out, and then come back on again. This can be a bit disconcerting when the ticket agent is working at a computer terminal trying to book both yourself and your luggage halfway around the world. At other times we were simply off the grid. Even the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, a large relatively high-end hotel of at least 30 years, operated on a combination of solar and generator and the power was shut down for everyone between 12:00 midnight and 5:00 a.m. We were in tents in the Serengeti and obviously without electricity. Our Boundary Hill Lodge, near the Tarangire, was out in the middle of nowhere and was yet very comfortable. However, the lighting was powered by the sun and if it were cloudy or you left a light on in your room during the day, as Mom and Dad did, you would be out of power that night. All of this served to heighten rather than diminish the pleasure of the trip. The power outages underscored the fact that we were in a distant and foreign land where the things we rely on back home don’t necessarily hold true. At other times, the use of hurricane lamps or candles served to heighten the ambience as the electric lights dimmed. If nothing else, it’s a good reminder to always carry a headlamp when you travel!