Day 16: Out of Africa

We have embarked on our two day trip back home.To get to the boarding area at the Zanzibar airport you basically had to walk through one of the check-in stiles where you would normally weigh the luggage. This is the main entrance to the airport. As we passed through security a woman in a head scarf pulled Maya's bag aside and made a show of looking through it. She found the big shell Maya won the night before and talked about it not being allowed but then gave me a wink so I assumed she was just goofing with Maya. But, when I tried to take the bag and go she stopped me and asked me for a “tip”. I told her I had already spent all my money and just left. Once through security we found the waiting room to be rather hot so we headed for the dining area which was behind glass so we hoped it might be air conditioned. It turned out to be even more of a sauna and when I went to pay for my espresso and Maya's passion fruit fanta, they didn't yet have enough money to make change from my 10,000 shilling ($6.66) note. We found some portable AC machines in the lobby that turned out to be little more than enclosed units with a fan blowing over a block of ice. At any rate, it was pleasantly cool when the fan swung in your direction so we played a little UNO and did a little shopping. After hanging out for about an hour, Zak went back to buy something from the dining area and they still didn't have small notes for change. A short while later the manager came out of the snack bar to inform Zak that change was now available but Zak had already purchased some local chips at the gift shop. Things work a little different in Africa than in The States.

Do you supoose this smoke is from the previous flight to take off from the Zanzibar airport?

Our Precision Air flight took us first to Dar Es Salaam from where we would fly on to Kilimanjaro International Airport. I assumed we would stay in the same plane as our itinerary showed us leaving Zanzibar at 12:35 and Dar at 1:30. However, when we landed in Dar we were loaded on a bus and brought to the international arrival entrance as the flight had originated in Mombasa, Kenya. Carol grabbed a Precision Air employee, I showed the employee our itinerary and she motioned for us to follow her. We followed, like ducks in a row, past everyone filling out their arrival paperwork; through the immigration checkpoints; around a corner and down a dimly lit hall marked SwissPort Cargo; through security and then up to the ticket window where we got our boarding passes and were urged to hurry to the gate as our plane was boarding. We hustled up the stairs only to find another security check before we were again escorted on to the tarmac and out to our plane. We made all our other connections and arrived home a bit rumpled but no worse for wear. We had a great trip but it’s always nice to come back home!