Day 12: Zanzibar

We enjoyed a little shopping this morning on our last full day in Stonetown followed by lunch at the Tower Top Restaurant. Good food and incredible views. After lunch we wandered over to the Old Arab Fort, a brick structure of castellated battlements and towers surrounding a large central courtyard. It built by the Sultan in 1698. Currently, the fort is playing host to the Zanzibar International Film Festival. As a result, I was able to hang out and watch an incredible reggae band playing their own tunes with this awesome female vocalist. I’m assuming they were practicing for an evening concert as there were hardly any spectators in attendance. This certainly didn’t stop me from enjoying the music while I sipped a 2000 schilling ($1.33) Tusker lager; awesome. It helps to get relaxed and centered once in a while traveling. Just to underscore how differently things work here than in the States, comic relief was provided by a small group of men trying to raise a movie screen up the face of one of the fort’s towers, presumably for the evening film festival entertainment. The screen was attached at the top and the bottom to long wooden poles or sticks. Two men were trying to raise the screen from the top of the tower by means of two ropes which were attached to the top pole. Of course, the top of the screen caught on a stone outcropping and, of course, the men simply tried to free the screen by pulling harder on the ropes resulting in, of course, one of the ropes breaking and the screen tumbling back to the ground. I like Africa.