Well, I certainly had a white Christmas! It wasn't 'snow white' though but rather, beautiful white sandy beaches on the coast of the turquoise blue Indian Ocean. Zanzibar is awesome. A Canadian friend from Ghana met us there and it was so good to be reunited. Together, we spent a week exploring this eclectic and culturally rich island and it never disappointed us.
After finally arriving on the island (we all seemed to have travel woes that I won't get into but let's just say traveling in Africa isn't always predictable...), we indulged in Zanzibarian street food (it's like 7 cents for a donut, dangerous much?) and sticky hot temperatures. The air is heavy with humidity but thankfully you are surrounded by ocean so a swim is always possible.
We spent the first few days exploring the South East coast of the island. We started off at Jambiani, where we got rained on for 2 days (but still had fun) and then to Paje. We did some coral reef snorkeling and saw a variety of colourful fish! We sailed and explored little islands off the coast of Zanzibar...we even managed to see some mangroves.
South Coast
We climbed this massive tree on one of the islands we visited:
Team Awesome
Palm Trees in Paje
On Christmas day, we headed to the North coast of the island. The area was called Nungwi and it was really touristy but still gorgeous. We indulged in a dinner consisting of fresh sea food and pina coladas almost every night (for under $10!). This was the sunset on Christmas day:
The sunset over the Indian Ocean
The people in Zanzibar are incredibly friendly and welcoming. The island is dominated by Muslim culture as a result of its Arab roots but you'll also find PLENTY of Rastas on the coast sharing their 'life is good' ideology. They taught us some Swahili and some fun songs. Everywhere you go, there's a plethora of fresh fruit, beautiful artwork, and smiling faces. We saw a lot of locals on the beaches primarily because at low tide, the water retreats about a kilometer and the people head out to the shore and catch fish and other ocean goodies. It's quite the scene.
Beach bum at heart
On the last day, we headed back to Stonetown for some market shopping. Everywhere you go, Masai art dominates the walls of the stores. The markets smell of spices (Zanzibar is known as the Spice Island) and vendors are selling fresh dates, cashews, and steaming cups of rich coffee or tea. In the evening, we went to the Forodhani Gardens - a really cool part of town where a garden has been set up and where local food vendors congregate at night and sell the most delicious delights - from calamarie, to nutella pizzas, to coconut bread, to lobster...there is an endless array of fabulous foods. And sugarcane juice!! They make it using this contraption:
Basically, they split a sugar cane and then stick in some ginger and a lime and squeeze it to make the juice. It's delicious and so refreshing. It was a perfect way to end a memorable christmas celebration. ZANZIBAR! definitely the place to be!
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