Stonetown and Jambiani, Zanzibar (July 23 - July 28, 2006)

Rhiannon, Dee, Daniele, Sevvie, Georg, Wayne, Claire, Sophie and yours truly decided that a month at Amani was not enough. Besides getting ripped off by the ferry companies, going to Zanzibar was a great adventure. We hit up Bububu beach in West Coast Zanzibar, before setting out to Jambiani. I was doubtlessly struck by the azure skies and aquamarine waters of Jambiani (below). Stonetown had its moments too, with its friendly Rasta people who usually had something to sell, quaint little streets riddled with touts, the evening food fest at Forodhani Gardens (read Zanzibar Pizza). Surprisingly nobody ended up sick from the street food. It was quite ungodly almost to spend the days idling in this paradisaical place. Besides Georg's tumultuous experience with the sea food, things were uneventful. We played Wayne's (let me know if I have acknowledged him wrongly) animal mimicry game and arschloch or its British variant over the course of many Safari's. But it was cruel that I couldn't go snorkeling, thanks to my nonexistent swimming skills. We did get to see some cool endemic Red Colobus monkeys though.

However hypocritical as it may sound, I was disgusted by the fact that we tourists were part of the problem in Zanzibar. I couldn't find a single strip of the beach free of any man-made material. I could find at least one discarded water bottle every metre of the beach, either thrown by the wazungus or by the guys who run the resorts. But hey there might be some hope. check this out: BBC reports Zanzibar islands ban plastic bags!

And the weird thing is that the community has become so dependent on tourism, besides seaweed farming. Muslim women had no qualms to give back massages to scantily-clad wazungus! And everybody had something to sell including children hawking coconuts and shells, or they just simply asked for money (I guess this is a Tanzania wide problem).







A cool urchin! Notice the line of Royal Blue dots in a radial pattern?


Some kinda Man O' War? We found the beach literally littered with them one fine morning, while they were none on days before.


Ubiquitous sand crabs running into tiny holes as soon as you spot 'em.


African Golden Weaver (Ploceus subaureus) nesting on Casuarina trees by the beach at East Coast Visitors Inn, Jambiani


OK. The water isn't this blue. I took this through my polarizing glasses.



Dimorphic Egret (dark phase) (Egretta dimorpha)


Seaweed farms in Jambiani, Eastcoast Zanzibar.
Apparently seaweed farming is a major source of income to the locals besides catering to wazungus




Endemic Red Colobus monkeys at Chumba-Jozani Forest Reserve.
It was a totally weird experience. The guide said the troops are probably asleep when quizzed on why we hadn't seen any. He sent us on a trip to the nearby mangrove forests and by the time we got back, the monkeys were up and about. Did he wake em up? They were quite habituated and in fact a few passed through my legs. I wonder if they end up as bushmeat? I hope not!




Apparently, they are also called Kirk's Guereza, as this specimen from the Harvard MCZ:




Sunset, Stonetown, Zanzibar


Sunrise en route to Zanzibar from Dar