Location: Zanzibar, Tanzania
Less than 30 miles north of Dar es Salaam is the island of Zanzibar, which is also part of Tanzania. Technically Zanzibar is a series of islands, we visited the main island of Unguja. Like many of our ports, Zanzibar does not have a dedicated cruise line terminal, so we docked in a commercial sector.
But that didn’t stop folks trying to sell stuff to us tourists.
The modern ships competed for space with the traditional dhow.
Zanzibar is the most third-worldy port we’ve visited, and driving thru town just makes you cry. The tallest building on the island is the bank, and I did not see any brand-name stores. Not even KFC, which has been at every other port we have visited.
First, we visited an abandoned palace. The story is the sultan built this palace to escape his wife and play with his (hidden) concubines. Once the wife found out she burned the place down. Who knows?
The below image shows a series of post holes near the top. This place was built for a sultan, a guy with some money. But even here they used bent and crooked logs for the roof. We are so spoiled with squared-off same-sized lumber.
From here we visited the Kidichi spice farm. Everything is done by hand and all the plants are intermingled – there are no separated “fields.” The first spice we saw was cinnamon, which is the bark of a tree. We were told it takes 5 months for the bark to regrow and be ready for more harvesting. The roots have a much stronger smell, like Vick’s vaporub.
Next was star fruit, which I have not seen much in North America. The tree was absolutely covered with fruit.
Our local guide cut some fruit and made a guest a general. Naturally we all saluted.
They even had coffee, which I had never seen on the bush before.
The lychee was a visual surprise, and had seeds kind of like a pomegranate.
The nutmeg fruit looks like a small pear, but the nut inside is surprisingly colorful.
Vanilla grows on a vine and kind of looks like green beans.
There were several others that I did not take pictures of: Ylang-Ylang for perfumes, Jackfruit, Curry leaves, Cashews (out of season, only the flowers were on the tree), cloves (used to be the biggest seller of the spices), pineapple, lemongrass, peppercorns, ginger root and turmeric (I got yellow fingers). I had never seen any of these grown before, so I really enjoyed this tour – even tho it was almost 100 degF in massive humidity.
Along the tour our guide handed out palm leaf hats and ties that he had made during our walk. I wore mine to dinner that night. After the tour we drank lemongrass tea and ate red bananas – both of which I recommend.
We drove thru a shopping area on the way back to the boat.
Zanzibar – I just don’t know. I enjoyed my tour, and our guide says they is no ethnic nor religious conflict. Which is great. But 99% of the buildings and infrastructure we saw were in shambles. I hope Tanzania stays stable and allows its people to prosper.
Next: Mamoudzou, Mayotte.