Stone Town
Zanzibar, Zanzibar Archipelago, Tanzania
January 06, 2016
Motto picked us up at 8:00 and drove us to Stone Town. We made a stop at a few banks along the way to get some additional money. We parked at the edge of Stone Town and met our guide for the morning, Talip
The tour began with a brief history and geography lesson. The area of Stone Town is 3 square kilometres. The island has had a very turbulant history. It had been ruled by the Portuguese who introduced the slave trade, then the Arabs who did the same. The slave trade ceased in 1907 and during the 20th century the country was ruled by Communists for a period of time before they united with mainland Tanzania.
During the past, Zanzibar traded spices with India Negotiating at the Market. so the architecture has Indian and Arabic influences which are clearly illustrated in the doorways throughout Stone Town.
We wandered in and out of some shops. We bought some souveniers in a few shops and in the spice, fruit and vegetable market. The fish market was quite the experience and we were surprised to see several sharks. I was glad that I was wearing my shoes! Karen was having a hard time finding a deck of cards that had Zanzibar written on them, but she finally found a deck in the last shop of the tour.
We toured the site where slaves were imprisoned and auctioned. The conditions for the men, women and children would have been awful, to say the least. The site is now an Anglican Church. Only 1% of the population was Christian; 98% of the population was Muslem.
We also toured a part of the former home of the Sultans. It was along the ocean and was very spacious, plenty of room for the two wives, 75-100 concubines and 175 children Slave Memorial. There was an interesting and tragic story of Princess Salme. She fell in love with a German man and fled to Germany with him and married him. He died 4 years later in an accident and she was rejected by his family and her own family as she had converted to Christianity.
We also toured the remains of the old fort built by the Portuguese. It had been converted to a railroad station and now is owned by an American who runs a theatre and a restaurant. There are also several small shops set up inside, but we did not buy anything there.
The last stop was the house where Freddie Mercury grew up. Of course now it is a souvenier shop!
We decided to stay in the area for lunch, so we went to Mercury Restaurant on the water. It was nice to have a breeze because it had been so hot walking around during the tour. Our lunch was OK, but not great Freddie Mercury's House. Motto was waiting for us after lunch and drove us back to the resort.
After we returned from our tour we had a chance to spend some time relaxing on the beach. Bill joined us for a while, then headed in. Karen and I walked out along the sandbar for a while. It was low tide and we were able to walk at least 200 metres out into the water before the water was above our knees.
We freshened up and went for any early dinner. After some manuevering, we were able to eat outside by the pool. It was calmer this evening, so we had a very enjoyable meal. We were even able to find some leftover peanut covered chocolate desserts from yesterday too. Bonus!!
We had good seats for the Maasai Warrior show. They did a lot of whooping and jumping!
One more sleep (in a bed) before home. It has been a great trip, but I am looking forward to seeing the girls, having clean clothes and sleeping in my own bed again!
