Zanzibar

After a full day of rest and cleaning ourselves and clothes up from the safari, we said goodbye to L'Oasis Lodge, its resident dog, Skippy, and its resident crane, Henry. We opted to fly to Zanzibar and arrived at the Arusha Airport, which was not much more than an airstrip in the middle of a field. A chain link fence separated the "departure lounge" from the planes. We were given handwritten boarding passes and when it was time to board, someone just came over to the "lounge," called the flight number and walked us out to the plane. The flight, which started out a bit bumpy, ended up quite nice. It was only an hour, but we were still given a soda, biscuits, and cashews! Bonus!

Our hotel sent a taxi for us and the driver, Ali, whisked us away to the Twisted Palms Lodge in Bwejuu on the quiet east side of the island, giving us tidbits of information along the way. The Maasai security guard opened the gate for us at the Twisted Palms and showed us to the office, which is literally on the beach. Our friendly hosts, Laura and Renato, greeted us and gave us the rundown on the lodge. Breakfast is served in the beachfront restaurant everyday. There is a bucket in the room...keep it filled with water because the power frequently goes out and you'll need the water to flush the toilet. A list of excursions that they can put together for you is in the room and in the restaurant. Going for a walk on the beach to the left of the lodge is not recommended because there are people with knives in the bushes who will take your valuables. To the right is safe. Our final instruction...take off your shoes and enjoy!

We spent most of our time in Zanzibar just relaxing on the beach lounge chairs and hammock. We read books, listened to music, and snoozed. Being low season, there were not many other people there. It was peaceful. On day one, I forgot to put sunblock on my feet and Simon has since called me Captain Red Socks. I stuck to the shade after that. The shade had its own challenges though. At least three different times, a lizard fell out of the tree on me. They were small so it didn't bother me. What I didn't like were the giant bumble bees that flew around and around above me. Simon found it quite funny when one landed on me and I rolled out of the hammock onto the sand to get away from it.

We spent one of our Zanzibar days away from the beach in Stone Town. We had a guided tour of the town, including the market, the old fort, the old slave trade site and St. Monica's cathedral, and the National Museum. The National Museum offered a beautiful view of the whole area from the top floor. After sleepy Bwejuu, Stone Town seemed very busy. We enjoyed our outing but by late afternoon we were back in position on our lounge chairs at the Twisted Palms.

For Valentine's Day, we decided to treat ourselves and have lunch at the restaurant down the beach that boasted, "brownies, Ice Cream, mmmmm" on their sign. It turned out that they had no ice cream and the server looked at us like we were crazy for asking. Since we were there, we thought we'd have lunch anyway. It turned out that they also did not have any chips (french fries) as listed on their handwritten chalkboard menu. No problem. We asked for rice as our side. Twenty minutes later (food is not served quickly in Bwejuu), the server came back and advised that "there is a problem with the rice." We decided things weren't going well and said we'd pay for our water and go. Simon gave the server some money and he returned five minutes later asking if we had a smaller bill. Apparently he couldn't make change from what was a relatively small bill in the first place. We ended up getting the water at a discount. We wandered further down the beach to another restaurant that claimed, "Fast Pizza, Fast Wi-Fi" on its beach sign. The Palm Beach Inn restaurant, though completely empty, was very nice and had a wonderful view. Salum welcomed us and invited us to "be at home." Wi-Fi was available, for a charge of course, and pizza was in fact an option. Things were looking up. We each ordered a whole pizza..South Africa pizza for me and Zanzibar pizza for Simon...and waited...and waited...and waited. Over an hour later we had delicious pizzas in front of us. Even though the pizza was not exactly "fast" as claimed, it was tasty enough to lure us back for lunch again the next day. Salum again greeted us...this time by name, and we enjoyed another private dining experience before heading to the Zanzibar airport that evening to begin our journey to Cairo.