Hey, guys I just want to let you in on my latest travel adventure which took place in Africa:

Some of you already know, that my little brother spend a year abroad in Tanzania with a volunteering program. I recommend reading his blog: flo2go.org

He spend his year Zanzibar city and travelled around Tanzania during his vacations. On Zanzibar I started my travels. The deal was that my brother would pick me up and stay by my side during the whole travel. He did a good job and kept his promise.

First day on Zanzibar I realised, that the weather was actually colder than in Germany. True, it was ‘winter’ in Africa, but I think they don’t have seasons as we do. They only have rainy season and dry season 😉 We still had around 25 degree Celsius.

The majority of the population is Muslim and therefore female tourists should also wear longer clothes than a light summer dress. So I always wore long trousers and thin but long shirts. I hooed that we will find more suitable clothes on one of the markets but it wasn’t easy. I didn’t want to buy something that I only wear during these 2 weeks.

First day in the evening we went to an Indian restaurant and I met many other volunteers that work in different projects. Some of them were teachers working in the local schools. Others helped in running a recycling center or like my brother installed solar systems in private housholds for regenerative energy.

On Zanzibar I stayed in an Apartement in the centre of the city which is called Stone Town. The stone they use to build the houses is coral stone. The stone is round not edgy. I still don’t know how they can stick them together to have a vertical wall. Some of the houses had collapsed and we could look at the ruins and debris.

We had some very delicious breakfasts on Zanzibar. They have different kinds of breads whether fried in a lot of oil or wholy deep fried 😉 you can get a bowl of beans with your breakfast and of course a cup of chai (chai = tea in Kiswahili). I must say I love these breads! I will try to cook them back in Hamburg.

First day we met Flos host family and the mum cooked for us. New to me was the way we ate it. I thought we would all sit around the table in the living room but they just put a woven straw carpet on the floor and everyone sat down on it basically on the floor. Everyone got a plate but no cutlery. Flo showed me how to eat rice with meat and sauce only with the hands 🙂 it was so delicious that I didn’t mind how the food found its way into my mouth. It is weird but you can get used to it very fast. Before and after eating someone comes around with soap and water for everyone to wash hands. Very hygienic! Over all the host family was very nice. I brought some little presents for them. One of them were party glasses and the kids loved wearing them and taking pictures with it 😉

Flo showed me some magnificent beaches. It must have been high tide as we were on one beach because all the trees were standing in the water and we swam around them 🙂 that really felt like a beach how you can find in Paradise!

Another day we went on a boat trip with a water taxi. First stop sandbank with very clear water and nice waves. We also had a snorkeling device but there was not too much to look at. Only a few rocks. I got some sunburns that day. I naivly thougt I don’t need to put sun tan lotion on my legs for just one or two hours in the sun…Still I enjoyed the sun a lot and I would love to go back there!

Next stop with the water taxi was prison island. An Island that first was used to imprison slaves when the slave markets on Zanzibar were full. Now it is inhabited by hundreds of turtles. The first 5 were a gift I think from the Oman. One of the original 5 is still alive and around 200 years old. We saw a lot of the turtles doing the act of reproduction. My comment: They don’t only walk really slowly 😉

After 4 days we had to leave the island because Flo had planned something special. We were going on a train ride through the country.

To be continued…