Weekend in Zanzibar!

Pictures:  Me and Peter in front of a famous Zanzibari Door;   With Massoud, the head of the Zanzibar4Obama campaign; Me modeling my new hair; Stone town architecture; goodbye Dila!; and Peter and Dila at dinner.





We returned to Dar Es Salaam to the news that Barack Obama had won the Democratic nomination!  We were elated and so was most of Africa, it seemed! We spent most of Thursday morning watching the news and taking in the new historical era that we found ourselves.  Then, we ventured out to Air Qatar to confirm our flight home and then to a Tingatinga artists' cooperative to buy some souvenirs.  After all of that we both decided to remove significant amounts of hair--I was sick of being a blonde (something, I am now convinced, that I was never meant to be) and Peter had grown quite a beard.  After our haircuts, we walked back to Dila's and Peter spent the night in with mac 'n cheese, the internet and the news, while Dila and I went out for some girl time and Ethiopian food (which Peter dislikes).

The next morning, we boarded a ferry for Zanzibar!  The ferry took about 2 hours, during which I mostly slept.  When we got to the island, we found that Dila had made arrangements for us to stay in an ancient harem (which is now quite a nice hotel). . .it was very Arabian nights!  We also found out that the entire island of Zanzibar (which is an autonomous state within Tanzania--we even had to go through immigration again!), had not paid its electric bill in quite some time and so the entire island was now in the middle of a 90 day penalty period, during which there would be no power!  Just our luck!  We were fortunate, though, that we were staying in hotels that had their own generators. . . 

We spent most of the first day wandering through the maze-like streets of Stone Town, touring the old slave market (decidedly creepy), and browsing in curio shops.  We ended the day with a nice meal and then drinks and dessert by the Indian Ocean.  The following day, we headed north after breakfast to a beach resort, where we lazed on the beach, read, and dipped in the pool.  In the afternoon, we took a complimentary sail on a Zanzibari dhow (a type of fishing canoe with a sail).  Mostly, it was just wonderful to relax and get to spend time with Dila.  The next day, we headed back to Stone Town and caught a rough ferry ride back to Dar, where Peter and I packed our bags one last time before heading home to the states. . .it was unbelievable that our trip was finally ending!