Dar, Zanzibar, Bagamoyo, and Paul almost eaten by a Croc.

What a Weekend!! I couldn't have hoped for a better trip than the opportunity to travel with Paul and Audrey to Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, and Bagamoyo. There is so much to say and I'm going to try hard to recall all of the highlights, but there were far too many to count.

Our venture started on Thursday afternoon when Paul (Audrey's significant other) came to pick us up and head out to Dar. Dar is the old capital of Tanzania and still has most of the government buildings, even though Dodoma is new captial. It's a pretty well developed city because there are people all over the world putting up builidings there. Thursday night we spent at the home of Gille, a long time friend of Paul's. Paul met Gille when Gille was writing some stories for National Geographic magazine and needed Paul's assistance to earn the trust of the locals and the villagers. As a result of their collaboration, Gille has published a neat article in the July 2004 publication of National Geographic about elephant hunting in Africa. It's been so great to have the opportunity to hear the stories of other white people who have spent so much time and who have so much experience traveling into some of the most dangerous parts of Africa. It really opens up your eyes to the reality of this place. It's real life and real experiences. Things that most people who have visited Africa never learn about.

Friday morning, we hopped on a boat to Zanzibar. On the way, we were lucky enough to see a whole group of dolphins surfacing and a few jumping in the water. It was pretty incredible, and it's so much better when they are in the wild and you're not expecting it.

Once in Zanzibar, it was like a whole different world. The population there is something like 90% Muslim which makes for interesting experiences when you're trying to sleep in a hotel next to a mosque and everymorning at about 4 and again at 5 the Muslims at the mosques are yelling (and I mean Yelling), "Amka!!! Amka!!! Amka!!" Which means "Get up, Get up, Get up!!!" This would go on for about 15 minutes before they would finally give it a rest, and it woke me up every morning. But other than that, the experience was amazing. Every morning, we walked the streets of Zanzibar checking out shops, trying out random coffee shops, went on hikes through the back forests (Gille was looking for some unique art pieces or trees that could become art pieces to put in his house), and went into the markets, and down to the bay where all of the fisherman were out bringing in fish. We also went to Paje one morning which is a really nice beach, unfortunately full of hotels these days, but still absolutely beautiful. Everyday at 4, we headed toward the music festival where we got to here lots of different bands from all over Africa, some good and some not so good. After the music, we went to the beach where there was a whole row of stands set up where you could purchase a skewer of seafood for anywhere from 1 to 3 dollars each. They had everything, once again some good and some not but for 1 to 3 dollars it's hard to complain. The octupus was by far my favorite...way better than the stuff in the states.

Zanzibar's a unique city because it's so old looking and the doors are all so beautifully carved, some in an Arabic style and others with an Indian style. The city is quite quaint and the buildings are crammed together and I'm quite certain that down any given ally, at least 300+ fire codes are broken because of the wires that look like a rats' nests. It's definitely different than anything I've seen before. My favorite part was our last night there (Sunday night) at about midnight when Paul decided to test my sense of direction by making me lead us back to our hotel only using the back allies. I did quite well, until Audrey decided that we had been walking too far and must have passed it (though I was pretty sure we hadn't), so we made a turn that took us to another turn, that took us to another turn, that took us to this big open circle outside a mosque where all of the muslims were dressed all in black and sitting around in a huge circle and we had no choice but to walk right through the middle of it. It was a pretty funny experience. We kept walking and then it got even more fun because by now even Paul was lost. But the people you meet out wandering late at night are interesting individuals so it was a pretty fantastic time. After feeling like a mouse in a maze in a terrible experiement, we eventually found our way back to the main road and stuck to the path we knew.

We boarded a boat back to Dar at 7 the next morning, spent the morning in Dar shopping for supplies for Paul's work and botiqued fabrique for Audrey and I (audrey's a textile artist, so she knows where to find the good stuff). We later headed to Bagamoyo, which has a lot of historical background with the slave trade and Livingston. We got a hotel there near the beach and spent the rest of the day and this morning combing the beach for anything old or dead that was worth taking home. I collected seashell's while Audrey and Paul collected things like old rusty nails that were used in the wooden boats and huge dead crabs and bats, yes bats, because they wanted to keep the carcasses (They are both artists, so they have very creative minds). The fishing boats that filled the ocean shore were Amazing becuase they're so old looking and so unique....they were fabulous!! I could have sat and watched the fisherman bringing in their catch all day.

This morning after an excellent stay at a very nice hotel, we stopped by a place that raises crocadiles. Before we went, we bought a kilo of meet to feed to them so we could really see them in action. The guys working there hadn't fed them yet either so we got to see lots. I have attached a video which is kind of long, but absolutetly worth it. I'm not quite sure how I got this on film, but Paul is so glad that I did. A piece of meat got thrown down right in front of us so we could get some close up footage of these big guys in action. Paul was busy looking the other way and I happened to turn my camera to catch another piece of meet being attacked. But while we were both looking the other way, a croc right in front of us got on the back of the other and decided that Paul's hand would make good dessert. You'll have to watch the video to see it all. He's pretty lucky he only had two scratches on his hand and not a bloody stump. But it's a story he'll have for the rest of his life and I'm glad I was their to witness it.

Overall, the weekend was more than I could have hoped for. I never could have planned it on my own or even with other people because Paul and Gille know the best places in town and they know where to take you for the best experiences and the ones that the tourists never know about.

There are more stories I could share, but I'll have to finish them later. Now I need to go study so I can catch up with Josh on the Swahili lessons. But this trip was a good opportunity to get out among the people and use what I know. I feel like I could get out and manage my way around all right, so it was a beneficial experience as well. I enjoy the opportunities to get out into the towns and among the people because it's always so interesting what stories you come home with. Can't wait for my next outing.