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Adoorable: Zanzibari rooftop door |
The Canadian government issued an advisory against travel to
Zanzibar.A week later, we arrived in Zanzibar Town, the main city and tourist centre. We never felt unsafe but rather an eerie quiet in an economy dependent on tourism. The historic Stone Town district is a fascinating labyrinth of windy little streets lined by whitewashed houses with fancy carved brass-studded doors. Normally crowded street and courtyards, bazaars and shops were subdued. Tour guides and craft vendors, desperate for business would plead and sometimes trail after us.
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A stone tub to make the Flintstones proud |
While the owner of Emerson and Green hotel was appearing on CNN lamenting low vacancy
rates, we were wandering through his empty hotel, admiring the beautiful rooms.
The Farazani
market is in
a waterfront park near the hotel we actually stayed in. Every day at sundown, numerous vendors set up tables
laden with delicious fresh seafood.
Not that we would know...
...Street food can be risky and we were having too much fun to get sick. This is as close as we got to Farazani food.
This elusive, nocturnal carnivore
with glowing eyes was not listed in our guide book. In the best
tradition of white guys in Africa, we "discovered" it and named it
after ourselves. Since it
feasted ferociously on our Farazani prop shrimp, we dubbed it the Zanzibari Shrimp-Eating
Bergrossebeest!
Lulu,
our travel rep
in Zanzibar.
Over ninety percent of the people of Zanzibar are Moslems and many are observant. Mainland Tanzania
is around one-third Islamic. Zanzibar culture is a melange of many influences,
mainly African and Arab. Omani Arabs ruled Zanzibar until ousted by the British
in 1890.
A
helpful reminder to take our weekly Lariam anti-malaria pill.
Controversial due to psychiatric side effects, Lariam is still recommended for
visiting eastern Africa
where the malaria is resistant to most other drugs. While thousands of visitors to Africa contract
malaria annually, almost all are cured. By contrast, poverty condemns two million Africans
to die from malaria
every year, more than any other disease. Malaria is endemic
to warm climates all over the world and occurred in southern regions of the
US and Europe until the 1950s.
I took Duv, suffering
lingering effects of exhaustion and high altitude from Meru, to this health
clinic. The doctor confirmed our prognosis that Duv just needed to take it
easy for a few days, which he did, and he would be fine, which
he was. The clinic was sparsely furnished but the staff seemed efficient and
competent.
Egads, another bergrossebeest!