Tanzania
part of the On the Road travelogue
 
 
This was my first taste of Africa.  As I flew into the airport at Dar, over broad rolling plains spotted by clumps of trees, and rich lines of vegetation tracing the course of riverways, I thought to myself: Yes, this is the land I imagined.  The contrast between the Arab influenced coast, the small inland villages, and the National Wildlife Parks was extreme, but I found I loved it all.

Zanzibar

I had heard good things about this famous island, so (gladly) cut my time in India short to catch a few days here before my volunteer program started.  I landed in Dar es Salaam for a night, then took one of the many ferries to Zanzibar.  Having been joined with the mainland country of Tanganyika to form Tanzania (around 1963), Zanzibar still puts up an independent front.  I had to go through a separate immigration and passport stamping coming right off the boat.

First thing that struck me, even before we docked, was the number of Arab dhows that were plying the waters.  These traditional sailing vessels have been around for hundreds of years, and boast the first sail design that let ships ride into the wind.  They had made Zanzibar the most important trading town in Africa, during the height of Arab influence.  Plus they just look cool.

Having only three days here, I managed to get around.  The first evening I spent roaming around the narrow mazelike streets of Stone Town.  This is the coolest old city that I've seen, with interesting architecture, hidden shops, and intricately carved doorways.  I met a large (rambunctious) group of Peace Corps volunteers, and ended up hanging around with some of them.

The next day, Michelle, Daphne, and I took one of the many spice tours of the island.  We saw a number of the historical sights near town, then spent the afternoon touring a spice plantation.  Besides slaves, cloves made this place famous, and we saw tons of spices and tropical fruit growing in situ.  Plus we had an all you can eat lunch that couldn't be beat.  We even got some sun-time at a nearby beach.  However this small taste wasn't going to be enough; the East coast beaches were famous for their beauty.

So the next day we rented a jeep and headed down the rough roads to Nungwe, at the far North of the island.  Wow.  The water is such an amazing color of azure, you'd think you were in a travel magazine.  We beached the whole day, then cruised down the coast checking out the Eastern seaboard.  Plenty of beaches, boats, and rough rough roads.  Then back to Stone Town, where I caught the last ferry over to Dar to meet my volunteer group.

Global Volunteers

Back in Dar, I hopped off the boat and checked into the hotel just in time to be late to the first group meeting.  But as this was a big segment of my trip, I'll make a little more room for these adventures in a separate section.

Northern Parks

After departing from all of my volunteer friends, I headed up to Arusha to arrange some safari-ing.  I ended up spending three days in Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara, and Tarangire National Park.  I booked the tour right through the hotel I stayed at, from a man known as Ali Baba.  We spent the days, along with everybody else, cruising out pop-top Toyota on game drives through the parks.  Nights we stayed in local lodges.  I was joined by a pair of German girls, who were great company until the end, when one of the girls came down with malaria.  Didn't look too fun.  Anhow, I saw plenty of wild life: lions, giraffe, elephant, zebra, wildebeast, various antelope, and even a pair of rhinoceri.  From here I took a bus over the border to Nairobi - I had another group to meet.

...next: Global Volunteers

Recommended Reading:

If you're headed out this way, you might want to check out the following: