Musings from Zanzibar
Personal journal and photographs, Day 2
Saturday, 25/08/2018
Here’s a brief list of everything that has been pitched to us so far:
- a dolphin tour
- a fishing tour
- a sea turtle tour
- a Stone Town tour
- perfume
- fresh coconuts
- jewelry
- taking our pictures
I’m sure I’m forgetting something. But you get the general idea.
It rained during the night. Around 4 a.m. a squawking bird was just asking to be murdered. After rising a bit after 8, we got ready for breakfast and realized we had left the toilet paper in the bathroom — a big no-no in this case, since it is exposed to the elements. Oops.
After breakfast, we strapped on our water shoes and entered the Indian Ocean at low tide. It sweeps out very far, leaving a wide swath of calf to ankle length water, leaving the underbelly of aquatic life available for exploration. Plenty of pictures were taken, spindly sea urchins avoided, and we met several little crabs hiding inside seashells.
After that, I went poolside to read Proust and burn. Well, I put sunscreen on the tops of my shoulders and face but now the rest of my body looks like freshly cooked shrimp. The white spots on the tops of my shoulders remind me of that suntanning scene in Billy Madison. I just need a smiley face.
Then, after swimming a few laps, we walked the 20 minutes or so to the nearby village of Kizimkaze, saying Jambo to everyone along the way. We bought fresh water since both the show and tap here in the bungalow serve brackish water, which is not so terrible for brushing teeth, but D. must take medicine every morning, so it seemed for the best.
We stopped at an intersection, across from the Baobob Cafe, where guys that tried to sell us a dolphin tour on the low tide outside our lodge sold us two young coconuts instead. Price: 10,000 shillings. That’s like the equivalent of 4 euros, maybe. It was delicious, though. Afterwards, they cut it in half and we used part of the hard skin to use as a scraper and spoon for the “meat” of the coconut. Then we walked back, and now, here it is, only 4:30 and I’m writing this outside on the front porch of our bungalow. Time for some more swimming, and hey, maybe even a piña colada.
Thanks for reading! If you missed day 1, you can read it here. New entries will be posted each Wednesday. Keep scrolling to see other pictures from this day. Cheers.
