Christmas Day in Africa
Christmas day we left Tarangire and set out back to Arusha, where we were scheduled to fly to Zanzibar. Since we had some time to kill, we stopped off at the Arusha Snake Park, where we were guided around the amphibian and reptile zoo and a Maasai cultural museum.Our flight from Arusha to Zanzibar was uneventful. Remarkably, Arusha airport is even smaller and more rustic than Kamloops International Airport! Upon arriving in Zanzibar, however, nearly all passengers realized that some or all of their baggage was missing. Apparently Precision Air had decided the fully-booked plane was too heavy and had removed half the baggage from the cargo holds! Grrrr...
So we spent about an hour (on Christmas day, did I mention that?) waiting in line in a crampped, stiffling airport to fill out paperwork, and then headed to our resort without my luggage (Riki's had arrived). Thankfully my luggage was delivered to the hotel, unharmed, mid-afternoon the next day. And because I'm not a particularly classy lady, and it was hot, and the hotel was pretty secluded anyway, I proceeded to spend Christmas day lounging and swimming in my underpants and a shirt. No harm done.
We found our first Zanzibarian resort, the Matemwe Retreat Hotel to be exactly what we hoped for. Small, with just seven rooms, quaint and personal. The beach was picturesque: the sand, fine white powder. The water was a clear, calm turquoise and just 27C! The problem of stingy urchins in the ocean was easily combatted by a beautiful quiet swimming pool with strategically placed lounge chairs. The staff were unobtusive and friendly. We spent most of our six days at Matemwe doing nothing more relaxing by the pool, taking walks on the beach, and enjoying the 4-6 course a-la-carte meals. Paradise.
While at Matemwe Retreat we did a short excursion outside the gates to Matemwe village. The people living in rural Zanzibar seem to live mostly in stone-built houses, or at least rectangular thatched houses, whereas most rural Tanzanian lived in circular dung houses. They also seem slightly more active at work than Tanzanians, though this could be a result in us having been on the mainland throughout the Christmas holidays. Anyway, we saw many people running small market stalls, crafting furniture or doing every-day activities like fetching water. We also saw several schools - none of which seemed to be in session while we were in the village.
The hotel arranged two tours for us while there: one snorkeling tour and one dolphin-swimming tour. The snorkeling was located just off a small island that is, in fact, owned by South Africa; for this reason, we were strictly prohibited from swimming to its prestine shores. The reef was about 3-metres from the surface, which made it a little difficult to see up-close, but there was a terrific array of fish. Probably this location would be amazing for scuba. The health and safety issues were at questions again here, as neither of us was provided with life jackets outright. As Riccardo has trouble floating (he has negative buoyancy, or a lack of air in his bones, apparently) I had to arrange for our guide to locate a life jacket for him in advance - they charged us $10 extra for this service. In the end I would have preferred a life jacket as well, as the reef was located in the open sea and the water was quite choppy: we we both plagued with water down our snorkels. Overall, the experience was a great one - I love snorkeling!
The dolphin-swimming was not so great though. Not because we didn't see dolphins, we did. But I kind of expected us to go out in a boat, jump into the water and wait patiently to see if some friendly dolphins came by to say 'hello'. In fact, it was a matter of taking the boat out to where at least a dozen other boats were swarming around a pack of dolphins. Swimmers were hurling themselves overboard at the sight of a fin and swimming like mad to keep up with the dolphins who promptly dove to the depths any time anyone got close. I gave up after one try, finding that the experience wasn't as dolphin-friendly as I had hoped. Riki managed to get within petting distance to a dolphin once or twice, only to be promptly kicked with the fins of other eager swimmers.
Happily, the dolphin trip did include a bit of snorkeling at another location, where though the reef in this case was much smaller, it was more shallow and the beautiful array of fish and anenome were breathtaking. We also enjoyed a lovely lunch at a beachside restaurant before making our way to the Jozani forest for monkey-watching. Jozani is the only place in the world in which the Colobus monkeys call home; the monkeys were so calm around us we got some great close-ups. Despite a few hitches, these were two very good day-trips!
Yeah, no air in my bones but quite a lot in my head, hehe...
At least the dolphins in "petting distance" were a mother with a baby dolphin!!!