Zanzibar 1

We made it to Dar es Salaam!! We arrived on Monday at 2:30pm but didn't get out of the airport until 4pm. Why? Oh, because the wonderful system of customs and immigration takes 1 and a half hours to go through. Again, third world! Or as the politically correct like to say, developing nation. Either way, it's totally different from the U.S. My dad's cousin Zeby picked us up from the airport with her driver. From there we went to her office, (she is a CEO of a German oil company) and then went to her house. I finally got to meet a cousin who was actually close to my age!! Her son, Aahil is 17. After having some chai and all the adults talking about their childhood and such, we went to go to my dad's other cousin's house (where we are staying for the duration of our stay in Tanzania) Hanif. His home is beautiful as well and he has a son my age, there was another cousin who I could relate to! -If you don't know, all of my cousins in Canada on my dads side are 10-15 years older or younger than me so I don't really know anyone who is my age in my family. We spent the night at their house and then woke up Tuesday morning to head over to Zanzibar, which is an island off the coast of eastern Tanzania in the middle of the Indian Ocean. We wanted to take the 9:30am ferry, but the traffic here is soooo bad that we didn't make it. It's worse than Turkey or Nairobi. There are NO RULES. None! Except which side you drive, but even then, people don't follow that either.  Since we missed the ferry, we decided to go walking around downtown Dar (Dar is short for Dar es Salaam). We went for kebabs and chai. 

I wanted to go to the bathroom and this is what they took me to...

No paper. None. And I did it...I braved through it. The ladies outside (the locals) they were trying to make sure I was okay because I am sure they could tell I was a little freaked out when I walked out of the stall. But it was all good and I just thanked them in Swahili and went back to the restaurant. After eating, we walked some more and saw the original khane (where Shiite Muslims pray) in East Africa. One of the first. 

The white building is the khane. The other buildings is just a shot of downtown. After walking along downtown for an hour or so we headed back to the ferry port. We got the "VIP" tickets so we were on the top floor, in the ac. I met the cutest little kid ever!!! 

He is my new best friend. We were playing hide and seek and peek-a-boo. He didn't speak English and I don't speak Swahili but we had fun anyways! He is the cutest baby ever! I put on my sunglasses and then he put on his sunglasses. Ahhh. I want to adopt an African child now. I'm serious. When I am old enough, I am going to do it. After the boat ride we had to go through customs and immigration again. I have a bunch of stickers and stamps all in my passport. Then our driver took us multiple places to figure out what hotel we wanted to stay in for the night. We finally settled on Zanzibar Hotel. It's an old fashioned hotel. And in every hotel here they have mosquito netting. 

After settling in the hotel we went out for lunch. All the food here is organic. I'm talking, straight from the backyard. All the meat and vegetables are normal sizes. Not huge like in the states. Our bill at this restaurant was...$13,000 shillings. Which translates to $8 dollars. Food here is very cheap! And it's all fresh. Then we went for a spice tour. It was in the middle of the jungle. There were actual mud houses. 

Where the people who make all the coffees and such live. It was so cool to see everything, all the spices, in real life. Then they made woven things for us. Here is a picture. We look like such idiot tourists. But it was an awesome experience. 

After the spice tour we went downtown to eat at the local shops and areas. We had Zanzibar pizza. 

It's a specialty here. It's delicious. There were so many stray cats again. I didn't touch them!! Don't worry!! And then we had ginger coffee. It was sooo good. I love ginger! I like it super spicy and strong. If it makes me tear up, I am happy. Then we just went back to the hotel and went to bed. The coffee, in USD, cost 30 cents a cup...

Here is a view from my hotel of the city. 

And here is the ocean. 

We are staying the night a a beach hotel today. So I'll have even better pictures! 

Gangsta dad! We drove all through the island to get to the North beaches. Most of the tourists here are from Italy so a lot of the locals speak Italian. It's so relaxed here. Very laid back. Everyone is so nice. Always saying "jambo! Welcome! Hello!" If you smile they smile back. And they are very trusting as well. We went to get some BBQ. And we got our food, we ate our food, no one asked us for money...we kinda stood around wondering. Finally, dad and Zeby went in line and waited to tell the guy. They gave us a discount because we were so honest. We just arrived at the hotel! 

I'll show more later!