Meow Much Longer to Zanzibar?

Such the TIA day. We drove from Ngorongoro Crater to Moshi, TZ and what our tour guide Moses told us was going to be a 5 hour drive still had us on the road 15 hours later. Africa time took on a whole new meaning. We became marginally delirious, and it led to some interesting antics. I reminded my parents of the scene in the movie SuperTroopers where they ‘meow’ at a lady during a traffic stop, daring each other to say meow 10 times. Long story short, we started meowing at Moses. All of us.

‘Meow much longer ‘til we get to Arusha?’... ‘We’ve been driving a long time meow!’... ‘Hey Meowses, will you turn up the music?’

His grasp of English isn’t the best, so he honestly had no idea what was going on. So stellar.

The next day we were off to Zanzibar. Unfortunately we had another day of being on Africa Time, and we missed the last ferry at 4 o’clock. This turned out to be kind of awesome though, because it meant we got to fly to the island. We took off on a chartered 3 passenger plane (needless to say I felt like Angelina Jolie). The flight was surprisingly smooth and we finally made it to the tiny little Zanzibar airport. Customs consisted of giving a friendly wave to a sweet old lady, and security was nonexistent.

We spent our first day on the island just relaxing at our resort and enjoying the beautiful beach, delicious Swahili food, and warm weather. The next day, we ventured to Stone Town, Zanzibar’s heart and soul. I felt lost in time as we wondered the streets of old buildings and narrow alleyways. Old men playing mancala, little girls skipping home from school, and painters depicting their surroundings filled the streets. We had to work hard to shake off a few touts (or “ticks”) who tried to sell us tours or get us to come to their shops—it was a fun opportunity to practice my sassy Swahili though… “Tafadhali niache!” (the Swahili equivalent of “You best be stepping off.”)

It was so hard to leave the little paradise of Zanzibar after just 2 days, but I’m so glad we had the opportunity to experience it.