Zanzibar Beaches

zanzibar is so beautiful! we actually decided to stay an extra two days so we are still here. we originally planned to take the ferry yesterday afternoon but we realized that we both dreaded going back to dar and since it is so much nicer here we thought we may as well stay for the weekend. we'll go back tomorrow and stay with charles and ancilla for a few days, do some day trips to bagamoyo, etc. and then on saturday our volunteer program starts.

so we spent two days on the north beaches - Aziz, the guy that we met in stone town, is friends with the owner of a hotel (Kendwa Rocks) so we got a good deal there. the beach was incredibly beautiful - clear blue water and really white clean sand. we had our own banda (small hut) right next to the beach for $25. it was very relaxing and we spent all day on the beach. as we were on the bus back to the ferry, we spontaneously decided to stay and explore the east beaches, which is where we had originially planned on going. the drive down here was really nice because the landscape and vegetation is quite different here. and we ended up in a really cool hotel with an eclectic style of bungalows on the beach (called Mt. Zion Bungalows). there are also pine trees on the beach here which i really like. also there are more stones and a lot of seaweed on the beach here, all of which we thought was very nice until we got closer and saw there is also a lot of trash mixed in. so that was rather disappointing. but anyway, the people are incredibly friendly... since its the low season there are very few people here. actually at our hotel here there is only one other person - Katie, a girl from portland oregon, she is doing her residency there. so the three of us eat dinner together, etc. there are very few people working at the hotel but they are all extremely attentive, always telling us karibu, you are welcome, enjoy, do you like it, etc. last night they made a fire and sat around it playing the guitar, drums, and singing. everyone is so musical here. they randomly break out into song at any time, and they often make up the words as they go long. i'm especially impressed by that because i'm not musical at all. i tried to play the drums but since i have no rhythm it didnt work too well. there is also a group of young girls from the village (Jambiani) and they always come hang out around the beach. yesterday sandy and i were lying in a hammock reading and all of a sudden looked up to see that we were completely surrounded by all these girls. they stared at us and we stared back. they were also eating some strange fruits from the trees, but the fruit is very tough and stringy so they spit it back out - i think they just get the taste and a little juice from the fruits. at any rate, it was very bizarre how they just chewed right in our faces, staring at us in curiosity. then since we smiled at them they jumped into the hammock and started swinging with us.
next time i go to zanzibar i would love to go to the International Film Festival! unfortunately we werent there are the right time but who knows, maybe someday...