South Africa and the Garden Route

The Garden Route of South Africa.

After spending a night in the Johannesburg Airport with all gear locked to a post and our valuables strapped to us, we were looking foward to the freedom of a rental car again and security of having our own space. We were easily able to get a car through Budget and this one (a Chevy Optra?) had a trunk so we could hide our gear. We set off for the Seaview Predator Park that morning and were anxious to meet up with Geoff and Sam to see how their volunteer work was going.

A baby giraffe (couple weeks old?) and its mom at Seaview.

A short drive later, and we were in the park watching a baby giraffe and its mom watch us warily. We started walking the grounds of the park where the large lion habitats are and stumbled upon Sam giving a tour. After hunting down Geoff, we got a first-rate tour of the park. They have some of the only white lions in the world. They only exist in captivity because they stick out like swore thumb in the wild without their usual camouflage. The park also houses tigers, leopards, meerkats, baby crocodiles, snakes, and other cats and animals.

It looks like even the big ones can be playful.

One of the biggest white lions at Seaview.

A leopard with a gene that turns its fur black (the black leopard is a different species). You can barely see its spots.

The hilarious looking meerkat. They were extremely curious about humans.

After our tour, we were fortunate enough to spend some time with the lion and tiger "cubs." I say "cubs" because they are young enough to still have their playful demeanor, but they are almost the size of adults! We only spent 5 minutes in their cage, but that was plenty. There are not many other things that I have encountered that can scare me like a nearly full-size lion looking me directly in the eye from an arm's length away. This was after I was told that she doesn't really like men either. Other than this and a male putting its claw on Erin's shoulder, the encounter went smoothly. My favorite was the tigers because they purred and acted just like massive domestic cats.

The tigers looked and acted like massive domestic cats.

This male lion was enjoying the rub-down.

During the encounter, this female tiger climbed the tree to keep an eye on things from directly above us.

This female lion is the one who looked me directly in the eye. Luckily she seemed too comfortable to do anything about a strange guy petting her.

We spent that night in Jeffreys Bay, which is a surf-town about an hour away from Port Elizabeth. We attempted to surf the next morning, but the waves were larger than usual and the largest I have ever seen so, after getting roughed up, we called it quits after a couple hours. The next town was Stormsriver (yes, one word).

The view down from the Stormsriver Bridge.

Erin is not a fan of heights.

We arrived to the start of the scenic Garden Route by spending some time in Tsitsikama National Park. The major attraction here was the mouth to Stormsriver and the end to the Otter Trail, when runs several miles through the park, between Stormsriver and our next stop, the Crags, and takes about 5 days to hike from beginning to end.

The Stormsriver mouth to the Indian Ocean with several hanging footbridges.

The look back to where we parked after climbing to a lookout point. It took longer than expected but it was worth it.

The end of the Otter Trail has crazy rock formations everywhere.

The waterfall on the end of Otter Trail.

There were massive waves that day.

Name one of my favorite childhood movies!

When we got to the Crags, we quickly decided we would rather continue on to Plettenberg Bay after hiking the end of the Otter Trail. This was one of the major upsides to renting a car and driving the Garden Route. Each day, we were free to decide which city to stay because of how close each city was to the next. Plettenberg Bay was larger than the Crags and offered many more activities and beaches.

I got a mouth full of steak and pototoes that we cooked at our backpackers lodge.

Plett had great beaches and spectacular views. After going from place to place with no breaks, we decided a relaxing day at the beach was in order. We rented a beach umbrella the next day and spent the majority of the day reading (Erin) or body-surfing (me). That night, we decided to go see Skyfall to try and get a sense of normalcy. Despite what some travelers we met in Namibia said, we enjoyed and it was worth the $4 per ticket. The next morning we packed up early and headed for the local National Park for a 3 hour hike around the Robberg Penninsula for some great views of the coastline and the local fur seal colony. Wilderness (awesome name) was the next stop on our trip and we were headed there by early afternoon.

Body-surfing these waves was easy compared to when we had to abandon it in Jeffreys Bay because the waves were too big.

The view of Robberg Penninsula.

As we pulled into Wilderness, we realized neither one of us had found much to do there during our research. We visited two lookout points. One of which is called the Map of Africa and, as you can guess, looks like the southern half of the coastline of Africa. The other (Dolphins Point) was nearby and overlooked the ocean. Since we could drive to both, these didn't take much time. We decided to get an early start on next leg of the trip to Oudtshoorn (farther inland) the next morning.

The Map of Africa Lookout Point.

The view from the car from Wilderness to Oudtshoorn.

Oudtshoorn brought us ostrich farms, game reserves, and the Cango Caves. We decided the caves were the best idea and drove straight there, and they were were amazing! The last time I have been in a major cave system was Mammoth Cave and it was a long time ago (guessing I was 9 or 10). This had many of the same attractions from what I can remember (Fat Man's Squeeze = The Love Tunnel at Cango, etc.). We did the Adventure Tour which included several tight squeezes and a decent amount of steps. Claustrophobia was  conquered in the Devil's Chimney which was a skinny climb upwards about 10 feet in a irregular shaped hole maybe 2 feet in diameter. I was one-handed because of our camera, which made it a bit more challenging. After being happy to see daylight again, we were feeling brave and decided to make the 5 hour drive down to Cape Agulhas to try and split up the long drive to Gansbaai the following day. We made a stop at Wimpy's (equivalent to a tricked out McDonalds) and ended up at a backpackers lodge at the southernmost point of Africa with our tent set up before dark.

Ostriches are farmed here along with their massive eggs.

The smallest points of two passageways in Cango Caves. Tunnel of Love (left) and Devil's Chimney (right).

The main gallery of Cango Caves. Only a couple hundred yards into the mountain.

The "organ pipes" in the main gallery.

The second chamber in the caves which is usually said to be the most stunning.

The view from the car from Oudtshoorn to Cape Agulhas. Looks like something out of Lord of the Rings...

Half in the Indian Ocean and half in the Atlantic at Cape Agulhas.

To characterize the Garden Route in a sentence, it's the best parts of the Appalachian Mountains and Florida beaches with more shear cliffs and extreme sports. It was a great road trip and we definitely understand why it's so popular.

(Written January 15th)

Road Trip in Namibia

We arrived in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, in the morning after taking an overnight bus from Zambia. We were immediately impressed. This city looked like we could have been in the U.S. We didn't stay long though, as we headed straight for the car rental dealership to start our first road trip. This was exciting, but also a little nerve-racking at the same time. We were looking forward to having the freedom to go anywhere we wanted. On the other hand, automatic cars are difficult to find and very costly in Africa (neither of us is super comfortable with driving a manual).  Add it to the fact that in Africa, they drive on the left side of the road, and it could have meant disaster. Knowing my history with driving a stick shift (my last lesson with my Dad's car was less than fabulous), I let Sam take the wheel first.  He only killed the car a couple times in the dealership parking lot (the gate guard only chuckled a little) and we were off. Luckily, the road to Swakopmund, our coastal destination was mostly well-paved highway.

The road stretched ahead of us.

We pulled into Swakopmund, and again felt like we were no longer in Africa, but in Germany this time. We learned that Swakopmund was an old German colony that is a hugely popular vacation destination for not only Germans, but also South Africans. Here, palm trees lined the beach, hotels and nice (mostly German) restaurants littered the street of the small town. We felt like we entered a little piece of paradise in Africa.  Just outside of the town, desert extended as far as the eye could see, and one of the highlights were all the sand dunes, including the largest dune in the world, only a 30 minute drive down the coast.

The view of Swakopmund from one of the main docks.

A picture-perfect view of the dunes.

We liked Swakopmund so much, we decided to stay for a full 5 days (instead of making the arduous 5 hour drive on a dirt road to see the other major copper dunes at Sosussvlei). What we didn't realize when we arrived was just how popular and crowded Swakopmund would be. After asking several places, we only found a very dirty and less desirable youth hostel at which to camp. Finally, after two nights there, we barely snuck into one of the last campsites the Desert Sky Backpackers.

For us, Swakopmund was all about the food and the dunes. We splurged as we ate out almost every night for dinner, eating all sorts of fresh fish and meat, more than making up for any lack of protein in our diets early on in our trip.  We ate pan fried hake, salmon, springbok (a type of antelope), shrimp, sushi, and oysters. Our favorite place was a little beer garden called Beryl's Beer Garden that made burgers as big as your head and an amazing spare rib pizza. I'm not usually a huge fan of burgers, but after trying the cheese, egg, and bacon burger with garlic sauce, I got craving a few days later and had to go back for another (hopefully none of my patients are reading this post;))  I definitely don't need another burger now for a couple months.

A rare (but delicious) burger at a German beer garden.

The sand dunes also didn't disappoint. We managed to slowly hike up to the top of Dune 7, which is claimed to be the largest free standing sand dune in the world. We took a chance and signed up for a quad bike tour, which turned out to be a great adrenaline rush going up the sides and zooming down the dunes. It took us right out to the middle of the desert so that all we could see were dunes in every direction.

Us on top of the tallest sand dune in the world (Dune 7) with sand-filled shoes (the sand was WAY too hot for bare feet).

On the quad-bike tour surrounded by sand as far as the eye can see (nice hair...).

A desert friend we found along the way (I refused to hold the Sidewinder snake we found).

Finally, we had to try the sandboarding, which I had read about and decided I wanted to do before we came to Namibia. We chose the lay-down sandboarding because the company who ran it actually took you back up to the top of the dunes by quad-bike. Head first is the only way to go down, so naturally I made Sam go first on the first run.  After a run or two, we asked if one of the guides could take some action shots while we went down and it just so happened that this run was the one I did a 360 and got covered in sand. In all, we got to slide down 6 times, and it  definitely provided a quick thrill. We were glad we tried it, but ready to be sand- free after we got cleaned up.

Sandboarding at up to 50 mph!

I decided to show off my skills and do a 360...

Good times, but there was sand EVERYWHERE!

A quick stop at the national aquarium where you could touch the stingrays and watch a diver feed the sharks.

For New Year's we celebrated on the beach with champagne and friends we met at the Desert Sky Backpackers, including three other couples who were on year- long  adventures themselves (from England, Austria, and Belgium), and some crazy solo backpackers as well. Of course, we all traded traveling tips and advice (The three big questions are always 1. Where have you been? 2. Where are you headed? and 3. How long are you traveling?).

And the very next day, we were off to drive back to Windhoek for our last night in Namibia before flying off to South Africa. Our food binge wasn't quite over yet as we had to still experience Joe's Beer House, which is apparently renown in Windhoek for its game meat. There, we tried various meats such as kudu (another antelope with wavy horns), zebra, crocodile, and ostrich all in one dish. We topped it off with delicious lamp shanks that fell off the bone! While glad we tried all of the exotic game, it made us realize why beef and chicken are so common.

A kabob of game meat at Joe's Beerhouse (kudu, ostrich, zebra, crocodile, and some chicken)

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Namibia. We vowed to each other to come back with our family one day when we have kids since Namibia has so much to offer, including western conveniences we are so used to. We also vowed not to eat out again for at least a couple weeks, for the sake of our waistline and for our wallets.

(Written January 6th)

Rafting the Zambezi

Erin and I have both been white water rafting before in Costa Rica and Erin again in West Virginia. We loved every minute of it and were so excited to do it again on the Zambezi River on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe near Livingstone a couple days before Christmas.

The Zambezi has 25 rapids so it took an entire 7 hours or so of rafting to get through them all. Where many rivers in the U.S. flow through valleys in the terrain, the Zambezi flows through a gorge formed from thousands of years of volcanic activity and erosion. This makes the river twist and turn like a snake and the wet and dry seasons make the river rise and fall by dozens of feet. All these features give the Zambezi some of the strongest currents and best rapids in the world.

We met a couple from Australia on the train from Zanzibar and decided to do several things in Livingstone together, including the Devil's Pool, rafting, and a sunset cruise. It was us four in the raft with our guide. We had expected more people since the rafts can hold 8 plus a guide. After the briefing, a group photo, and trekking down the gorge, we loaded our raft just before the first rapid.

These two pictures were taken back-to-back.

I was late to the party...

Rapids are classified in "Classes" from 1-6 with 1 being a little more than a blip in the current and 6 requiring expert training and generally considered too dangerous to even raft. The Zambezi has Class 2-6 with most of them 4-5. The first rapid is a Class 5 so we were thrust right into the thick of it.

Before we shoved off, I jokingly said that if anyone fell out on the first rapid, everyone else was going to give them hell for it for the rest of the day. If I only knew....Our guide mentioned that this rapid was kind of easy so we set off towards it a bit to relaxed but full of anticipation. Big mistake! Since we were coming into the rapid at an angle, the second massive wave of 4 threw the entire rafting over like it was nothing. And who was the first out? Me of course. We all went out and Erin and I were wisked down the river and away from the raft in a second. We both got saved by the kayakers waiting downstream if this situation came up. This first rapid really threw us for a loop so we got a little more serious after climbing back into the raft with a stomach full of river water and coughing like crazy.

The "God help us!" moment.

As you can see, I'm already in the water...

We were both bracing for impact against the rocks that the water was smashing into, but it never came.

Erin and I are about 50-100 feet downstream of the raft here and wondering what the hell happened.

Surprisingly, the next 8 rapids went off without much of a problem. Rapid 8 is another hard one and we almost got vertical but didn't flip. We did lose Geoff off the back but we quickly rescued him and were back on our way.

Holding on for dear life and laughing like crazy.

Rapid 9 is a Class 6 rapid so we had to get out of the river and walk around it. Before we started, I said I wanted to do the Class 6 rapid but after sewing it, I quickly changed my mind. It seemed crazy for anyone to do it, but one of the photographers, who has rafted all over the world, did it in his kayak.

It looks bigger than it really is, but we saw several along the banks that day.

After 9, we breaker for a quick lunch and were then back on the river. The second half of the day was less eventful because of easier rapids. This allowed us to go for a swim during the long stretches between rapids. The currents are so strong, one person could be going twice as fast as another person down the river and only be 5-10 feet away. Swimming surprised us as one of the more fun parts of the day, although seeing a crocodile on the banks of the river every once in awhile kept us a little worried.

GO TEAM!!

We finished the river with no injuries apart from some stiff shoulders and some sore ribs from our life jackets being so tight. They took us out of the gorge in a cable car and served us dinner back at their headquarters while we watched and laughed at the videos they took.

Erin and I decided this is the most fun thing we have done in Africa so far. Kili is a close second, but we feel like it was more of an accomplishment with a lot of work, where rafting was smiles and laughing the whole way (almost).

(Written December 26th)

Christmas in Livingstone

Being away from family and friends during the holidays has been a major challenge for both of us. We have never spent Christmas away from either mine or Erin's family so we were lucky in meeting Geoff and Sam.

Sunset cruise on the Zambezi River with Geoff, Sam, Erin, and I.

On Christmas Eve, we did a sunset cruise on the Zambezi with dinner and drinks. We arrived back at the hostel, aptly named Jollyboys, to continue the festivities. We arrived to a pleasant surprise because the hostel had invited school children to sing carols. We watched them and celebrated with Amarula, an African liquor made from the marula tree fruit.

Some local school children singing Christmas carols at our hostel.

On Christmas, we slept in and then made a pretty massive breakfast that we were both looking forward to. The day before, we had signed up through Jollyboys to go have lunch at a local orphanage. Since we had bought two toys as a donation, the lunch was free. Us four, along with about 20 others from the hostel, went down to the Lubasi Home and got the royal tour. We met the some of the orphans, of which there are 45 at the home, and then sat down for lunch. There was chicken, beef (the best we have had in Africa), ugali, rice, beans, green veggies, and soup. The kids got an extra helping of everything and they didn't waste it. We were amazed at how much they could eat. They opened the gifts and they all seemed very happy with what they were given. It was great to be able to be with people who don't have the option of being with family for Christmas.

This is Gifte and I. He sat next to us during lunch. Proper name around Christmas time, I guess.

We helped serve the orphans lunch before getting some of our own grub.

The kids can eat SO much and their plates were huge!

A group picture of everyone at lunch.

Geoff, Sam, me, and Erin at Jollyboys after dinner....Merry Christmas!

That night, we treated ourselves to a good Italian meal at a nearby restaurant with Geoff and Sam. They got everyone Christmas Crackers. This was a tradition we had never heard of which is hugely popular in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and possibly elsewhere. Usually they have a small "pop" to them like a firecracker, contain a small gift, and have a hat to where during Christmas dinner. We opened them at the restaurant and sported the hats for the rest of the night. We had some good beer and a bit more Amarula before settling in for an early night in preparation for heading to Namibia by overnight bus the next day. It was a good Christmas, but we are already looking forward to spending it next year with friends and family. Merry Christmas!

(Written December 29th)

Victoria Falls and the Devil's Pool

The Devil's Pool at Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe was one of the top reasons we wanted to visit Africa. Victoria Falls is one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. During the wet season, tons of water goes over the falls every second. While the Zimbabwe side has some of the better views from across the gorge, Zambia has a better atmosphere for tourists and also owns Livingstone Island where the Devil's Pool is found, so we opted to stay in Livingstone, Zambia.

For those who have never heard of the Devil's Pool, it's a small pool on the top of the falls on Livingstone Island where you can swim out to the very edge because there is a rock wall that stops you from going over. You can only swim in the Devil's Pool during the dry season to early wet season, when the water is low, usually September to the beginning of January. Seeing the pool requires an organized tour, and there is only one local tour company that will take you there. There were two options. The first was a whole "Island Tour" where you reach the island by boat, see the pool, and have a fancy meal. The second option was called the "Island Walk"; it did not include the meal and was about half the price.  Along with the Australian couple we met on the train, Sam and Geoff, we all decided to do the Island Walk since we cared most about seeing the Devil's Pool and not as much about the meal.

What we didn't realize is that "Island Walk" literally meant walking over the rocks and in the water on the top of the falls to get to the island, often with the edge not far away. We started by walking over a
6 inch wide concrete wall with about 6 inches of water flowing over it. We shuffled side by side holding hands, thinking to ourselves that we were crazy. But this was nothing compared to the rest of the 45 minute walk, wading through the currents and never being able to see the rocks you are stepping on.

You can barely see the concrete beam that we walked across in the very beginning.

Once we made it to the island, we were met by another guide who would swim with us through even stronger currents to get to the Devil's Pool. The first guide took our camera in a dry bag and hopped along the rocks a the very edge to meet us at the pool. We think he was our safety net in case anyone was carried by the current towards the edge.

Holding hands almost the whole way to make sure none of us strayed

We finally made it to the rocks just upstream of the pool. It's really a small area on the edge, but from the side view you can see there really is a lot less water going over at this one point. The first guide explained to us that we each just needed to jump into the middle of the pool, then let the current take you to the edge. Luckily, we got to see one of the guides, Sam, and Geoff go first to reassure ourselves we wouldn't just go over the falls. The guide with our camera was snapping away the whole time, just standing on the very edge (he took like 300 pictures!). We only spent a few minutes in the pool (really it was plenty of time), but before we got out, they gave us the option of turning over to look over the falls while they held our ankles from behind. This was the biggest adrenaline rush of the trip so far, needless to say!

I worked up the courage to jump in only after I saw Sam and Geoff do it.

Sam's turn!

It's hard to believe our guides do this every day.

Before we knew it, we were back on land celebrating with soft drinks and learning about the discovery of the Devil's Pool before we took off once again for the 45 minute trek through the currents over the
top of the falls to reach the main (and much safer) area of the Victoria Falls. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around with Geoff and Sam (and the baboons that would walk along the paths) and taking in the gorgeous views.

(Written December 26th)

What to Expect When You Travel in Africa

Sam and I have been visiting some epic sites all throughout Africa. We feel so lucky to have the opportunity so see and do everything we have so far. But there are still barriers, stress, and uneasy feelings at times.  These usually center around traveling from one city or country to another. We've had our "Oh shit, do we have enough cash on us, because we cant get to and ATM right now" moments. We've had street vendors hounding us to buy something or book a tour, even when we were sitting on a restaurant patio. When we arrive somewhere, everyone wants to give you a taxi ride, and they practically grab your backpack off your back before you can say "No."

Our favorite trials though are with the actual transportation itself. For example, during our first week in Uganda, the 12-hour public bus coming back from Bwindi Forest broke down with a flat tire. We waited 2 hours before getting up and running just to stop again about an hour outside of Kampala. They kept telling us another bus was coming, but we waited for quite some time, and the sun was starting to set.  So we set off to find a matatu with our newfound friend Jeffrey, who lived in Kampala. Thank goodness he was with us, because the matatu dropped us off in one of the worst parts of the city.  Jeffrey led us to an area we were familiar with so we could safely get back to the hostel at night.

The most recent journey was the 4 day trip from Zanzibar, Tanzania to Livingstone, Zambia. Our first mode of transport was the ferry to Dar Es Saalam on the mainland of Tanzania. We made sure to arrive early, as we heard the locals get pretty crazy trying to get a good seat. We've noticed that lines don't really exist in Africa, so we weren't surprised when we got caught in the mosh-pit like crowd trying to get on the ferry. Other than that, the ride was really easy with AC and TVs (because we managed to get the good seats).

Next us was the 42 hour train ride into Zambia. It was a sleeper train and we took the luxury of booking a whole cabin with just the two of us.  There were other Western  travellers there, and were surprised when they went to the restaurant next door at 3:30 pm for drinks when the train was scheduled to leave at 3:45 pm. We soon found out that the Tazara train is notorious for being late. That day they claimed that they didn't have enough money for fuel. Then, later we heard that the dining car was also broken and needed to be fixed before we left. We finally pulled out of the station at 8:30 pm that night after teaching a Californian couple how to play Euchre, hoping that the train would hold up for the entire trip.

Our cabin on the train (it looks even dirtier than I remember!)

We didn't find it very comforting when we would pass old train cars laying next to he tracks that had previously derailed, but we hadn't heard of this happening recently. The train made many stops along the way, and the vendors would come out to sell us food through the windows. Most of the time our stops were planned, but the second night we ended up stopping for almost 4 hours for more fuel. Apparently fuel is a very difficult thing for the train.  Luckily, we brought enough books to read along the way.

The view from our sleeper car

On the last day of the train, we started to smell burning. The train made an impromptu stop and several (probably not very qualified) men hopped off to take a look. Of course, it was coming from our car, but they somehow quickly determined that everything was okay and we started up again. Within an hour there was more burning and yet again we made an unplanned stop for everyone to take a look.  This time, they decided that the problem was one of the rubber belts on our car. The solution apparently was to just remove the belt because they thought we would be alright without it. We decided that laughing about this was the better alternative to crying, and said a quick prayer as we started up once more.

The train finally arrived in the small station of New Kapiri Mposhi, but we still had a long way to go. Instead of arriving at the scheduled 9:30 am (which would have been perfect), we ended up getting in at 11:30 pm that night.  The vultures of taxi and bus drivers attacked, but we managed to find the bus headed to Lusaka, which really ended up being a matatu (15 passenger van). Sam and I drew the short straw on his one because we ended up in the very back row in the middle two other people, one of which was a mom holding 2 kids. Counting them, we had 6 people in one row. We were so packed in that one person had to lean forward and the next in the row lean back....for 4 hours.

Somehow I managed to sleep on the matatu though, and Lusaka seemed to come pretty fast. The last leg of the trip was on a nice charter bus! We only had 7 hours left to go to get to Livingstone, Zambia (which really seems like no time to us now on a bus). We got some luck here because we heard the 6 am bus was fully booked. But when the company opened, we found out they added a new bus and we were on it.  It was a relief when we finally arrived in Livingstone, Zambia and reached our hostel, Jolly Boys.  Hopefully we don't have such a long trek again for quite some time!

(Written December 23rd)

Zanzibar! - Stone Town and Snorkeling

After we arrived back from our safari, we caught a flight from Kilimanjaro International to Zanzibar. When we arrived at the airport, we found out that the airline we had booked with, Fly540, no longer serviced the flight route. After several hours, we finally got an answer from the Fly540 employee and we were on the next flight to Zanzibar with a different airline, Precision Air.

We had arranged to stay in Stone Town through CouchSurfing and the apartment was bare bones, but it was in the heart of Stone Town and dirt cheap, so we were happy. One thing about Zanzibar neither of us realized was that it is HOT there. I would guess it was upper 80s, but the humidity was even worse and made us look forward to a cold shower. Being on the third floor with no A/C made sleeping a challenge at times.

One of Stone Town's wider streets. Most streets are too narrow for vehicles.

On our first of 3 days on Zanzibar, we spent the day exploring Stone Town. It is such a unique place because whoever designed the streets must have been insane. There is no organization to them whatsoever and, since the buildings are all 3 stories or more and right next to one another, you can't see any landmarks including the sun to guide you. We wandered these streets for several hours and never came out on the other side where we expected.

The local market with swordfish being unloaded along with every other type of seafood imaginable.

We visited the old slave market, where slaves were brought and sold up until the late 1800s, the Fanodori Gardens near the beach, which was one of our favorite places to relax, and the local open-air market, where we saw huge swordfish being sold along with octopus, squid, and tons of other types of fresh seafood.

A pair of dolphins swimming near the dhow.

Our second day we spent exploring the waters around southern Zanzibar on a snorkeling tour. A taxi picked us up and it was a half hour drive to the loading area for the tour. Several other groups, including a very nice family from Nairobi, were also doing the tour. We loaded the dhow, the traditional wooden ships used there, and set off for a sand bar where we had the option to snorkel, swim, or just relax. We chose snorkeling and it didn't take long for us to find coral, urchins, and tons of other sea life, including some fish that would just watch us as we swam just a couple feet over the coral where they lived. Sometimes Erin was a bit nervous because with the coral so close to the surface, there was no room to upright yourself and tread water so
we just had to keep swimming and find a deep area.

The dhow parked on the beach near where we snorkeled.

After the sand bar, we hopped in the dhow again and drove to a nearby reef that was deeper and had more fish. On the way, we spotted a pair of dolphins. We were able to see them several times throughout the day

which made them seem common, although I am sure they aren't. Once we got to the new snorkeling spot, we dove overboard and explored the reef for an hour or two. This was first time we were really able to
use the water camera. After following the current for awhile and getting called back to the boat, we went to the island where we would have lunch. They cooked us lobster and chicken with rice and several
other things on an island in the middle of nowhere. Afterwards, they showed us a baobab tree which had fallen over. We have seen the sequoias in California and the width of this tree was comparable to those...massive. After climbing and taking some pictures, we took the boat to the last island for a relaxing hour or so of beach time.

The island where we had lunch. The island are very tidal which is shown by the rock/ground level being much higher than the beach.

The baobab tree which had fallen over in a storm.

By this time, Erin and I could tell we were pretty badly sunburned. It doesn't take much, especially since we have found our anti-malarial meds make us burn even easier. We spent the hour laying down in the
shade and relaxing. By the time we left, we were eying the shaded side of the boat and snagged two spots there quick for the ride back to mainland Zanzibar. We enjoyed the ride and talked about how the
snorkeling and beaches on our honeymoon in Costa Rica didn't even compare to what we had seen that day.

(Written December 22nd)