Tanzania day 9 & 10 — Stone Town, Zanzibar

Travelling with a carpenter results in pictures like this.

Narrow streets forming a complete chaos.
You'll really need a map here!

You'll find bananas in three different colours.

Plenty of fresh sea food.

The different religions in perfect harmony.

Soccer in the evening.

These girls were singing to us at the local madrasa.

We were supposed to reach Zanzibar at 14.20, and looked forward to be having an afternoon stroll in the city. That didn't quite go as planned. We were alerted when we arrived at the airport and our flight didn't show on the screen. At all. Turned out it had been moved from 13.10 to 16.45. When the clock finally was a quarter to five, nothing had happened. And the flight still didn't show up on the screens. Luckily, at 18.30 they finally boarded the plane. But we had to stop by Dar es Salaam, so we arrived Stone Town at 20.40, 6 hours later than scheduled. At that time it felt like heaven to check in at the cosy Zenji Guest House. As they say on their website: The aim of the projects of Zenji Zanzibar is to create (in)direct income for rural local community by stimulating local entrepreneurship, encouraging tourists to participate in local tours and providing training on the job and capacity building. Zenji Zanzibar works together with local organisations, NGO's, private companies, educational institutions and enthusiastic and motivated persons

Food and then sleep was the only thing that mattered then. But today we've gotten to see the narrow, winding streets of this charming town. Because of our limited time here we decided to take a guided tour through the history and streets of Stone Town.

About 5 % are christian, and there are a few indians as well. But most of the population are muslims, and the arabic influence is strong. Because of it's location Zanzibar was the perfect spot for traders to meet and do business. Especially slaves and spices became important goods. Today only the spices remain, giving the town some delightful flavours.

In the afternoon we had a "cultural night tour", which meant wandering through the town and some of it's more remote corners with a guide. It was pretty overpriced, but the tour itself was nice, taking us around those places where ordinary people go and live. Even though that meant for us to feel like two wandering tourist attractions. Especially among all the kids. The tour ended with dinner on the porch where the guide grew up, made my his mother. And a music session at the nearby madrasa by a group of teenagers. An interesting and very different evening.