Finally a Family Travels Update
My sister, father and brother-in-law Matt got to Moshi and back home safe. Everything went well with their visit, no major travel, cultural or immigration mishaps. Although Mt. Kilimanjaro decided to hide behind clouds almost every time they were in Moshi, which is a shame because it is such a beautiful backdrop to my favorite places in Moshi. It was great having them here, and to show off what I have learned and have been doing for the last 5 months. I particularly enjoyed spending so much time with my sister; we are so similar it is ridiculous. I am now just getting back to my daily routine after being in and out of my house for 2+ weeks.
Zanzibar was great! We opted to fly from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar Island rather than an eight hour bus ride to a ferry to the island. We were a bit nervous before we left because the entire island has been out of power for several weeks. There is some problem between the power system in Dar and the island. It made it impossible to book a hotel room because most only use cell phones. Also with the slow internet and electric situations in Africa not making the news we couldn’t get an idea of what we were getting in to. So we hopped on a plane with little more than a couple of ideas about what to do and an outdated guide book. It all worked out fine.
The white sand beaches with turquoise waters were my favorite part, absolutely gorgeous. It is hard to describe why but I’ll try: I love turquoise color and to see that color as a huge mass of liquid was so cool. On the first full day on the beach we took a long boat ride to an island to go snorkeling. The coral reef looked just like an underwater documentary, so many cool creatures like star fish, clown fish and sea cucumbers. Stonetown, the only really town on the island looked like a place out of Europe. The buildings, beautiful carved wood doors, markets and narrow winding streets created a surreal atmosphere. The no electricity thing was fine, most of the hotels have generators that were on several hours each day so we were able to take hot showers and have lights in the evenings. The weather was perfect; I would guess 85 and sunny during the day and 65 with clear star filled skies at night.
