Island of Spice

The view from where I sitt...

I am sitting here at the computer shack with near second degree burns on my back from a few hours of snorkling at a nearby reef yesterday, but I can't complain. This place is incredible. Ever minute of this area is like living in one giant postcard, the scenes are unbelievable.

After a 9 hour bus ride from Arusha to Dar Es Salaam we spent a very sweaty night at the YMCA in the city. For $6 we got a room, breakfast and armed guards at the gate. The next day we moved on to the Island of Spice via a highspeed passanger boat complete with full Kung Fu film entertainment the entire way.

We are now staying at the Kenwa Rocks resort on the north west coast of the island until Wednesday and then its back to Dar and Norway via Nairobi and Amsterdam.

It is not challenging to adjust to a life of throwing on your shorts, taking a morning swim, breakfast, beach, water, more beach, some volleyball, more water etc. For a total of $80 we get 5 nights accomidation in private beach bungaloos with breakfast included. Additionally we have the nicest beach in the area with pearl white sand and tourquoise still water. It is 30 degrees on land and nly a few degrees colder in the water. The place is nearly deserted as this is the off season, but we have met a group of Americans from Zambia and a couple of groups of Norwegians.

As I mentioned earlier we spent the day boating and snoking yesterday.For reference, $20 for a day of snorking and a kingfish lunch on the beach. The reef was a rather long journey in the two stroke powered longboat, but once there we were treated to spectacular vibrant multicolour corral reef and literally hundreds of different types of fish swimming around us in crystal clear waters. I am taking a free diving course this spring with Bildoy and yesterday we took the opportunity to practice some basic techniques to get down to about 8 meters to check out the underwater wildlife up close. Swimming up to the surface again through white beams of light and schools of near mythical fish was quite the experience. Unfortunately despite very liberal use of sunscreen the water exposure resulted in my back becoming a very frightful shade of red and has given me a rather drousy and near fever state of being that I hope changes course before we have to leave this tropical paradise.

Life is good. I am on Zanzibar, perhaps one of the most exotic tropical destinations on earth.