Saturday, December 19th - Zanzibar City to Nungwi, Tanzania

After breakfast this morning my first chore was to call, well skype, the TD Visa folks to see why my visa card has been blocked.  Luckily Randy has skype on his computer.  The first time I called I was only on hold for a couple of minutes before someone answered.  However, she was obviously not interested in doing a call by skype with intermittent wifi service.  It was pretty bad at that stage and probably cutting out more than in so I can understand her frustration but I needed help and she shouldn't have just ended the call.  The second time I was on hold for almost 20 minutes but then Richard was great and had the situation under control very quickly.  They had blocked the card for a small charge under $30 to javago.  They are the ones we booked the Gondar hotel with and it got screwed up.  While it was annoying having  couple of declined charges last night, it is good to know that someone is checking on things.

Once Richard told me my vis was okay and the hotel charge could now go through, I e-mailed the hotel to tell them to try again and I cancelled the second booking I had tried in order to fix it.  Hopefully it all works from now on.  I then had to rush and finish packing as our taxi was waiting to take us up to the north of the island.

About 15 minutes out of town as we were heading north along the edge of the water we turned inland and went to the spice area of the island.  There were dozens of spice farms that were open for tours and we went to the Butterfly Spice Farm.  We were greeted by a nice young man who walked us around the area and pointed out the different spices and products, whether they were vine or tree or shrub, what the fruit or spice looked like and when it was ripe, what it was used for, how it was prepared and how you could start a new plant.  He was actually very good and did a great job so we thought we'd give him a 10,000 shilling tip or about $5.  That was before the end of the tour where he announced that we each had to pay a $10 entrance fee.  I said that if it was an entrance fee we should have ben told about it right at the start when we entered and I gave him 10,000 only.  Randy gave him 20,000 but agreed that we should have been told at the beginning.  In other words I guess we each paid a $5 entrance fee and then he got his $5 tip.

Everything was in one forest area and was easy to grow from seeds or stems.  He crushed leaves and gave them to us to smell but we didn't do very well at guessing what each of them was.  Some of the things we saw included:

- pepper - black, white, red & green - vine on tree

- hot chili peppers - bush

- ginger - root

- turmeric - large root very yellow on inside  - small plant to support it

- cardamon - berries at bottom on ground around a leafy plant

- lemon grass - clumps of grass

- cinnamon - bark of the tree for cooking - roots medicinal and smelled like vicks

- nutmeg - tree - seed pod - red around seed itself also used

- cloves - off a big tree - man standing at the top on a rope tied between branches harvesting the cloves

- vanilla - no pods at this point

- coffee tree - nothing on them right now

- lipstick tree - get red colour from inside of seed and it is red and doesn't come out/off easily

- mangos - really big tree

- lychee - no fruit right now

- star fruit and another similar one - tree and vine

- lime tree

- avocado tree

- jack fruit - really big fruit about 2 feet long and heavy looking  - tree

Then we had a snack of:

- coconuts - ate and drank

- custard apple - ate - tasted almost like custard - different texture for fruit

- cucumber - ate - tasted like ours but very different size, shape and colour

- pineapple - ate - very sweet and juicy

- teas - lemon grass and also a mix of spices - no tea in either one, just spices and both very good

They also had lemon grass soap and perfume that was supposed to keep the bugs away so of course I bought some - anything to keep from getting more bites!!!

After another half hour of driving  we finally reached Nungwi Beach and our hotel.  It definitely wasn't where the map had   indicated but it looks pretty good any way so we're happy with it.  There are only about 14 units in total so it's a small place when compared to others on the beach.  The sand is beautiful fine white powder and it is all over the property.  Shoes may never get worn around here as the sand is so nice.  Well, I later found out that there are a lot of little shells closer to the water and some of them are quite sharp on the feet so not as comfortaable.

Our first duty after checking in was to have lunch.  The restaurant is open air and right at the beach so very nice.  I had a beef fajita and, although it wasn't at all what I was expecting, it was very good.  We went back for happy hour later on and dinner.  I had a pina colada, which was similar to but certainly not like the ones in Mexico.  It was very thick but not with ice and not very cold.  instead it had a lot of pulp in it - coconut? pineapple?  who knows?  I had king prawns for dinner - just four of them in a sweet spicy sauce - and then a lovely thin pancake or crepe folded over and filled with fruit (mangos, pineapple, banana, etc.) - and drizzled with a chocolate sauce.  It was very nice indeed.

In between lunch and dinner we sat and did nothing except stare at the sand and water and watch the people and boats go by.  I also did some laundry since part of my fajita had flown off my plate and on to my top and pants.  And of course we were both clearing e-mails and trying to see if the Internet worked here.  It does but not reliably.  It seems to be hit and miss when you use it.so the experience is about the same as last week.  I guess I won't be posting or uploading many pictures for the next two weeks.

After dinner we sat for a while.  The weather is hot and humid during the day but the evenings are quite nice, or at least this first evening was quite nice - warm but with a nice light breeze to cool you off.  Then I went back to the room to have a shower while Randy went for another walk along the beach.  Oh, he went for a swim this afternoon too and said the water was great.  I am giving the sun, sand and water a miss for the next few days, or at least for today, because I have so many oozing bites on my feet that I just couldn't imagine getting sand and salt on and in them.  

And that was it for another day as we settle into our spot for the next two weeks. I think I'll be quite content not doing anything much except for walking along the beach and sitting and reading and relaxing.  That sounds like a terrific two weeks to me.