The Spice Island

I like Zanzibar and always have since my first visit here in the late 1990s. It definitely has a certain charm and the sunsets every evening are unbelievably beautiful. The only downside for me is the constant hassling on the streets by touts trying to sell me a spice tour or a trip to Prison Island or a taxi. The constant "Hello", Jambo", "Mambo", "Habari", "Hakuna matata" all get rather irksome after a while too. Nowhere else in the world do I get greeted by so many strangers. Fortunately I don't really have to deal with this for long because, since I am working here, the only time I am on the streets is when I walk to work and back and, when I am sitting in my favourite restaurant, Livingstone's, there is very minimal harassment.

What really helps to make my stay in Stonetown so relaxing is that I stay in a fantastic little locally owned hotel called Abuso Inn. It has huge bedrooms which are safe and clean, hot water and free wireless Internet. So all my requirements are met. I did have to change rooms though after two nights because the first room I was in ended up with no hot water due to a little incident involving some construction material falling off the roof and, in the process, damaging the hot water pipe. It was no big deal, I was moved without any fuss and my stay continued to be comfortable.

My comfy bedroom

This time in Zanzibar, I really didn't do anything touristy except pay homage to the sunsets every evening. On my first day here I went to the Africa House Hotel for a drink and lunch at their terrace bar but ended up not staying there due to a lack of Safari lagers, my Tanzanian beer of choice. So Livingstone's it was from day one until day six! Livingstone's is a fantastic place on the beach. I thoroughly enjoy sitting at the table with my feet on and in the beach sand, watching the boats pass by and just relaxing to the sound of the waves gently washing on to the beach. I went to the night market last night at the Forondoni Gardens. This time I could not resist trying the Zanzibar pizza. It was quite tasty but nothing like an Italian pizza. It is also a fantastic place to sit and people watch, both locals and tourists.

 Setting up the night market

All the pizza options - had to laugh at the "Penate buton" ones and can only assume it should be peanut butter

 Swim time for all the local kids

One of the many cats - this one gazing down into the water to see if it can spot anything interesting

In terms of work, it went very well here. I had eight participants, seven of whom have been participating in the project for years and years. It is really refreshing to work with them because I don't have to spend the first day teaching the system, they just get on with updating their fisheries information. It was the first group, I think ever, that worked through their lunch periods by choice, eating their food at their computers, because they wanted to get the work done.

The Tanzanian WIOFish group

So now I have visited six countries and only one remains on this tour: Mozambique. This afternoon I fly to Nairobi and then connect onto a flight to Johannesburg tonight, arriving there just before midnight. I will spend the rest of the night in a hotel near the airport before heading back to the airport in the morning for the quick hop across the border to  Maputo. So I leave you with a few of my sunset photos.