We were up early to catch our 7:40 flight. Another great view of the mountain this morning. We were on our way to the airport when they radioed Joseph that we had left medicine in the tent. In the tent we had to put food and medicine inside a chest in case the monkeys got in. Although we had checked the tent for stuff we missed, we forgot to check the chest. Someone from the camp drove like a bat out of hell and delivered the stuff before our plane had even landed. All’s well that ends well. Here’s a picture of us with Joseph. we will miss him.
We made one stop and then flew to Nairobi.
We were picked up by Lydiah and William and driven to the Giraffe Center. This is part of the Giraffe Manor, a small hotel were the giraffes stick their head through the window and share breakfast with you. I fed the giraffes (Rick wasn’t so interested in feeding the giraffes).
Then we went to the elephant orphanage for feeding time.
After these two stops we needed to return to the airport for our flight to Zanzibar. It was a slightly bigger plane this time.
The flight from Nairobi was about an hour and a half and we arrived in Zanzibar around 3:30. We were met by our guide, Ali, and our driver, Suleiman and taken to our hotel which is right on the edge of Stone Town, the main city.
On our drive we learned that Zanzibar is an archipelago which includes two large islands, Unguja (population ~1.3 million) and Pemba (population ~600k). We are staying in Stone Town which is on Unguja. Zanzibar is part of Tanzania but is governed fairly autonomously and they have their own president. 1.8 million people live here. The islands facilitated trade between Africa and Europe and Asia so they were ripe for colonization. In the early 1500s, Zanzibar became part of the Portuguese empire. At the end of the 17th century, the Portuguese were kicked out and Oman took over. It was under the Omani rule that Zanzibar became a hub for the slave trade to the Middle East. Eventually, the British took over the nation in an effort to abolish the slave trade. Zanzibar was granted its independence in 1963 and it merged with Tanganyika in 1964 to become Tanzania. This is a long way of say that Zanzibar has many European and Middle Eastern influences. The Arab influence seems to be the strongest. The population is 95% muslin.
We arrive at the hotel which is right on the water.
After getting settled we walked a little and had a drink at a beach bar. There we met a nice man who works in the embassy in Addis Ababa. We got a lesson on the war in Ethiopia and where to go when we visit.
We returned to the hotel for dinner which was incredibly slow and not that great.
