I started this GoFundMe page to help the Kenyan village that we visited during our recent trip to Africa. The village water pump broke and now the women must walk 2 miles carrying 50 pounds of water. If you are able, please contribute and/or share this post to get the pump fixed. Thank you!
Thoughts about our trip to Eastern Africa
This was really a great trip. It was a nice mix of animals, nature and culture. Everyone was so kind, helpful and interesting. Logistically everything worked perfectly for us (with the exception of a couple of lost suitcases). The Seychelles could have been better if we had a different boat, but we still enjoyed ourselves.
One of my main takeaways is how damaging corruption is. Of course I knew it on an intellectual level but we saw it in spades. Madagascar is rife with corruption and the people are very poor. Outside the city many don’t have running water or electricity. Everyone is really thin. The population growth is out of control. And the lemurs are suffering because their habitat is shrinking. It seemed to us that the government isn’t effectively addressing any of this issues, rather the politicans are just lining their pockets
On the other hand Rwanda has much less corruption (although any corruption is too much) and the country is making great advances. People have running water and electricity. Everyone looks well fed. The gorilla population is growing. For the most part, Rwanda seems to be an Africa country that is one the right track.
Another observation, that people can be happy with very little. People live much more simply, but happiness doesn’t come from possessions. While many in Africa don’t have much most seem happy with what they have. Of course, I knew this but it’s always good to have a reminder.
All in all we would highly recommend seeing the lemurs in Madagascar, visiting the gorillas in Rwanda, checking out Kilimanjaro in Amboeli and spending time in Zanzibar. The Seychelles are great if you are into relaxing on beautiful beaches, but maybe not as good for sailing, especially in a monohaul.
November 15-16, 2022 Zanzibar, Tanzania to East Brookfield
We had the morning free so we slept in. We were supposed to have lunch at the hotel, but we decided we wanted to go to a Swahili restaurant which was listed in the Lonely Planet’s “Best Restaurants in every Country” guide. Ali took us there and it turns out that his nephew works there. His nephew explained what everything was and we picked what we wanted to eat. We had way more food than we could possibly eat but it was fun for Rick to try lots of different dishes. It cost us $23, bargain.
After lunch we headed to the airport. We said a sad goodbye to Ali and Suleiman and boarded the plane for Nairobi. In Nairobi we were picked up by Lydiah and William. They took us to a restaurant for dinner and then dropped us off at the international airport. Our flight left at 11:55pm. We were surprised to see Douglas and Nathalia, friends from Amboseli, on the plane. They were supposed to have left for Bali when we flew to Zanzibar, but I guest they postponed because they got food poisoning somewhere along the way.
We flew all night and arrived in Dubai at about 6am and then caught our flight to Boston. Luckily the plane was almost empty so we were able to stretch out and sleep. Thank you to Randy and Karen for picking us up at the airport. It was overcast and cold when we got home. It was about 85 degrees in Zanzibar and 55 degrees in Boston when we left. Ugh!
We got home to our new kitchen.
November 14, 2022 Zanzibar, Tanzania
We started the day with a walking tour of Stone Town. Ali had told us not to walk in the alleys at night so we had generally avoided them. He took us into the alleys and it was like a whole new world. It reminded me of Venice with all these cute narrow walkways. We learned to about doors. Historially doors were a sign of wealth. The doors were heavily carved often with chains along the door frame. The ones with chains either had a single, double or tripe chain which represented how many slaves you owned. Some doors had verses of the Quran over them. The square door frames were Arab and the one that had a rounded portico over the door were Indian. Many of the doors had large metal spikes (that were dull at the end). This design came from India were the spikes were used to prevent the elephants from trying to enter. Many of the restored buildings had traditional Indian balconies. The construction was plaster over stone. If the plaster is not well maintained mold grows under the plaster and delaminates it.
The next stop on our tour was the Anglican Cathedral. Zanzibar was part of Oman in the late 17th century and at one point was the capital of Oman. It was during this period that the slave trade was in full swing. Livingstone came to Zanzibar and saw the slave trade. When he returned to England he reported what he had seen and the English decided to come and shut down the sale trade. It officially end in 1873 but unofficially didn’t end until 1907. The Anglican Cathedral was built over the old slave market as a way to “purify” the space.
An aside…from Wikipedia…
Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone, whom he later claimed to have greeted with the now-famous line: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”. Besides his discovery of Livingstone, he is mainly known for his search for the sources of the Nile and Congo rivers, the work he undertook as an agent of King Leopold II of the Belgians which enabled the occupation of the Congo Basin region, and his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He was knighted in 1897, and served in Parliment as a Liberal Unionist member for Lambeth North from 1895 to 1900.
More than a century after his death, Stanley’s legacy remains the subject of enduring controversy. Although he personally had high regard for many of the native African people who accompanied him on his expeditions, the exaggerated accounts of corporal punishment and brutality in his books fostered a public reputation as a hard-driving, cruel leader, in contrast to the supposedly more humanitarian Livingstone. His contemporary image in Britain also suffered from the inaccurate perception that he was American. In the 20th century, his reputation was also seriously damaged by his role in establishing the Congo Free State for King Leopold II. Nevertheless, he is recognized for his important contributions to Western knowledge of the geography of Central Africa and for his resolute opposition to the slave trade in East Africa.
Slaves were brought from all over eastern African to Zanzibar to be sold. They were held in small unground cells that would often flood with sea water during high tide. When it was their turn to be sold they would tie them to a tree and whip them so the potential buyers could see how strong they were. The floor of the church shows where the tree stood and has red marble to represent the slave blood spilled there.
There was a slave museum associated with the church which provided more history. It was all very overwhelming. One important thing that we learned was that slavery is still very alive today and there ware between 21 and 36 million people living in modern day slavery today, more than were seized during the entire African slave trade. The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that illicit profits of forced laborto be $150 billion a year
Other random historical facts: Tanzania was communist for many years. Communism fell in the early 90’s and that’s when it opened up to the world. Ali said everything, including food was very limited during the communist era.
Another random fact: Fred Mercury was born in Zanzibar so there is a museum in his name. We didn’t go there.
After the church and slave market we went to the regular market. The government is building a new market so portions of it were on the street. We started with the octopus and fish markets which, as with other third world markets, there was no refrigeration and a lot of flies. All the fish vendors were together and I asked Ali how he picks who to buy from. He always buys from the same man. He know that his fish is fresh and won’t make him sick. This vendor builds loyalty by extending credit when you don’t have enough money or adjusting the price if you are a little short.
Next stop the chicken market where you can buy your chickens alive or if you want to eat it soon they will kill it and clean it for you. Ali rarely eats chicken because it’s quite expensive, about $12/chicken.
We then walked through the streets and to the palace of the Sultan Seyyid Said from 1828 until it was largely destroyed by the British bombardent in 1896. It was rebuilt and used until the 1964 revolution when the last sultan was overthrown. It was renamed the People’s Palace during the communist period. It used to be open as a musuem, but it is unstable and therefore closed. We went into the Old Fort that was built by the Omani after expelling the Portuguese in 1699.
We then went to lunch at our favorite restaurant. Rick worked on his presentation for the sailing club that afternoon. That evening we went to the Africa House to watch the sunset and to have a drink. The Africa house was where the English congregated in colonial times.
November 13, 2022 Zanzibar, Tanzania
At breakfast we saw boats coming back loaded with people (typically 10-12 men). Ali says they are fishing boats and they fish all night. We have seen the kerosene lamps that they use to light their work on the horizon at night. It’s very dangerous work because they use nets to catch fish and the men must get in the water to spread the nets. Needless to say, in the dark it is easy to lose someone.
This morning we went to a spice farm. Zanzibar is well known for its spices. The climate and its history as a port on the trade routes made it a logical spot for spice farming. Spices are grown in the center of the island because the other areas are too inhospitable for the plants due to presence of significant quantities of coral rock.
The farmers showed us a sample of spices grown on the island. It was very interesting to taste the fresh spices and compare them to tastes we are accustomed to. They were all far more intense. We were surprised by the form some grew in. For instance turmeric is a root, with an exterior skin that looks like ginger, cinnamon comes from the bark of a tree, and cloves from a flower. Zanzibar boosts the world’s best cloves.
Ali guided us but we also had a young man who got the spice samples for us to see/taste. He was continuously working, making stuff out of reeds and hibiscus flowers. By the end of the tour I had a hibiscus ring, bracelet, necklace, basket and crown and Rick had a hibiscus tie and a crown. Here is a picture of us in our geeky finery.
We also saw the original method for building a house which consisted of a lattice structure, packed with mud, with a palm leaf roof. The mud and roof need to be replaced every couple of years so people have moved to a more sturdy construction.
We returned to the hotel for lunch and that afternoon we walked around town. It was very hot. There is a lot of Arab and Indian influence in the architecture.
We went to a park where food vendors set up shop for the dinner crowd. It seemed as if vendors had the same thing, mostly kababs of fish and meat. Of course they was no refrigeration and lots of flies. The kababs were packed in newspaper. The whole thing didn’t seem very sanitary to us.
Almost all the ladies of Zanzibar wear hijab, the traditional muslim head covering. Some wear Niqab which is a veil that covers the face, showing only the eyes. Most wear an abaya which is a shapeless, floor lenght cover up. All in all they must ve very hot because I’m hot and I don’t have all those clothes on!
We walked back to the hotel. The food at the hotel isn’t very good so although our meals are paid for we went down the street to another restaurant for a pizza.
November 12, 2022 Zanzibar, Tanzania
We were up early to go to see the red colobus monkeys which are endemic to Zanzibar. It was a 45 minute drive to Jozani National Park. The road was one of the best roads we have been on in Africa.
Ali commented on how much the population had spread into the “burbs” of Stone Town. There has been huge population growth, there were 475k people in Zanzibar in 1978 and today they estimate the population at 1.8 million The road was widened several years ago and some of the houses had been chopped through the middle to make space for the road. Many of these houses still showed the scars of the chopping. There was a lot of poverty and people sitting around. Ali told us that the unemployment rate is 30%.
We arrived at the park at the same time as several buses full of people. There is a cruise ship in the harbor and one of the excursions is to see the red colobus monkeys. There was a monkey family living right by the parking lot, so we saw them pretty much immediately. These monkeys eat unripe fruit because sugar is toxic to them. If they inadvertently eat sugar they will go in search of charcoal to neutralize the sugar. They have very long tails because they only have four fingers on their hands and no thumb. They use the tails to help hold on to branches. They were playing/fighting and they fell off the branches a lot. These monkeys are on the endangered species list. Only about 5,000 Colobus monkeys remain today.
Also living in the park is the Zanzibar blue monkey. These monkeys look quite similar to the red colobus monkeys, but they have a thumb and a shorter tail. Their diet does not overlap with the red colobus so they don’t compete for food and live together peacefully.
After watching the monkeys we took a walk through the forest and Ali pointed out many different species of trees. There were a lot of small mahogany trees which are protected. Hopefully they’ll grow to be big mahogany trees.
Next we crossed the main road and went to look at the mangrove trees. I learned a new fact about mangrove trees. Mangrove trees live in brackish water so they need to eliminate the salt that they take in. They do this by pushing the salt to a few of the leaves which cause the leaves to turn yellow and fall off.
We watched a group of singers and dancers at the park. Ali said they were for the tourists but more importantly they were trying to spark an interest in younger Tanzanians to preserve their culture.
We had a late lunch t a a good restaurant up the street from our hotel. That afternoon we got caught up on the blog. We had a very light dinner at the hotel and then lights out.
November 11, 2022 Amboseli, Kenya to Zanzibar, Tanzania
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.
November 10, 2022 Amboseli, Kenya
We started our day with an early morning game drive. Kilimanjaro was clear of clouds. We went back to the lions. The lioness had made another kill. She is definitely teaching her cubs to hunt. One of the cubs was interested and the other was not. We also saw lots of elephants.
At around 8am, we pulled up to an acacia tree and the camp had set up a dining area for our breakfast. We had a lovely breakfast in the bush. Here are some pictures
Next stop was a Masai village. There we were greeted by the chief’s son and a que of ladies singing.
The chief’s son provided a blessing for us and his people. They also showed us how the men start a fire by rubbing to sticks together. They do that in the morning and in the evening. Then the ladies come to get some fire to cook with.
The village housed 4 extended families whose houses were arranged in a circle. There were four gates in the village with one family in each “quarter”.
Masai are herders and do not farm. They only eat meat, no vegetables (my kind of people). The men herd the cows and the women herd the goats and sheep. The men wear red to protect themselves and scare away predators from their cows.
Each mud hut contains two sleeping areas and a cooking area. The parents sleep in one sleeping area and the children sleep in the other. It was much too dark to take pictures inside the hut.
There were some young children around but the older children were at a nearby school that had been built by the camp.
Finally we were taken to “shop.” I bought an overpriced bracelet. While I was shopping, Rick was sitting under a tree. A man who spoke limited English was admiring Rick’s watch ($20 at Walmart). He was looking at it and then touching it and finally Rick asked if he wanted it. He said yes and Rick happily/reluctantly gave up the watch. (Rick ultimately suggested he had been culled from the group, looked like a weak target and was set upon by the Masai warrior in this case, similar to the lioness and the zebra.
While talking to the chief’s son we learned that the Masai practice polygamy, but it is quite expensive for a man to have multiple wives. The price to the groom for each wife is 15 cows. (Our guide later told us that throughout Kenya having a lot of children is a sign of prosperity even if it means you have no money.) The parents arrange the first wife and then the man can select subsequent wives. He also told us that the drought had been difficult on them. The village started the year with 208 cows, now they have 34. They are very good at sharing the resources so our $20 fee to visit the village would be spread across the village. The elephants had broken the pump for the well so the women had to walk 1-2 miles to get water. It wasn’t clear when the pump would get fixed.
We said goodbye to the Masai and went back to the camp for lunch.
Later that afternoon we went out for another game drive. We were trying to find a cheetah, but no luck. We found a cape buffalo, some hippos and an oryx, in addition to the usual suspects.
Joseph found a nice spot under an acacia tree and we had cocktails.
It was a chance for us to really get to know Joseph. We talked about his life, his family and the future. We returned to the camp and had a light dinner.
November 9, 2022 Nairobi to Amboseli, Kenya
We left the hotel at 6am because we have an early charter flight to Amboseli. There were only 8 people, including us, on the plane — a Cessna 208.
We arrived in Amboseli which is on the southern border with Tanzania around 9:30am. The primary reason for coming to Amboseli was to see Mt Kilimanjaro. We saw it from the plane, here is a lousy picture of it though the plane window.
At the “international” airport we were met by Joseph, our guide. We had coffee and tea while we waited for two more guests to arrive on a different plane. It turns out the other guest were Douglas Costa, a pretty famous soccer player, and his wife.
Amboseli is a game park and brags of elephants with some of the largest tusks. The Kenyan government has been aggressive in protecting these elephants. The security patrols are instructed to shoot to kill any poachers they find, so they’ve been pretty effective. We did a game drive on the way back to the camp. I think Joseph is the most knowledgeable guide we have ever had. He provided details on all the animals we saw but I’d be here for days if I tried to recount them, so I’ll just post some pictures.
We learned that Amboseli is named for the dust devils that we see frequently. They are formed by the sun heating up the rocks and dirt.
Climate change has been blamed for a four year drought in Amboseli. Of course the animals are affected by the drought and we see zebra and wildebeast carcasses everywhere. The clouds get caught by Kilimanjaro and the rain is dumped in Tanzania. It doesn’t make it to Amboseli. They are hopeful that they will get rain soon.
After about a 2 hour game drive we arrived at the camp. On a clear day Kilimanjero is visible from the camp, however it is often covered in clouds. Here are pictures of our camp, including the monkeys and dik-diks who were hanging around our tent.
After lunch we relaxed/blogged until 4 when we went out on another game drive. We saw a lioness who had just taken down a zebra. She had her two 6 month old cubs with her and was teaching them how to hunt. It was gruesome so I’ll spare you the details. We found the rest of the pride which included two more lionesses, two sets of cubs, (a group of 4 three month old cubs and a three week old cub). Joseph thought there were more three week old cubs, but we couldn’t find them. We finally came acros the father and two other females.
Here are some pictures from the afternoon game drive.
We had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early because we have an early morning game drive tomorrow.
November 8, 2022 Ruhengeri, Rwanda to Nairobi, Kenya
Today was a travel day. We were supposed to go see the golden monkeys which live in the same forest as the gorillas but our flight back to Nairobi got changed so we didn’t have enough time. I’m not happy about this. Here is a picture of a golden monkey so you can see what we missed.
We had a leisurely morning. It is their low season because they have a lot of rain. During the low season, the hotel allows locals to stay there. There was a general who stay at the hotel last night. He said good morning to Rick, so Rick asked him a question about the war in the Congo and Rwanda’s role. All of a sudden he didn’t know how to speak English. Hummmm!
We left the hotel at 10am and it was actually sunny! We really loved our hotel, called the Bishops House. The facility was beautiful and everyone was great. We got to know a lot of the staff.
We drove 2 ½ hrs back to Kigali. Along the way we noted how clean the roads are because the government pays people, primarily ladies, to sweep the road every day. We also noticed that in the city (Ruhengeri is the second largest city in Rwanda) they have sidewalks! Pretty much every hill we could see was used for agriculture. The Rwandan people are very hard working. Everyone is doing something. There were bicycles everywhere. We saw many men pushing bikes piled high with product for the market. We saw other bikes that were taxis, taking people from one place to another.
We saw a lot of flags. The Rwandan flag is green for agriculture, yellow for mining, and blue for water, with a star in the upper right corner representing the country’s bright future.
We agree that Rwanda has a bright future. They seem to have a stable government and limited corruption. They have done a good job marketing and managing the gorilla trekking. The education and medical systems seem to work — a lot to be said, and a distinct set of differences from most of Africa.
We would have like to have seen more of the country and could imagine going back one day, maybe to see the golden monkeys. Everyone was very nice and their English is very good. We have heard some murmurings about limited freedom of speech and their involvement in the war in Congo, but don’t have any real insight. We would highly recommend a trip to see the gorillas, making sure you spend enough time to really see the country.
We arrived at the airport and had to go through a security check which involved taking all of our luggage out of the car and having a dog check for explosives. There was a thorough check of the car. Here is a picture of Hussein, Rick and our car.
Once we had passed through immigration we went to the lounge and got some lunch. We were joined there by our friends, Valentin and Sandrine (friends from gorilla trekking) who were also flying to Nairobi and then on to home in Paris. Unfortunately our flight was delayed until about 5 so we might have been able to see the golden monkeys after all.
We were meet in Nairobi and driven to our hotel.