Christmas in the Sun

So it is christmas and we have dicided to go to Tanzania. Really its a rash descision as we have plenty of opportunity for fun right here in Malawi and chances to SCUBA dive off the shores of Mozambique, but what the heck...Ellen is excited!

First we have a going away party for christmas. Dinner parties are the norm in Zoma boma (boma= bigger than village not exactly a town). With limited venues to "go out" to, (officially there are 3 that exist that I know of..but they are pricey) eating at a friends house is as exciting as it gets. Well now with most of us younger z-bomaites we generally do this ...well really we just cook and eat together to avoid not eating at all, or eating crappily. But the twist to this party was that we would make it a pot-luck (there fore more food...and glorious desserts) and have wine (such a commodity!). The party was great, we didnt have as much food as we thought but had enough for everybody to have something, and there was enough wine for me to have two glasses, so I was happy! The picture below shows some of us that turned the party into a kitchen party! Humm...most of these people seem to be Canadian! Wow us Canucks really stick together.

The next day we wake up fairly early and head to Lilongwe. Then we take off on a 30 hour (turned 36 hour) bus ride from Lilongwe to Dar es Salaam. This ride nearly killed my patience as we kept stopping for bus repair! In fact we (Ellen and I) spent Christmas eve on the side of a road, in the dark, waiting for the bus to start back up. (Due to many breakdowns, we were off schedule and had to wait until the light came out to proceed through a "bush" area where hijackers were known to hang out). We waited from 11pm untill 4am, and listened to the banter of business type Malawians and Tanzanias as they sipped thier Konyagi (locally produced alocholic substance sorta like gin) and toasted in Christmas.

Then when we finally arrived in Zanzibar, which I think is by far one of the nicestest vacation destinations ever, it was Christmas day! Seeing the white sands and blue water cheered me up! In fact although intially I thought it was a hideous idea to spend Christmas on the beach, I have to say it was quite nice. We had our offical christmas dinner at an itialian restaurant watching the sun set and contemplating life. It was great actually.

The next few days were spent wandering around stone town (major town area of Zanz) and found it to be quite a unique blend of arabic and european cultures. There was very little "africa feel" to this town...unless you count the art and the Masaai sales men walking around. Stonetown has a maze of streets with white stone buildings with beautiful wooden or brass doors. It reminded me somewhat of a aribic version of antigua (from Guatemala). Just a random oasis of a town. The best part of stone town was the Forazani (spelling?) or outdoor food market where you could get sea food freshly roasted for you at night. This was a place I really enjoyed. It wasnt quite as good as Jem al Fina in Merrakesh, Morrocco but it was nice just the same.

Lastly we found the best place in Zanz to DIVE, and we took an all day boat trip out to an island where we did an off baot dive into some of the nicest coral atolls I have seen thus far. We saw 3 giant sea turtles and an octapus!

Retrospectively, in Zanzibar we had a tonne of good Karma and are able to make it to all the sites and beaches that we wanted to see using rather nice vehicles....one belonged to the MP of stone town who offered us his car for the day because we were kind to him....and we were able to make a plethora of fun friends.

It was a nice vacation and Ellen was finally able to gain back the weight she lost to Malaria!