Enjoying Paradise Island - Jambiani
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2009
1
22
24
Trip End
May 01, 2009
Jambiani, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Up bright and early Sunday morning and Kaiza came to pick us up for another day of playing tourist (it's such a strange concept when we've been working here for 2 months). What a day it was... of course it was raining, but seeing as we were going to a "rain"forest I figured it was okay. Our first stop was the Jozani forest which is home to the red colobus monkey. They are only found on Zanzibar in the entire world! We had a guided tour of the forest and got to see the monkey's jumping and swinging all around, it was awsome! I got lots of pictures and video's (don't worry Natalie!) to show everyone! Next we headed to the most southern tip of the island, Kizimkazi. We went out in our little fishing boat to find some wild dolphins. It didn't take long until we were motoring along beside a group of them at which point we jumped in the water and swam right along beside them until they sped off! My years of practice with the dolphin kick at synchro unfortunately was not enough to keep up. We got back in the boat until we found them again, at which time we jumped right back in a swam along close enough to touch them... absolutely incredible. We continued this until we jumped into a pool of jelly fish, each got midly stung, and as soon as I saw one the size of a grapefruit about 2 feet from my face we decided we'd had enough for the day!
Our driver then took us to a stretch of beach called Jambiani where Kaiza found us a cheap bungalow right on the beach for us to spend our next 4 days relaxing at. And that's exactly what we did. We have spent the last 4 days walking around the little village of Jambiani, swimming in the turquiose water of the Indian Ocean as well as hotel pools along the coast, laying in the sun, enjoying a LARGE included breakfast every morning, and buying local fruits and vegetables for most of our meals! Yesterday (our last day) while we were laying by the pool a lady came up the beach and asked us if we'd like a massage. For $5.00 each there was no way we could say no... so we each enjoyed a half hour massage, laying by the pool in the african sun, and completely relaxing. Ahhh, you can understand how difficult it was for us to get up this morning and hop on the insanely squished 2 hour daladala ride back to Stone Town.
So now we're back, we'll be spending the rest of the day tying up loose ends here and getting ready for our ferry trip back to Dar and then up north to Moshi. We'll be arriving in Moshi tomorrow afternoon and starting our climb up Kilimanjaro on SUNDAY! WOW, I can't believe its here already! I decided to go with August (the guide that was reccomended by a contact I have back in N.S. who went with him) and so I will be heading up the Marangu route just me, August and the porters. I don't know exactly what to expect but am glad that I have been able to keep my health up and hopefully that will help me reach Uhuru Peak at 5896m, the highest peak on the entire continent of Africa! The climb will take a total of 5 nights, 6 days so it might be a while before I am able to update you all. The day after we finish the climb I will be starting meeting up with Katie and her mom for a safari. I will spend the first 2 days with them doing Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro crater and then continuing on by myself for 3 days to do the Seregeti! It all seemed to so unreal to say these were my plans before leaving Canada, and it still seems just as unreal!
I don't think I'll believe it until I'm in mid climb or staring out the side of our jeep on safari. The next couple of weeks are going to be very busy and I can't wait to get started! Thus concludes this entry, I have some emails to send and money to spend so I should get going! I've heard the weather has been less than desirable so I hope it starts to get better and is warm and sunny by the time I come home in 1 month!
Peace and love,
Gina
