Intro of Marcia. northern spirit. and oh, Paje

  Paje, Zanzibar, Tanzania
Friday, October 27, 2006

Marcia (a fascinating sixty something year old lady I met here on the island - I'll write more about her another time) and I visited the Jozani Forrest yesterday. Nice forest, but the monkeys are the draw card.
The Columbus monkeys were very friendly, very playful. They were playing like children, swinging and pouncing on each other and falling out of the trees and rolling in the leaves. Chasing the one with the food in his mouth, a cluster of young leaves was highly sought after.
One scared the living daylights out of me, rattling the branches right above my head.




Back in stone town, we made plans for a whole island tour today. Had iced coffees, and helped each other shop. She needed a bit of a firmer hand in the bargaining department, which I was happy to assist with.

The tour of the island was not all of that impressive. But there was one spot way up north that was quite interesting. It's a town where they build dhow boats, and it was great to see these guys at work. Just a couple of tools, and a lot of skill. And patience.



Walking along the beach (you can see in the pictures it's low tide) these wonderfully dressed young muslim ladies wanted to talk to me. Marcia and I were both surprised that the first question out of their mouths was "are you married?" I mean I expect that from the guys. But for the women to ask me - it was quite revealing.
( **Marcia snapped a couple of cool pictures during our conversation, I'll add them to the log when I get them**)

The day ends with my arrival at Paje. A place of white sand and the blue sea. Turquoise in areas where the sand bar is high. During the low tide, you can walk out into the sea for a good eight or nine minutes without the water going above your waist. It was cool to see the silhouettes of people far out in the sea looking like they were walking on water.
I checked in, enjoyed a bon fire on the beach, and the unbelievable view of the stars.