After our arduous journey to get to Zanzibar (that's a whole separate post- to be coming later), we finally arrived at the resort just in time to check in and enjoy dinner by the ocean. We decided to go to bed at a reasonable hour (but not after enjoying a couple Rum Punches!)
Our first full day at the Red Monkey Beach Lodge was pretty amazing!
First off- the weather. It is very warm and humid here! The sun is strong but thankfully there are plenty of shaded areas to sit, and the breeze makes it nice too.
The rooms are large with a king sized bed in the middle (complete with mosquito nets!) and a twin bed off to the size. We got two rooms, and in true fashion, Cari and Nat took one and Brittany and I took the other. Brittany and I had some nice overnight guests of a salamander, some sort of centipede thing, and a couple ants. We got everything taken care of and laid down to bed. HOLY MAN IT WAS HOT! We had the fan on full blast and relaxed and finally fell asleep. We could hear the other girls giggling through the window (again, in true fashion). We fell asleep and got to sleep in for the very first time this whole trip. For the last 2.5 weeks we have been getting up anywhere between 5:30-6:45 every single day!!! We slept in until about 8:45 and got ready for breakfast.
When we booked the resort we picked the package that had breakfast included. We came out and ordered Spanish omelettes, fried eggs, fruit plates, and our new favorite- banana cake!! we had tea and REAL coffee (we have had instant this whole time so far- yuck!) The resort serves breakfast until noon but none of us were able to ever sleep in past about 9. That's what getting up early every day for 3 weeks will do to you, I guess!
The resort is small, but very warm and inviting. There's 14 rooms, and in the common areas there are several hammocks, and tables/chairs to sprawl out at. One cool thing is that outside most of the rooms, there is a little water basin where you can rinse your feet off before heading into your room!! One morning we saw monkeys drinking out of them!! Down by the beach there are several lounge chairs. After breakfast, we laid out on the lounge chairs and after several hours decided to take a walk out to the ocean.
One thing none of us knew prior to getting here was how extreme the tides were. In the morning, the water seems to be at a normal spot on the beach, not too high up and not too far down. As the afternoon goes on, the tide goes out and it goes REALLY far out. It's actually kind of comical because there are boats that are anchored a couple hundred feet from the shore, but when the tide comes out the boats just sit there, on the sand. We didn't realize exactly how far the water went out until we started walking to get to the water and realized we were at least a half a mile away from our lodge, walking straight "into" the Indian ocean! This was one of the coolest parts - something we haven't really seen before. The ocean floor had cool designs in the sand from the shallow waves (I'm talking like several millimeters of water, not even enough to go over your foot) and lots of little pools which we soon realized were filled with so much sea life! We watched sea urchins, sea stars, snails, crabs, coral, and I'm sure tons of other life that I'm forgetting to name. We also came across some interesting stick looking things that we realized was a seaweed farm. Not sure what exactly the seaweed is used for but it was super interesting! We finally reached the ocean and Nat, Kirsty (remember our friend from the Safari?! She coincidentally had booked the same hotel at the same time as us.. it was fun to have a familiar face there!) and I decided to jump in to see how the water was. It was so warm. Like lukewarm bath water. We went out just until the water reached our hips, and splashed around. The water is super salty so we had fun floating around. It was so odd to be swimming in such warm, salty water that was so far away from our hotel!!
After lunch we decided to take advantage of the pool at the neighboring hotel the Coral Rock (we were told that patrons of the Red Monkey Lodge could head over there and use the pool for free) and swam around and enjoyed some poolside cocktails for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. It was SO warm and the pool felt great. There wasn't a ton of shade so the only relief from the heat was the pool. It was an infinity pool which added to the fun. Once the tide came in, we decided to go for another swim since we didn't have to walk so far out. We met some people from South Africa and England and heard some not so nice words about our nations new president.. Believe it or not, but pretty much the first thing out of everyone's mouth when we say we are American has something to do with Trump. Needless to say, it's getting a little old.
We ran back to our hotel to shower quick and get ready to head back to the Coral Rock Hotel- where there was a buffet dinner and a "party" going on. We had the food (super disappointing), chatted with the first Americans we have seen all trip, and tried to dance and hang out at the "party"... unfortunately, we aren't the party animals we maybe once were, and decided to head to bed around midnight. The party was dead!! Or should I say, as we found out later, the party hadn't even really started yet! Apparently they stay up until 2/3 in the morning drinking and dancing..... no thanks, not for these old ladies!!
A billion funny things happen every single day to us, and we usually say, "well that's going in the blog!!" But when it comes time to write it we never remember. Two funny things that I can remember ...
- Brittany gazing out of the edge of the infinity pool, at the low tide ocean with all the boats anchored in the sand, and saying, "how many pirates do you think are out there??"
- At times, Americans (and us) are "OTT"- over the top. Go figure! Thanks for the acronym, Kirsty!
- Of all the places on the entire island, the guys from the plane ride to Zanzibar/Dar Es Salaam (the "drug dealers") were staying at the Coral Rock!!! What a small world. Needless to say, we saw the guy with the cane multiple times walking just fine...... how peculiar.....
-sassypants
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