Our day consisted of relaxing by the poolside, walking along the beach while getting hassled by people trying to sell their goods, and snoozing a bit. The roof of Cari and Nat's room was randomly being renovated, so there were piles of dirt coming down into their bathroom and lots of bugs unearthed! YUCK! Later that evening, we had an enjoyable dinner at our hotel with Kirsty and her bubbly German friend, Elke. They told us about the many deep sea diving tours they have done on their trip. We went to bed early, hoping to recover a little from our illnesses and lack of sleep from the night before.
The next morning, we packed and dressed for our last day in Zanzibar. We headed to breakfast for our customary eggs and toast as we looked over the ocean for the last time at our little resort. We were sad to be leaving Kirsty and the beautiful views, but happy to be going back to our familiar home in Moshi. Of course, we couldn't completely leave Zanzibar island without first making a stop at the spice market.
For those who don't know, Zanzibar is the spice capital of the world, so you can get quality spices for very cheap prices, even rare spices like saffron. As we sped down the highway, Britty began picturing a nice market filled with sultry aromas and lovely sites. Little did she know, as we climbed out of our car, our nostrils were hit with the pungent smell of raw meat and stale fish baking in the sun! "Is this really the spice market?" we said to each other and like clockwork, people started coming at us from all directions beckoning us towards their stalls filled with bags of spices. Poor Britty was so overcome by the "fleshy" smells that she thought she might faint or barf. Luckily, the rest of the girls were able to tell her when to keep her head down (to avoid seeing the hanging meat slabs) and when to breathe only through her mouth (to avoid the putrid fish, body odor, and meat aroma). We did find a few very nice shops with unique spices and nice clothing. Luckily, we are all getting pretty good at haggling, so we got everything for a pretty great price (or "rafiki price" as the locals call it).
As we finished walking through the market, we wiped our sweaty brows and decided that we needed a break from the hot sun and probably a bite to eat. The owner of the safari company we used recommended a hotel/restaurant called "6 degrees south". Determined to avoid yet another taxi fair, we set off to find the place (thank the lord for google maps and our WiFi stick). As we wound around narrow alleys and past rundown shops, we started to doubt our directions. Suddenly, we reached the ocean pier and to our right we saw the Holy Grail: The restaurant! This was the nicest restaurant we have been to this entire trip. Kari and Nat were impressed with the real toilets and "Charmin-like" toilet paper to start! We took advantage of the fresh seafood and man did it pay off!
After we finished our lunch, it was time to call our taxi driver and head to the airport for our flight. Of course, not before stopping by one last souvenir shop. Nat learned how to play a local game, similar to Mancala.
We arrived at the Zanzibar international airport, where we searched for Mohammed, the man that we bought our plane tickets from, in his tiny, janky office. He had told us to meet him at his office or gate 7. Of course we didn't find him, but there was another random gentleman that told us to follow him to the gate. When we arrived, the man told us that our flight had been delayed 2 hours, but not to worry, because he had another flight in mind for us. We waited and waited in this tiny gate as each group was being called to their plane. We started getting worried, so Nat went to the counter to see when our flight was. The man responded "Usijale (don't you worry)! Your flight will be leaving shortly!" By this time, we were all speculating that this airplane was much smaller than the normal commercial flight, being that our boarding pass said the flight would be taking off at 4pm and it was 3:50pm. Nat asked, "Is this a tiny plane?" To which the man responded, "Oh no, no, no! It's medium!" Nat pressed further, "Okay, so it holds maybe 30 people?" To which the man responded "Oh no, no, no! 13 passengers!" Nat's face turned ghost white as she slowly walked towards the rest of the group to share this new information. Cari is not so fond of flying, so we all tried to keep a chipper attitude, even though we were all internally freaking out about this "tuna-can" of a plane. As they called our flight number, we hopped into the shuttle and as we went around the bend, we saw a smallish plane. We reassured each other with "I bet that's the plane. It doesn't look too small. Looks pretty legit!" Our hearts sank to our stomach as we passed that plane and rounded the corner to view our ACTUAL plane! It seemed even smaller than the shuttle we were currently driving in, but we all took a fresh breath and strutted towards our only way back to mainland, showing it no fear! All of a sudden, the man guiding us to the plane pointed at Kari and said "hey you! Want to be co-pilot?" Before Kari could utter a word, Britty pushed her out of the way and shouted, "Me! Me! I'm doing it!" We all looked at each other as Britty shoved her bag in our hands and climbed the ladder to the co-pilot's chair!
The ride was actually quite smooth, which we equated to the Muslim men in front of us praying the entire time. It was rather comical to have 9 of the passengers all in matching hats and robes praying and chatting nonchalantly with us 4 American girls clinging to the side of the plane. We landed at the Dar es Salaam terminal (practically kissing the ground as we got off the plane) and grabbed a taxi to the terminal next door to catch our next flight back to Moshi. After the flight we had just overcome, we knew we could handle just about anything.
We arrived at our familiar Kilimanjaro airport and found our familiar taxi driver, Festo, to drive us home. We arrived back at our A18 house and packed our bags for our flight back to America tomorrow. We will work one more day at the CCC before leaving for our flight at 5pm. More to come on that!
Kesho,
Nat and Britty
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