Spice Tour

I went on an organised spice tour, which involved a trip to the farms where all the spices and more is farmed. I went on a tour with a group – a very nice group of people from various different countries. The farm was quite a large plantation, where guides took us around and showed us the different spices and foods that are grown there and let us taste them and smell them. It was definitely a sensory experience – my favourites being cinnamon and lemongrass! They also grow vanilla there – although this is not naturally found in Zanzibar, and has to be pollinated by hand, making it rather expensive. Surprisingly, cloves are one of the most expensive spices in Zanzibar – and the government has a monopoly on its sales (usually as export goods). We got some coconuts that we could drink the milk from – so refreshing!

The trip continued to take us to a hammam which one of the sultans of Zanzibar had built for his wife – so that when they came to check on the farms she could spend time there, without having to spend time with the locals (as you do). After having seen that, we went for lunch in a village, where they had prepared a meal of rice, sauce/curry, spinach and chapattis (simple but very good).

The group then split into two – those who wanted to head back to Stone Town, and those who went to the slave caves and the beach. I went to the slave caves – which were used to hide the slaves which were being traded illegally by the Arabs, after slavery had been officially abolished by the British at the end of the 18^th Century. Initially the cave seemed quite small, but upon further inspection it was rather large, with two tunnels – one leading to the village and one leading to the beach. These were used to transport the slaves from the village/land to the beach where they were loaded onto the ships for transporting. As many as 400 men and women were kept in the cave at any one time – resulting in many dying of the inhumane conditions that they were subjected to. There is a natural spring in the cave and the water is used by the villagers to this day for household use (it does not look to hygienic – but ok, they seem to be doing fine with it...).

After exploring the cave for a while, we went to the beach – which really was quite rocky, but the water was wonderful to swim in. However, when getting out of the water, all of us managed to sustain some form of injury – most of us cutting ourselves on the rocks. Two of us stepped onto sea urchins! Our guides got some unripe papaya and used the sap as an ointment to put on the stings; this apparently makes the skin tender and after a while the stings supposedly just come out, making this treatment better than going to the hospital or doctor, where they just pull them out (I hope to find out if this really is the case). After we took care of all our war wounds, we headed back to Stone Town.

Upon our arrival there we decided to go to the House of Wonders (Beit El-Ajaib) – which is the national museum of Zanzibar – this contained some interesting information and artefacts relating to Zanzibari history and culture. Also, it has some amazing views from the top floor balcony – over the old fort, the sea and the roofs of the city.

We then wanted to organise a sunset boat trip – but found only dodgy people who wanted to offer us these, so we rejected them – with some still wanting money from us, because we had “wasted their time”. They were really persistent and we made it clear to them that we were not going to pay them and went to sit at a hotel and had a drink with a view over the ocean (one of the best fruit juices ever!). The people were still trying to hustle us into giving them “their” money and we had to call the hotel security to get rid of them, and they just kept returning. So when I left, I decided to get a taxi instead of walking, as I was going alone (the taxi driver refused payment, because of the inconvenience these people were causing – this is what most Tanzanians are like). We and the hotel management even threatened to get the police – which seemed to finally work, as the guy had disappeared when I called the others to check on them. Being hustled is one thing, but being persistent – especially when not having agreed to anything and then asking for money and talking as if it’s their right is really something irritating to a whole different level.  This is Africa... which is a shame, because most people really are extremely friendly and try to help, or at least leave you in peace.

In any case, it was a great day, meeting a great group of people with interesting experiences and fun times!