Last day at Paje, first day at Nungwi

Alan is taking over the blogging duties today. Hopefully I can continue the good work done so far! You should be glad to hear my sting is doing a lot better. The marks are still there, but the pain and swelling went away.

After an afternoon of relaxing on the beach, yesterday evening we went back to Paje by Night for a few drinks. The place was pretty relaxed and was good fun although they did try and overcharge us for food and drinks which didn't go down so well. Afterwards we had a late dinner at our hotel and shared a bottle of wine.

Most of the wine here is from South Africa, we will hopefully get to visit some of the wineries when we are there later this month.

This morning Priscilla and I got up early to go for a run. I wasn't sure how committed to this idea Priscilla was - it seemed like a good idea after a couple of glasses of wine, but sure enough Priscilla made sure I got up to run. I didn't bring my running shoes, and the town was sketchy with crazy drivers, so we decided to run on the beach barefoot. Priscilla thought it would be painful at first, but realized it was ok once we started. The beach was beautiful, very scenic and clean. There's a bit of irony in the cleanliness, since the town was really dirty. There's garbage everywhere and cows and chickens feed on top of it. One time we saw a cow climbed up on a huge pile of garbage. Our understanding was cows can't climb down stairs, so we have no idea how it climbed 4ft up then 4ft down. Weird.

The run along the beach was nice, we saw boats docked in the ocean. I have to say I did struggle a bit towards the end.

We went back, showered, ate breakfast and got ready to leave. Jess had called a taxi to take us to our next destination Nungwi which is another beach resort at the north of Zanzibar. However when the taxi turned up the manager of the hotel, Lawrence, got in to a big argument with the driver and eventually forced him to leave. Lawrence was very business like in everything he did which was getting kind of annoying as it felt like he was trying to rip us off at every opportunity. He reminded us of a tall Carlson from Fresh Prince. Anyway as it didn't matter that much to us anyway we took the hotel car in the end for the same price it was going to cost with the original guy.

It was roughly a 2 hour drive to Nungwi (I say roughly because as usual I fell asleep on the way!) On the way we stopped to do a spice tour. Zanzibar is famous for it's spices amongst other things. During the spice tour Priscilla kept notes so I can thank her for the completeness of the info on that. We got to see and smell many different spices.

First, cinnamon - which the locals put in pilaf rice. The cinnamon sticks are made from stripping bark, but it recovers over time. Leaves are used for tea. Roots are minty smelling. The smell makes Bernice happy.

So that we could hold the spices we were collecting, they made us cones from palm leaves. Everyone got one except Alan.

Pinapple plants - They grow on the ground and each plant only bears one fruit.

Lemongrass - Africans use the top grass to make tea and make it into oil to cook. If you mix the lemongrass oil with coconut oil it can be used for body oil and for bug repellant. Stephanie and Priscilla really liked the smell of that. Thais use the bottom part of the grass to make food.

Durian tree - I didn't really smell it that much, but all the girls said the scent is stinky, so we were glad it was not in season. It has spikes on the shell, so you can't pick it. When its ripe it'll fall off the tree.

Ginger - only the root of the plant is used, the leaves are not used for anything. Ginger can be regrown by burying a part of the roots.

Clove tree - the cloves look like berries and when they first grow are green, then turn reddish...then dry to brown. Buds can be used for body oil and used for numbing tooth aches. Sometimes used for curries, but they have a very stong taste. Bark is very strong. Cloves were the first commercial spice in Zanzibar.

Coco trees - the fruit makes coco beans. They don't make chocolate because they don't have a factory, so they just export the beans.

Peppercorn plant - the vine wraps around a tree. We smelled the leaf first and didn't get it, but the guide took the little fruits down and then we realized what it was. You can get white, red, and black peppercorn from the same plant. You pick it when it's red, when you soak it in water it turns white, and when it's dried out it turns black.

Cardamon plant - it's in mandazi (fried dough), cake and drinks. You can just ground and use it. A new shoot will grow when it bears fruit.

Ylang ylang tree - very fragrant. This tree is used to make Chanel number 5 perfume. They let us smell their own made fragrance and soap.

Nutmeg - The fruit is green and then turns yellow. The seed has a red wrapping outside used to color cakes and sometimes used in shampoo...the seeds are grounded to use as spice. You can grind the inside of the nut to make viagra for woman....supposedly just a little bit of the powder is enough.

Tumeric - can be used for food and coloring. Good for acne treatment.

Vanilla plants - grows in vines. Use the pods to make vanilla sticks. One pod can be used many times. It is a parasite plant and usually strangles the trees it grows on.

Coconut tree - need to climb up there to pick the coconuts. They don't fall off and to pick it the guys literrally throw it down. We drank coconut juice and ate the meat...nice and soft. Very good.

The guides made all the girls purses out of palm leaves and I got a hat, necklace and glasses all made out of palm leaves too. We got a photo of that which we will need to upload once we get somewhere with fast internet.

After the spice tour we also had a fruit tasting - it was delicious. We started with oranges and moved to exotic jack fruit. All very delicious.

The guides also taught us some basic Swahili phrases:

Naomba - I beg you

Kwaheri - good bye

Ndio/hapana - yes/no

After the tour we headed on to Nungwi, which is where we are now. It seems a bit busier than Paje here although still pretty quiet. After we arrived we had a late lunch and we were all pleased to discover that the beer is even cheaper here (well I was at least!)

During lunch we were approached by a guy who was also eating with his family who asked if we would be interested in going snorkeling tomorrow. It seems like a good deal, 20 dollars for a day long boat trip including snorkeling and lunch so we all decided to do that. He also promised that there would be no jellyfish which is a relief.

Tonight we all ate dinner together sitting out over the water. There is not so much of a beach here but the setting is really nice. The sunsets are pretty amazing too.