Finished!

I finally finished uploading all the pictures to the blog and trying to put some pictures on the various posts that we have.

Liz and I had a wonderful time in Africa.  It was the best honeymoon we could have hoped for.  Thank you all for reading this blog and supporting us on our journey.

Back to London

The flight from Nairobi was really really long it seemed, and completely uncomfortable. It was terrific that we were actually able to settle in a little bit in London, take showers (the first fresh water shower I have taken in about 4 days), and get some internet blogging time.

They were showing a lot of movies on the plane but I didn't really make it through more than 1. I added Fair Game to the movie list and then fell asleep.

Just right

Apparently 3 weeks is the perfect amount of time to travel. As we left Zanzibar I felt great satisfaction at having had a fantastic honeymoon, but also felt ready like it was time to go home. I am looking forward to returning to East Africa as I have yet to climb Kilimanjaro, and it would also be pretty cool to watch the wildebeest river crossings on their migration norths. I wouldn't mind doing a bit more exploring of Stonetown either.

Reverse commute in Zanzibar

This afternoon Erik and I decided to take the bikes provided by our beach resort for a spin to the local village. We set out around 4 pm in order to avoid the afternoon heat and noted as we left that this would be the beginning of the evening commute if we were back at home. I think the 4 to 4:30 time slot must also be the peak commute time in Zanzibar too because we encountered over half a dozen automobiles and a cow drawn cart on our way. Clearly we were taking the reverse commute because only one of those vehicles was going our way. On the way back about an hour later we encountered only one car.

Pongwe

We are now spending our second evening in Pongwe at the Pongwe Beaceh Hotel which from what I can tell is the only place around here that has guests. It is a pretty decent hotel with rooms overlooking the Indian Ocean and a private beach and pool. There is even some free wifi that you can use of you have your own computer.

Pongwe is on the East side of Zanzibar and is really hot compared to the west side so you know that the heat sucks. There are fans in our room and today brought a slight breeze even. Our adventures today beside getting some Kindle time were kayaking around the area and also biking to a neighboring town where they have a bar called Obama's. We grab ourselves some passion fruit Fanta and sat down at the bar to watch an African soap opera. It was a really low budget show that looked like a high school film class project.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to scuba diving. The coral on Chumbe island was some of the best under water scenery I have ever seen so I think that the scuba diving will be great if it doesn't rain. So far, we have been doing pretty well for rain. It has rained at some point during about half the days of our trip but really has only inconvenienced us 2 or 3 times.

US = Obama

One of the first questions that is usually asked of us by the locals is where we are from.  This is probably due to the fact that they have trouble understanding our strange Californian accent (they much prefer British accents), or perhaps they are trying to gage their expected tip.  Either way, when we say the US, they say Obama, since apparently the two are synonymous.  Then we have to launch into a political discussion about him.  Sometimes when we note that we are from Califoria they will mention 2pac and California Love.

I want to ask where they are from and follow up with something like "Oh! Shakira", or "Oh! Mandela," or something like that.

Romantic dinner fail

It probably goes without saying that we have sat down to our share of romantic dinners on our honeymoon. Of course the most memorable (also our favorites) have been punctuated by what could have been ruinous flaws were we not accustomed to things not always going according to plan when traveling (especially in the developing world).

Our first dinner of note was the last night of our walking safari in Kenya. Our guides put together a beautiful archway of local greenery over our table and wrote congratulations in stones on the ground next to it. The dinner itself was lovely and we really wanted to savor it but the weather was not being very cooperative. Ominous clouds hung over us and thunder rolled in the distance but getting closer and closer with each flash of lightning. We ended rushing to finish our meal and got ready for bed and into our tent just moments before the rain started falling.



Our second night to remember was when we were in Stonetown. A friend told us we had to have a romantic dinner at the Serena Inn and in fact gave us this dinner for a wedding gift. We were happy to give such a highly recomended restaurant a try. We arrived in time for sunset coctails on the patio while a local band played fusion taraab music. As darkness fell we moved to the indoor dining room which unfortunately was not air conditioned. On the bright side the restaurant was right on the water and we had reserved a table right next to the huge windows they threw open to let in the cool sea breeze. The windows also let in hundreds of flying ants that had come out of hiding becaue of the rain earlier that day. Initially our table was covered with them but where other guests left in disgust we thought, at least they aren't mosquitos or cockroaches. We perservered and it was well worth it. Sure we had to swat quite a few ants with our menus but by the time the soup course arrived they had gotten the message and left us alone. At one point an ant managed to fly down Erik's shirt and in a charming honeymoon moment he lifted his shirt bearing his manly chest to the entire restaurant to flick it out. at the end of the day the food was great the service fantastic and thanks to the ants we had almost the entire place to ourselves.



Our most recent romantic dinner antics came on Chumbe island where the staff set our table right on the beach, surrounded us with candle lanterns, and wrote "Liz and Erik forever in love" in the sand. As always the dinner was great but instead of the usual curries, they served us a half chicken, bones and all. The problem here was that in order to eat this dinner politely we needed to use our knife and fork to cut the meat off the bones. Sadly the romantic glow from the lanterns did not shed enough clarity on our dinner to distinguish meat from bone. The situation was not helped by the bottle of champagne that came with the meal. Finally after a few too many misses with our utensils we gave up and pulled out our head lamps so we could see our food. In the process we obliterated the candle lit ambiance and made ourselves look riddiculous to boot. At lease there were no bones in the pineapple upsidedown cake we had for dessert and with the head lamps off there wasn't even enough candle light to see that our hair was all messed up.

Chumbe Island

This place is terrific!  I think that thus far, this has been the most fun place to stay.  We took a small boat over to this island two nights ago and were given bungalow number 7 out of 7 bungalows.  However, we were the only two paying guests on the island for the first night.  There are day trippers that come to the island and there were three students slaving away (not) at their semester of studying abroad.  There was also the staff, who were pretty amazing too.  The goal of this not for profit operation is to protect the coral reef on the west side of the island.  The bungalows are supposed to operate with zero environmental impact... they have solar power, composting toilets, and are clam shell shaped for rain water collection.   They don't have much privacy as they are open on both sides of the shelter to the sea breeze, but our bungalow was mostly out of sight from the rest.

The activities included a forest walk where you can see these huge coconut crabs especially in the evening and you can view a pool in the rocks that fills with water during high tide.  The tidal fluctuations are fairly dramatic on this island because of the shallow terrane.  There is also Liz and my signature activity of light house hunting.  The lighthouse is hardly a challenge to spot though but it provides an amazing view of the sunset from the top.  We had free run of the island so we could go whenever we liked and have our Titanic moment at the top.

Lighthouse hunting part...who's countimg?

For those of you who follow our traveling adventures,you know that we LOVE lighthouses. If there is a lighthouse near by we will find it. Sometimes this involves considerable effort and possibly hiking through the bush (Kauai and Goa), but we always prevail. Other times we plan whole trips around getting to stay near a lighthouse (there is really not much to do in Point Arena CA). Needless to say we were thrilled when we learned that marine conservancy and ecotourism island we booked two nights on also had a still opperational centerian lighthouse. The best part is that it was only steps away from the main building of the lodge and we could climb the 132 steps to the top any time we wanted. We decided onCe per day was a reasonabnle amount. The first day we went at night because how many people get to go to the top of a light house at night? It was great to see the lights of Stonetown and Dar es Salam from the top azs well as the distant fickers from sea faring vessels, the view periodically back lit by the signal light from the tower. The second day we climbed to the top just before sunset. In the daylight we could see then entire island including our own private little bungalow and a birds eye view of the 100 year old mosque that we couldn't enter because it is still being used today. Oh, also the sunset was spectacular.

Hakuna Matata

It means no worries!  When I came to Africa, I was worried about saying this phrase too much because I figured that it was a stupid American thing to say because all we know of Africa, we learned from The Lion King.  After being here a while and hearing many people who haven't even heard of The Lion King tell me Hakuna Matata, I feel a lot more secure belting out the song after they say it.  My guess now is that The Lion King was inspired by a common phrase after someone visited Africa

How to feel like a princess

Step 1: Stay at 236 Hurumzi in Stonetown, Zanzibar.

Seriously,that is all you need to do. This place is a historic mansion converted into a botique hotel, where every step you take on the premises takes you further back in tome and each room has its own unique charm. Our particular room was on the top floor, up 3 steep stairways and across a picturesque patio and a landing furnished with local antiques (actually the place is furnished with local antiques). Our room consisted of a bed chamber with a king size canopy bed built right into the wall, an outdoor bathroom (with cleverly placed screens and curtains for total privacy) including a luxurious and huge heart shaped bathtub, and patio sitting area including a desk, bench and porch swing, and best of all, a staircase to our own private tower top lounge with low tables and cusioned benches for total seculsion and luxury and one of the best views in the city. Needless to say, we didn't mind much when is rained zebras and wildebeest the first morning we were there because we could spend the time enjoying our fantastic room as the outdoor areas were protected from the rain.

As an asside, if you are ever in Zanzibar ignore what most guide books say about only spending one day if that in Stonetown. We spent 2.5 days and it was barely enough. In adition to being able to book any ocean related activity such a SCUBA diving and sunset sailing from Stonetown, I could spend days wandering their narrow, labrinthine streets shopping and people watching. So their beaches arent so great for swimming? Who cares? They are great for sunset coctails and you can stay in a hotel with a pool or do what we are doing and follow your time in stonetown with time at a beach resort.

Stonetown

We spent the last two nights in Stonetown at a very interesting hotel. This place is definitely not wheel chair accessible as we had to climb about 4 long flights of very steep steps. Tall and narrow, the hotel sits in the middle of the town, but our room was on the absolute top of it. The architecture was very unique because it was a converted palace of a very wealthy family. Each room is unique. Ours had an outdoor yet sheltered patio where there was a sitting area and bathroom. The indoor side room was the bedroom with air-conditioning and a huge bed. Then there was an upstairs wooden deck for sitting and overlooking the city. It was a pretty cool place to stay and we definitely made the most out of it since our first full morning in Stonetown was very rainy.

In the afternoon, we ventured out to see some or the sites like the spice market, the meat and fish market, and the House of Wonders, which is a historical museum about Stonetown. The highlight was the Catholic Cathedral built on top of the old slave market. The guided tour was very interesting and provided a good sense of what conditions were like before abolishment of the slave trade there. The church was built on top of the place as a contradiction to the cruelty that occurred there in the past.

Why is it called a gnu when it looks recycled?

Wildebeest (also called gnu, pronounced new) are the strangest looking creatures ever. They look like they were cobbled together with the spare parts of other animals. They have a cow head (including the moo), a zebra neck (though the stripes aren't so distinct), a goats beard, a horses tail and mane, a camels hump, and an asses ass.

The other cool thing about the wildebeest is that there are just so many of them. I can't tell you how many times I exclaimed "holy chickens batman, that's all wildebeest." Sometimes you can see a line of them walking stretching to the horizon (which on the Serengeti is a long long way), other times they were just peppered across the savanna as far as they eye could see.

Ndutu Lodge and the Serengeti

Our last 3 nights have been at the Ndutu Lodge near Ndutu lake which borders the Serengeti reserve.  This lodge is terrific and definitely a place to stay for as many nights as you can.  It's not luxurious, but it is comfortable, in a great location, and really a pleasant place to be.  The staff is nice, the food was good, and the stars are incredible at night.  There were a lot of travelers to meet at the nightly campfires, and we met a guy (Owen Newsome) who filmed the lions for the next Disney nature movie (which I haven't head about, but apparently is being released on April 22nd). One weird thing about this lodge is that the tap water is not potable lake water which has a lot of minerals in it and is vary basic, so the second you step into the shower, you feel like you are all soaped up already.  It's really a weird feeling to be slippery whenever you are wet and not really knowing how much to rinse the soap off.

Our last couple of days have consisted of getting up super early, and heading out into the Serengeti or the Ngorogoro Conservation Area and driving around to look for animals.  Then we head back to the lodge for breakfast and head out again.  Sometimes, we'll do lunch on the road and head back for showers and dinner, or take an easy afternoon and go out in the evening.  So far, this has been a successful strategy for finding animals.  I think that we have been pretty lucky with the animals that we spotted.  We even saw a couple of fresh kills:  one with a cheetah eating a baby wildebeest, and one with a leopard having stashed a baby gazelle up in a tree.  We have seen hyenas chomping away at some other wildebeest carcase and fighting off vultures, and we have seen many lions, and some cubs.

I found that the plains of the Serengeti were a little bit sparse of animals, and that the Ngorogoro Conservation Area actually seemed to have more.  There, we found a sea of migrating wildebeest for miles and miles.  All these animals attracted most of the predators as well.  Still, the Serengeti area was good to visit and we needed to go through it to get to Serenera where we visited the visitor's center and saw hippos and a couple of other leopards sitting in trees (I am thinking that they were in their normal hangouts).

There ain't nothing like a dame?

I suppose most people don't take notice, so just go with it when I say that nine times out of ten, guys looke better dressed up in show girls garb than ladies (think back to the last time you saw Cabaret or La Cage aux Falles). Either way, who doesn't love a leggy lady in a riddiculously puffy short skirt and feathers going in every direction? This, I think, is why ostriches have more or less universal appeal. They are the ultimate show girl. Long thin legs run seamlessly into eqally long thin necks with dainty little heads perched on top. Punctuating the verticality is the ultimate tutu of feathers. But in bird world, as in the human world apparently, the ladies can't hold their own against the guys. While the ladies wear a drab tawny color, the gentlemen show off in contrasting black and white, and oh how high their legs go, while the ladies' stop abruptly right below her wings.