Africa ~ from Zanzibar to Rwanda
Where do I start ?
Just the name “ Zanzibar ” conjures up visions of an exotic place from stories I remember reading as a child.
Zanzibar is an archipelago of islands off the east coast of Africa, often called the Spice Islands, since they grow and export cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and black pepper.
We took a hopper plane into Zanzibar Town, and as we rode to our hotel in the old historical district of Stone Town, (or Mji Mkongwe in Swahili), we found ourselves winding through a never-ending maze of narrow alleyways barely wide enough for our car to pass without the mirrors hitting the building walls.
The alleys are lined with restaurants, bazaars and mosques built with coral stone. We spent a few days exploring the vibrant town, sampling local cuisine at the food market by the pier, while watching the young local boys overcoming fears doing flips and dives off the seawalls; enjoying coffee in one of the outdoor cafes, while the locals came by to sell their handicrafts; and experiencing panoramic sunsets with dhows at the harbor.
We hired a driver to take us over to the east coast of Unguja Island to relax for a few days, and stayed in the Sunshine Hotel right on the beach. We spent a day scuba diving around the Mnemba Atoll, and saw all kinds of fish, turtles and stingrays under water, and dolphins playing around our boat in between our dives.
We stayed in funky little villas with thatched palm fronds covering the roofs; woke to spectacular sunrises every morning on this side of Zanzibar; took long walks across the coral reefs lining the shore; and down the picturesque white sand beaches.
We watched as both the men and women from the local village used different methods to catch fish, trapped in the tide pools on the coral reef.
Hakuna Matata!
Remarkable Rwanda
We took a flight over to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and stayed at the Marriott Kigali for a few days to explore the capital.
We visited the hotel made famous by the movie Hotel Rwanda, where the Hutu manager risked his life to save hundreds of Tutsi’s.
We spent a day at the Genocide Museum, and it was heartbreaking to see the history of the tribal and racial hostility that led to over a million Tutsi’s being massacred over a 100 day period in 1994, by the Hutu Paramilitary.
We took a tour with the Nyamirambo Women’s Center, an NGO that provides education and vocational sewing training to over 50 women who don’t yet have the means to support themselves and their children. The tour culminated in a sampling of the Rwandan cuisine in the home of one of the women.
They’ve built a small library where the local children can come to learn and play. I don’t think I have seen any city in the world as clean as Kigali, and on the tour they explained that every Saturday, EVERYONE spends half a day cleaning the streets.
I wonder if some of our cities would be a little cleaner, if we had a custom like theirs!
Rwanda is often called the Land of a Thousand Hills, and when we headed south to the Ngungwe Forest in search of the chimpanzees, it felt like we passed all thousand of them during the journey!
The mona monkeys were everywhere – not just in the National Park, but scampering along the side of the road on our way.
As we were tracking the chimpanzees in the forest, I left the group to go to the bathroom and had a close encounter with a big male who scaled down the tree and walked right past me; close enough to touch!
I didn’t move or breathe for almost a minute – I didn’t want to get in a struggle with him, because I wouldn’t have come out as the winner.
The scenery was absolutely breath-taking as we hiked through Africa’s oldest rainforest.
We trekked up and down some of those majestic thousand hills, past waterfalls, across wooden and stone bridges, and through the dense forest.
Everyone from the guards at the National Park, to our guides and the chimpanzee trackers were proud to be participating in the conservation of their country’s natural resources.
Visiting Rwanda wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Parc Nacional Volcans, in the northeast corner of the country.
Another drive past another thousand hills or so, brought us to the edge of the national park.
We stayed at a luxury lodge just outside the park and were rewarded with an afternoon of watching dozens of the rare and endangered Golden Monkeys.
There were so many children in Africa that broke my heart, but when you travel, you try to do a little bit to help where you can; support the local families and economy; while enriching the extent of your knowledge and experiences .
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