Thursday, January 29, 2009

MAMBO - JAMBO - POA


Back in Stone Town after 4 days in Kendwa. We did two dives around Mnemba Island which were good. The visibility was good, I can't gauge distance underwater but it must have been a couple hundred feet. I don't really know if that is far but anyway. We saw a couple large turtles and lots of fish - imagine that. We did absolutely nothing on the white sands in Kendwa except stay out of the sun and read. I started to get really bored; happy to be getting on with it. Natty bartered the Hotel manager down to 35 a night and 2 free cokes it was a sight to see. Our bungalow was throwing distance to the beach and the Italian hordes.

Next to our little slice of bliss was a literal Hades. The boisterous plump souls nearly drove me crazy. I am going to generalize here; imagine a sun baked red suede Michelin Man packed and squeezed into a high cut white speedo and this sausage meandered back and forth with a lit smoke in one hand and a camera in the other from the water to its lounge chair all day. The creatures of both sex fit the above description. Low and behold, next to us was an all inclusive Italian resort for the insane. I doubt any other civilized island would of taken them! To top it all off, every night around 10pm till 1am the Placido Domingos' ventured from their Chianti bottles to the microphone. That's right, Karaoke by the numbers, and it was loud. Our little room did not have any windows to close either just large windows with metal bars and screens.

The north of Zanzibar is very different from Stone Town. It resembles the tropical island I had envisioned. Long wide white sand beaches with palm trees. The water is an amazing array of blues and greens. The buildings have thatched roofs and things move at a really slow pace. Half the time power doesn't work and water presure is no presure as there is none. We eventually cut the top of 2 water bottles and bathed with a manual pour technique. Its all an adventure!!! Even walking to dinner. Last night the walk way was alive with a million plus red ants of all sizes. We watched a grass hopper make the mistake of landing in the walk way; it was engulphed with in seconds.


Regress -

Natty pretty much covered the days before and during the trek. I am just going to add a few of my own observations.

The day before we started our trek I woke up nice and sick. It was a deceiving little cold. I felt great while lying in Bed but not so good on the dusty roads north of Arusha. Losai met up with us at our hotel to take us to his Boma (village). We walked thru the colonial section into the heart and heat of Arusha.

Around the bus station is a maze of shops and goods laid out on the street for sale. The maze is neatly broken up into sections. If it is shoes you are looking for they will all be in one section. I made the mistake of doing just that. I went looking around for some sneakers as my flips were not the most comfortable. As soon as I bent down to the ground to measure a Vans knock off against my foot the riot erupted. Every shoe vendor and tick with in ear shot started yelling at me and shoving shoes in my face to try and show me their shoes were the best for buying not necessarily wearing. Once the eye of the storm passed and the vendors settled down a bit I asked if any had large shoes. Turns out size 12 is not available. But I did get to catch a hand in my pocket.

I was looking around the sock section of the street when I was engulfed by a group of shoppers or so they seemed. I was wearing my back pack on my chest and had nothing in my pockets. I thought it odd there was a hand in my pocket as both my hands were on top of my back pack. I reach down and grabbed the wrist attached to the hand and it jerked away quickly but I turned and made eye contact with the wrists owner. He blankly stared at me, I on the other hand yelled, not too loud, at him. Then the others around seemed to catch on and the vendors started to yell at him as well. I did not stick around for an encore.

Back on track, Me, Natty and Losai took a Dalla Dalla about 40-50kilometres north of Arusha to the base of Mt Meru. The roads were really bad and where we got off there was no road but they were building one. The road construction on the dry red earth caused a near black out of dust. The amount of dust consumed by our lungs was tremendous. It was misery with a cold on top of it. The day was amazing, we walked about 10 kilometers up and down dirt paths and spent the day with him and his family in their manure and mud hut. The high High point was on our way back. Clouds of gray began to blow in with the afternoon. We were good luck, rain was on its way. Half way back to the road we were in the middle of a corn field when large droplets began to fall. Natty was so excited she got out her bright red rain poncho. We made a run for an old brown and deteriorating rectangle school with no windows. We reached the wall and took cover under over hang. The smell of fresh earth and wet grass filled my nose but that was nothing compared to the effortless and melodic choir music coming from inside the school house. It turned out the local choir was practicing. Leaning against the wall watching the rain fall across the valley while Swahili melodies were playing was so magical. Thanks to my friend Casey for recommending the Toto song about the Rains in Africa I was prepared for this once in a life time experience. Thanx Bud!

1 comment:

don said...

hi kids, foot and a half of new snow here and then messages from subequatorial africa. while the connection might not seem clear at first i have to ask you to not have quite such a good time; i've had to lock pat in the closet telling her 'no! you cannot go to africa!'

your eyetalians sound an awful lot like zoe's bulgarians. glad all goes so well. turkey will make you wish you had been reading more history. love from us.