Hello Fellow blog readers! We have arrived in Arusha and are staying at The African Tulip Resort preparing to leave on safari tomorrow.  We are soooo behind in blogging and pictures we want to take this opportunity to upload some images...

On our last morning in Morogoro we were up bright and early for a 4 hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, taxi to the airport and a short flight to Zanzibar.

Zanzibar from our flight

   Checking in to the Zenji Hotel in old Stone Town  we booked a tour called the Princess Salme Spice tour.  This tour was all day and included many activities.   We started at Mtoni Palace,  the ruins of the palace of the first Sultan of Zanzibar. The tour included a very knowledgeable guide who is foreman over the palace restoration. We toured the palace grounds via donkey cart.

Transportation to the palace tour was provided via Dala Dala

Inside the palace

After touring the palace and getting a great history lesson from Said Hassad, our guide.. we waded into the Indian Ocean to board a traditional Dhow to travel a few km down the coast to Princess Salmes garden house.   Sailing was wonderful with a following warm wind and deep turquoise blue water.

Said Hassad

Kris in the bow if our private Dhow

Once we arrived at the ruins of the garden house a traditional coffee ceremony was in the making.  The girls got a turn at roasting coffee beans over a small charcoal fire,  then grinding the beans.  The server then made cowboy coffee with cardamom in it and served with dates and coconut cake.   All very good.

Kris grinding coffee for traditional coffee ceremony

Next stop was a tour of a spice plantation where we got an hour long walk through the grounds with a guide who would put crushed leaves from a bush or tree in our hands and say 'smell and tell' to see if we could identify the spice.  Everything from vanilla beans, to cloves, to iodine and jack fruit.  A young man demonstrated his ability to climb a palm tree and chop down 2 young coconuts from which we drank the water.

Our guides assistant...ready and willing to climb anything

Raw Coffee

Our guide shows us some clove

Showing off in the coconut tree

A surprise was the lipstick fruit that resembles a lychee but when you crack it open there are bright orange seeds that smear into a paste that is used to make cosmetics and also to put a dot on Kris and Debbies forehead.

Lipstick fruit dots and custom palm shades....

They surprised us with crowns and baskets woven from palm leaves and we felt silly but we got all dressed up and posed for the camera.

Lunch was a traditional lunch prepared by one of the wives of the owner of the plantation and then to Princess Scherzades persian baths.

The Persian baths in remarkable condition...

Back in Stone Town we made our way to a rooftop restaurant to watch the sunset and have a good meal.
The next day we spent on foot touring Stone Town markets.    The impressive sight was the Old Slave Market where  600,000 slaves were sold, finally ending in 1853.   An Anglican church was built on the sight and the altar is on the sight of the old whipping post.

The market. This picture does not capture the commotion...

A slave cell. 75 women and children were held here at a time...many died...original chains...

A moving monument to the multitudes....

Tomorrow we are off on safari. Eight days of camps, lodges, and back country games drives. Its very late and we hope to post again but do not think we will have the resources...Good night for now, and we hope to catch up with everybody very soon.....but don't hold your breath....