Spice and All Things Nice

So,we scrapped the car rental plans, reshuffled our long term outlook for the remaining two weeks in Tanzania and caught a Moshi-bound bus out of Arusha. I had some fledgingling hopes of flirting with Mount Kilimanjaro, but the park fees are too expensive so we bought a t-shirt instead. Moshi is a nice, lively little town. Nothing too unique but it rates up there with Iringa and Morogoro as cool Tanzanian cities to visit. It is typically a jumping off point for Kili adventures or park visits but we did nothing of the sort, except a little shopping that is. We found a place called Shah Industries which has been around for about 50 years and specializes in leather products all made by disabled locals. I'm not a very good consumer but some of their stuff struck me as quite cool. After browsing for a bit, I ended up buying a chair, table and safari chair. This will more than suffice as my big purchase for this trip. Equally as fun was trying to figure out how to get it home. After lugging everything to the post office I got a first hand experience in complete inefficiency. Long story short, after 3 hours, I was happy leaving my boxed furniture with what I believed to be a 50/50 chance of actually making it home. Btw, Mom/Dad, please sign for the strangely packed and over-taped boxes if they arrive before I do. (ha!)

Some other Moshi highlights: Continuing with the trend of the last few weeks, the food is getting better and better. Street vendors are starting to appear. Some of it is complete crap, but we did find a few places selling pan-fried meat and veggie stuffed patties - I ate several. I also felt due for a haircut and couldn't resist getting a shave at 'Black Money'. No complaints for $2.50, way better than Supercuts. The local market was pretty good too. I found a large spoon, or rather a small oar, that will be perfect for beer brewing, assuming I can get it on the plane. Top of the list though was the coffee shops. Situated outside the fertile Kili coffee growing region, Moshi has some excellent fresh Arabica - expect some upon my return Mikey.

From Moshi we bussed it to Lushoto, a small village in the Usumbara Mountains. From town we hiked about an hour or so to Irente Farms. Most of the farming has been abandoned and new efforts are directed more towards tourism offering camping, guided hikes and a few local grown products for sale, such as museili and preserves. We brought a few beers up to the local viewpoint in time to catch sunset and the tail end of a church revival for some local villagers. The following day we payed a guide to lead us on a hike through the mountains. I generally am opposed to the idea of paying someone for me to follow. However, as there are no maps and tons of criss-crossing paths made by villagers you would be pretty lost without a guide. It turned out to be quite a deal - Yassin spoke fantastic english and was quite informative about local village life. He could even explain the process, or lack there of, by which a local villager can obtain title for his or her land. When we got to the top of the mountain he earned his keep by whipping up a giant bowl of fresh guacamole served with chapati. I know, it seems like a strange food for Tanzania, but avocados are everywhere - ask Arianna, she's the avocado queen. After spending a night in Lushoto we set off for Zanzibar.

Zanzibar is a world-renowned vacation destination with fantastic beaches, great diving and a very laid-back island life. It is therefore not surprising that it would draw tons of tourists and it thus ranked low on my list. Admittedly, I was a little reluctant to go but in hindsight I have to confess it has been pretty good. I should of seen this coming as our transport from Lushoto to Zanzibar via Dar es Salaam was nearly seamless. A long bus ride put us in Dar in time to find a guesthouse for our return from Zanzibar (more importantly, a place to store stuff we didn't want to have to lug to Zanzibar) and then just enough time to get to the port to catch the last ferry of the day to Stone Town. We wandered the streets of stone town eating up all the zanzibar pizzas and grilled octopus we could find. The big gem was the waterside food vendors serving up skewers of fresh grilled tuna, kingfish, snapper, marlin and lobster. We finished it off with banana-chocolate pizzas and and some beers from the upper veranda of the Africa Hotel - good stuff.

On our way north to Kendwa Beach, we filled half the day with a spice tour. Seems a bit cheesey at first but with a good guide and a small group, I found it quite enjoyable. Wandering among 'fields' appearing more like thick underbrush our guide pointed out various types of fruit and many spices. Among them were coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, lemongrass, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, vanilla, durian, oranges, jackfruit and coffee. The tour was rounded off with a visit to the Sultan's Bath followed by a fantastic lunch. We were then quickly shuffled to the north of the island and were settled in at Kendwa Beach a few hours before sunset.

We had a few complaints about Kendwa Beach Resort in terms of the quality of food and accomodations relative to the cost, but overall it was a really nice and relaxing place to visit. The white sandy beaches were near the consistency of XX confectionary sugar and oddly enough stayed cooler than the ambient air temperature. The greenish-blue water was crystal clear. All in all, no complaints on the beach front!

We are now back in Stone Town and plan to hit up the food vendors hard tonight. Tomorrow we head back to Dar on the afternoon ferry. With one week left, we are setting our sites on a blitz tour of the coastal region south from Dar to Mozambique. By my next post I will be better able to comment on our success...