Zanzibar: Barefoot Adventures

Zanzibar island in Tanzania, was not on my radar when initially thinking of our time in East Africa.  Kenya, the quintessential image of Safari Africa, was slotted for the month of December, following our customary pattern of spending about a month per country, our magic time frame for acquiring a feel for a place.    Because I knew a considerable percentage of our time and monster portion of our budget was going towards safari and that Christmas is considered high season almost everywhere, I began attempting to plan Kenya in November while still traveling in Morocco.  Weak internet, the lack of a Kenyan guide book, and honestly not a clue about East Africa, I was becoming overwhelmed just as I received an email from a friend gushing with rave reviews of her recent multi-family trip to the island of Zanzibar.  And as simple as that, a  little inestinguishable light was lit.  A quick google search of "images of Zanzibar" secured a spot for this white sand island in the Indian Ocean on our itinerary.  

The famous rock restaurant.

I was suffering from sticker shock as I continued to plan the East African leg of our trip.  Both  Kenya and Zanzibar were proving shockingly expensive for midrange accommodations which we felt were suitable for our family's first trip to East Africa.    Luckily the beginning of December is actually low season so after a few emails and recommendations we were able to find some accommodations in Zanzibar that would work close to our initial budget.  

As I knew our 3 flights, Morocco to Istanbul, then on to Nairobi, and finally to Zanzibar, would leave us exhausted, we opted to stay close to the airport in Stone Town the first 2 nights of our 10 night stay in Zanzibar.  (We got a last minute deal for a cute quad room with 3 mosquito netted beds and attached bath at Warere Town House)  We literally slept all afternoon the first day, which was a first in our 6 months of travel.  Luckily we still had 2 nights and a day to explore this unique Swahili costal town that was once the main slave trading ports for East Africa.  

We welcomed the change in diet from our one-too-many tajines in Morocco and enjoyed lovely curries and local fish.  We passed up the popular tourist tours (the spice tour, Stone Town tour, and various snorkel day trips) which although sounding interesting, seemed a bit too much for our travel-tired minds and bodies.  We opted to explore on our own, slowly enjoying  our markedly new surroundings.  Everything was a feast for our senses, including the increadible heat and humidity.  

Although I am sure there was much more to explore in and around town, we were soon ready for the more isolated areas of the surprisingly large island.  A one hour taxi ride brought us to the relatively new, 9 villa,  boutique resort,  Indigo Beach, located in a small community called Bwejuu on the south-east coast, voted by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the top 10 beaches in the world!    Because of the low season we were offered the East African Resident Rate ($130/nt for 2 adults/2kids) enabling us to book a 8 night stay in a two bedroom villa.  

Upon our arrival, the striking azure roofs of the villas against the whitest-of-white sands was breathtaking;  the simple yet comfortable decor, perfect.  Our private villa, located just a few feet from the stunning pool, has its own little sand garden area, one large Swahili Barraza (lounge with two daybeds) for relaxing,  two bedrooms, and a fun open air outside bathroom.  We were thrilled.  "Best booking ever mom!", said Yoda.  

Anyone following this blog knows that this villa is unlike anywhere we have stayed so far on this trip.  We took full advantage of it and really relaxed, caught up on school work, limited iPad time, played multiple times a day in the pool, and let free-time rule.  The kids made a great friend with the temporary manager's six year old child and a few other families who passed through during our stay.   The countless hours of childhood play were cherished by all.    

The kids with their friend and snapper for our family's dinner.

Playing after dinner in the bar area

Maasai Warriors originally from mainland Africa, known for their fearlessness in fighting off lions, are often hired by resorts as guards.  It was very reassuring seeing the warriors, armed with their red leather seethed swords and rungu, a wooden throwing club, patrolling the property.  Although perfectly safe during the day, we were told not to venture down the beach after dark as muggings of tourists had occurred.  

When we ventured off the property we were immediately immersed in the local community going about their daily lives and the sites were stunning.  

The huge tidal changes in this part of Africa are renowned.  Although I have read reviews of tourists complaining about the inability to swim in the ocean for such a large part of the day, I found I enjoyed the low tides the best because the locals come out in droves.  Luckily, the inability to swim in the ocean was balanced out by the fact that we had a beautiful pool to cool off in.  

Women collected seaweed, which I was told was used for the making of cosmetics, boys fished, and everyone seemed to be catching octopus, which was beaten repeatedly to make is soft for eating, a technique I had never seen before. 

Women dug up coconut husks, which they had buried previously to be softened by the sand and salt water,  which allowed the husks to be pulled apart in order to make rope.  

The sheer number of shells on the beach was amazing.  

Although there were a lot of dangerous urchins on the sea floor, we carefully ventured out in our bare feet to explore the marine life in the tide pools.  

Brittle star on Zuki's hennaed hand.

We were often greeted by kids, armed with the typical english phrases, "what's your name?, where are you from?,  how old are you?" but markedly absent was any plea for money or desire to sell us something,  which was refreshing after Morocco and made the short exchanges dear to my heart.

But not all the excitement was at low tide.  The much anticipated high tide, which enabled easy swimming, was pure fun.  

Normally we are a snorkel loving family but because of the tide changes and our location we weren't able to simple snorkel of the beach, so even though our budget was stretched, we opted to take the simple snorkel boat trip to check out the reef.   We were quite hesitant because we hold rather high expectations when it comes to coral reefs given that both of us have explored many of the world's ocean in our "previous pre-kid" lives. Luckily the little coral garden didn't disappoint.  Although the visibility was not great, which must be common due to the drastic tide changes, it was so wonderful to snorkel on a healthy reef, with high coral coverage and fish variety.  We were able to show the kids a wide variety of markedly different shaped coral, giant clams, clown fish living in anemones, soft corals, and more.  

But often times the best experiences happen when just "doing nothing".  Kiko, often "tired of relaxing", would go down to the beach and see what was going on and ended up befriending a few Maasai Warriors.  We all sat and chatted one afternoon; I was so intrigued by their culture and and they answered many of my questions.  Kiko taught them some Spanish, which they picked up quickly.  Before we knew it were we being taught the Maasai jump, which appears to be more of an act of levitation.  

But the best was the Hawaii vs Maasai football match;  a great time was had by all.  

Indigo's beach website says, "barefoot- this is how you will spend your holiday"  and we certainly did and loved it.  

As we handed our boarding tickets to the airline agent at the door for our flight to Kenya I looked down to see Yoda's bare feet.  "Whoops", was his simple response when I pointed out his missing shoes.  Luckily he was able to quickly run back to where we had been sitting in the waiting room to retrieve his slippers before crossing the tarmac to our plane to take us to our next adventure.