Zanzibomb!

A little over a week ago, I arrived back in Uganda after spending ten days in Tanzania. Eight of those ten days were spent on the beautiful island of Zanzibar. This was my (along with about 20 other PCVs) holiday vacation.

We spent two nights in Dar Es Salaam, one night in Stone Town, and six nights in a small beach town on the east coast named Bwejju. IT. WAS. FANTASTIC.

Highlights of the trip:

*eating seafood (including octopus, squid, prawns & fish) everyday, seriously, this was probably the best seafood I've ever had

*the night seafood market in Stone Town - literally dozens of tables STACKED with seafood octopus, squid, prawns, all different kinds of fish on skewers, different types of pita bread, killer hot sauce, a plate costs $6

*the sugar cane juice - made by squeezing the liquid out of sugar cane stalks and mixing it with some type of citrus fruit (mostly limes I believe), half the fun of getting this was watching them make it with the crazy machines they used to squeeze out the juice, it was great

*being in a majority Muslim part of the world - this was my first time being in a Muslimish part of the world and I really appreciated the different setting from the mainly Christian Uganda atmosphere I am used to

*Zanziball - a bocce ball like beach game played with coconuts created by our group the first day we arrived

*chilling with a fantastic groups of people for 10 days - we seriously have a great group and I'm going to miss them and these times so much when our service is over

*watching the sunrise from the beach outside our bungalow on New Year's Day - we didn't get home til 4am that night so we figured we'd stay up a few more hours and watch the first sunrise of 2012

*swimming & skinny dipping in the Indian Ocean! - enough said

*morning runs on the beach

*going snorkeling - I've been snorkeling before, so this was mostly a highlight because in order to get out to the area to snorkel, we had to board this super ghetto dhow boat, which I had never seen or heard of before. it was awesome. aside from the fact that our pilot spoke almost no English, was half insane, half completely hilarious and nearly getting a concussion from the flying boom attached to the uncontrollably flapping sail, it was great! but seriously this boat (and boat ride) was amazing. one of those times where you really take in the beauty of this earth and how lucky you are to be in this moment.

Every time I travel it's the small things I enjoy the most. We didn't have to do much of the tourist type stuff. It was the people, the food and the unique experiences to that period of time that made the trip great.