Namibia Off the Record, on the QT and Very Hush-Hush

So back when we were in Namibia last month, one of the people that we ran into took me aside at one point and asked me if I wanted to buy some diamonds... Angolan diamonds... Angolan blood diamonds... When I expressed concern about the legality of such a thing (not to mention the ethics) and told him that, in any event, I knew that exporting them would be impossible, he reassured me by saying that he knew a really good forger and that the papers wouldn't be a problem...

Talk about taking me back to my Honduras days... when, in the space of an hour at Expat's in La Ceiba, I would run into drug smugglers, car thieves, arms dealers and jewel merchants like "Action" Jackson, who once had not one, but two, gotas de aceite (pure emeralds) in his possession. Whether he really did get betrayed by his Colombian army partner and end up in a firefight (he won) is inconsequential... ah yes, quite the time and place...

Oh, and I said "no" to the offer to buy the diamonds.

Stone Town

Stone Town, Zanzibar


Detail of an Indian door.


Enjoying Zanzibari coffee in the street.


Bank door.


Sensing a pattern here...


Fresh garlic and onions at the central market.


The fish truck...


And the meat truck... (I'm sure that's ice under there...)


Fish being sold at auction.


Mmm, octopi...


Bananas on the stalk.


Love the name of this place...


Cute kids going to school.

Helene's eye...

The other day while she was teaching her workshop, Helene's eye started to bug her (something about an old contact lens or something...). It calmed down but then yesterday, as she was doing the second part of the day's session, it kind of went phooey on her and made her quit for the day and even take the extraordinary measure of trying to return to the hotel in taxi rather than dalla dalla... A couple of hours later, she met me at the Shangani where her eye had totally puffed up and was causing her that stinging needle type of pain. I tried washing it out in the shower but that only hurt her more and we thought that a trip to a Zanzabarian hospital might be in order... Still, because she could still see (when she could get the lids open), I figured that some time and darkness might be ticket... hence the patch.

This morning it was still swollen but went back to normal -- thankfully -- over the course of our tour around Stone Town.

Moments like that (and the fainting spell on the airplane) make one appreciate good health when travelling...

IGTC Endorses: Radha Food House, Stone Town, Zanzibar

Because of Helene's eye problems last night, I popped into the Radha to get some take-away. After a pleasant wait watching 20/20 cricket and chatting with the owner, my order of 1 chick pea curry with rice, 1 dal soup, 4 chapatis, 3 papadum and two lassies arrived.

We ate it on our room's little balcony at the Shangani Hotel and oh my, was it ever delicious... possibly the best Indian food I've ever had. Certainly the best dal soup, which was perfectly spiced and peppered with little baby bay leaves... not too picante, either (although this has been our experience of most curries in Africa: they're flavourful but not killer hot).

Two enthusiastic thumbs up...

More Stone Town, Zanzibar...

Now that is some scaffolding...

Zanzibar is a very nice place in which to hang out. The streets feel very safe (there’s always a tout close by so really, if anything were to happen, I suppose you could just yell for a taxi or some cashews and somebody would come running!) and once the sun goes down, the air is comfortable enough, especially if there’s a nice breeze blowing in from the Indian Ocean.

Turned a corner down near the port and poof! Awesome cinema...

Stone Town is totally walkable and if you need to go anywhere beyond the immediate tourist areas the “dalla dallas” are cheap and relatively quick. We’ve been taking one out to the neighbourhood where the youth group is based and some bumps nothwithstanding, it’s a pleasant experience to chat with the other passengers, who are invariably shocked when they climb on and see a couple of white people sitting (or standing) there.

I finished my wee workshop on Word and Powerpoint this morning... it was fun, although kind of frustrating... try remembering what it was like when you didn't know what a cursor was... or when someone moving it around made you dizzy... Today, I just threw them into the deep end and showed them how to prepare slides, insert images and crop them... then it was on to custom animation... oh yeah, baby... dissolves, checkerboarding, faing swivels, the whole lot. They loved it. Then, I headed back into town and grabbed some lunch here at a place called "Livingstone's" where the best thing going is the free wireless... [oops, I take that back: the chocolate cake with ganache just arrived and it's wonderful...]


My computer class...

Tomorrow will be a day to work on the essays that I have outstanding and then on Friday our guide will take us around Stone Town for three hours, starting with the seriously daunting looking market before finding us a driver to help us visit a spice farm for a tour... (you can expect little spice sampler kits as souvenirs...)

Saturday, it's way up the coast to a beach town for some more snorkeling and fresh fish... : ) then back to Stone Town for Monday before we fly to Arusha on Tuesday (forecast high: 23C!!!).


Fresh coconut juice... great for killing amoebas!

From there, we'll visit the International Tribunal for War Crimes in Rwanda and also go to the famous Ngoro Goro crater and do some hiking on Kilimanjaro...

Flight to India is 11 Dec.

One of the participants in the PAR seminar.

Dar es Salaam & the Spice Island of Zanzibar

Old door in Stone Town.

There’s nothing quite like an East African port… the touts, the heat, the crowds, the heat…



Dar Es Salaam was always going to have it all to do following in the footsteps of Maputo so when we got here and it was REALLY hot and the dudes at the pricey hotel on which we had decided to splurge started to take advantage of us, I was not exactly feeling the Tanzanian love. That all changed, though, upon arriving in Zanzibar…


View of the harbour, Dar el Salaam.

Getting here was an adventure. We walked down to the port just after breakfast in search of passage to the island around 14h. The touts are THICK down there… It was funny to see how people who had been snoozing seconds before would jump to their feet ready to help us find things, sell us stuff or exchange money…they’re pesky but hey, they’re just trying to make a buck so, whatever… We found the best ferry available and took a 10:30 AM sail time to avoid having to take the extra slow boat…


You know you're in a Muslim area when...

When we arrived an hour later with our bags (in a local cab – not our hotel’s cab, which wanted to charge us $30 for a 2 dollar fare…) yet more touts clung to the car until we showed that we already had tickets upon seeing which, they dispersed in search of fresher tourists. Then it was the porters’ turn. I was definitely not adverse to having someone else carry my heavy bag in that heat, so off one guy went, following another who had Helene’s backpack. The best part? They marched us half-way up the queue and budded us right in… nice! The French guy behind us was bemused but held his peace and just gave us a wry smile; I suspect that he barged the queue just like us so easy come, easy go…

Eventually we were allowed to board and the thick, humid air of the port gave way to delightfully cool, air-conditioning and a Jackie Chan movie… After taking some pictures of the port from the water, we both promptly fell asleep. Upon arriving on the island, foreigners have to queue up again for a secondary customs check, which added a good 45 mins to the trip but the fact that the young guys in the booth were by far the nicest and friendliest customs officer on the planet made it pleasant all in all. It took a while to find our contact Ali, who had brought along his friend who is going to be our guide for the week (!) and rather than take a cab, they said we should walk to the hotel. By the time we got there we were totally soaked in sweat… the humidex must have been around 45C and our shirts felt like we had just gone snorkeling in them. Along the way, the Tanzanians are trying to make small talk and I’m just staring through the sweat that is stinging my eyes and trying to keep from throwing up. It wasn’t a long walk but our 5 month packs are not exactly light and the stickiness combined to make it one of those moments when you think that overheating is just a few minutes away.


Stone Tone harbour, Zanzibar.


Dhow avoiding tugs and ferries.

Arrived and settled, we started to feel better and after a nice cold shower, it was lunch on a breezy terrace overlooking the harbour. One thing that is definitely welcome in Tanzania is the pricing of things: 9 bucks for grilled marlin. Mozambique was quite expensive by comparison. Later in the afternoon we met up with Ali and the guide and had some ice cream while watching the sun set over the ocean. We discussed the workshops and what tourism we want to do and basically just resolved to wait until today to figure it out.




Ali and our guide. I want one of those hats...

Last evening was great: we wandered down to a restaurant in the old British consulate building and had drinks on their beach. The air was marginally cooler (maybe 24C) but there was a breeze so it was very pleasant. After a week here I will really be ready to both: a) get close to Kilimanjaro and cooler environs and b) cross the equator again and return to fall/winter. I am simply not made for the tropics…or for a summer that lasts from May to Dec.




Beach in Stone Town.

Leaving Maputo...

View of the train station across the plaza.

Tomorrow it's off to Dar es Salaam and then quickly Zanzibar and, later, Kilimanjaro...

I'm sad to leave here; this is an amazing city that already has me scheming about finding a way back. I will definitely look into research possibilities when Robarts is handy once again... maybe there's an early-twentieth century journalism angle that I can explore or something like that.


What other city refurbishes an Art Deco washroom? Maputo, you rock!

What is it about this place that makes it so endearing? I guess in the first place I have to say that it is physically beautiful -- and was definitely more so in the past -- but that edge of decadence and decay only adds to its appeal. The fact that you can feel the energy and that there is a lot of investment coming also gives the place a kind of "see it now" feel.


The public washroom at the train station plaza.

There's also the food. Maputo is definitely a place for people who like to eat and eat well. It's not fantastically cheap but not once have I felt that I didn't get my money's worth and the sheer quantity and quality of the seafood here is a prize in an of itself. Yesterday we went back to the Fish Market. The prawn lady totally remembered me and jumped up to say hi and then helped us choose lobsters (mmm). Later, after we had feasted once again, we were waiting for Bento, our cabbie to pick us up and she came out of the market to say goodbye and to say that she was going to miss me, etc. So sweet.


Grilled lobster that I was forced to eat...

So yeah, then there's the people here. The War is still in recent memory but everyone has been very friendly and helpful. Sure, they stare a lot at the white guy wandering around, but that's OK.


Paving designs from old Maputo...

More photos to celebrate Maputo. I already miss it.


Deco bar at the Costa do Sol restaurant.


Cafe Continental.


Detail of Vicente Gil theatre.


Cathedral.


Dusk light.


Imposing Deco on Guerra Popular.


Hotel Africa Marquee... cover for my hotel book, anyone?? : )


Old dept. store sign.


Post office detail. Love the red.


Outside the Scala Theatre.


Guerra Popular street market.


Mosque downtown.

The Bazaruto Archipelago

The crew preparing lunch.

Once in Vilanculo, we signed up for a couple of dhow safaris out to the Bazaruto archipelago, where we could have stayed had we not minded paying between $250 and $8,000 per person, per night at the different lodges...


Bazaruto island.


Turquoise waters.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get on a Sail Away trip (the most recommended company) so we had to go out with a different guy who turned out to be the town rascal -- the type of dude who borrows money from one client in order to make change for another... you get the picture... Anyway, his trips turned out to be more expensive than we were led to believe, but whatever, this was kind of a little vacation week-end so we were like, meh...


Sand at low tide...

Let's just say, though, that this guy's crew is not going to win the America's Cup for Mozambique anytime soon... we kind of ran aground on a sandbar heading out to the big island -- even after a bunch of fishermen who were standing only knee-high in the water a hundred metres away, started yelling and gesturing (waving or drowning?) for us to turn around. Anyway, so there we were, stuck, with these able seamen out pushing the dhow off the sand... priceless...


Looking at a starfish when we ran aground...

To be fair, though, we did get to the island and then to the reef for some spectacular snorkeling -- the quantity and variety of fish was amazing, even if the coral was somewhat bleached. And, it must be said that our crew were great cooks. They prepared some grilled barracuda with rice, sofrito, fresh steamed crab and ripe mango for dessert. We ate in the shade on the beach. Not bad at all.

Sailing back had it's thrills, too. First, a bunch of us saw a big ray fly out of the sea just off port and then some massive thunder and lightning started up over shore and we tried to beat the storm as we headed back to base...


Me on the dhow (with a seemingly worried Ilse).

The next day, we ended up with the same company since nobody else was going to the smaller island. The boss was happy to see us and even gave us a discount for our loyalty. Hmm, maybe we misjudged his character... just as we were about to cast off, though, he freaked out on one of his workers, wading out into the surf and screaming at him for not respecting him, etc. All of us on the boat were like, nice...

Afterword: that wasn't the last that we saw of that dude... turns out further that he's the one who procures you tickets for the bus back to Maputo and then picks you up at 3 in the morning to drop you off at the depot -- for a price of course... I'm sure that he'll be mayor next time I visit Vilanculo...


Preparing to unfurl (the sail is held with bits of reed that explode when they pull the sheet).


Unfurled.


Sailing back to port.