National forest

Visited the National forest in Zanzibar, home to the famous Colobus monkey and a Mangrove forest...

Spice Island...

Today I did a short spice tour and was introduced to the King of Spice Island, the clove tree

The Queen of Spice, Cinnamon

Add some lemon grass...

Jack Fruit

Beach kittens...

And the owner of the beach kittens....incidentally I keep looking to talk photos of the girls, they are seldom seen... at least they are not playing on the beach or in town.

fishing boats...

This morning I talked with one of the fishermen from the Si Whote, the boat in the middle of the photograph, they were just coming in from a night of fishing. He told me that there are about 15 men who live on the boat and they leave the women in town. They are happy now because when they get lost, they can use a cell phone to call for rescue. When I asked who does the rescue he pointed to an equally run down "patrol" boat. 

Queen...the rock group

Freddie Mercury from Queen was born here in Stone Town, there is much dispute about where he was born, so I decided to pay homage at the bar that bears his name....

Ferry....

In truly African style, the ferry loads cars directly off the beach. It is a mad dash of crazy driving, sand and a race to get on the boat. What is missing from the photos are the men yelling and moving cars to put themselves in the best position to take one of the limited spots on the boat....
sure was fun to watch!

a more sobering note

Zanzibar was a stopping point in the East African Slave trade.  This is a memorial outside what used to be the slave market. You can go underground and see the holding "cells." It was an intense and sobering site.

Jaws Corner

Through many twisted small streets one wanders and comes upon an open square known as Jaws corner. This is where the old men come to talk politics, they have a chalkboard where they post the topic of the day... let the debate begin. Todays topic was whether or not Zanzibar should be its own country.  They also wanted to talk with me about Obama...

Stone town fish market

After wandering through Stone town we came to the fish market, quite a bit different then Pike Place for sure. The men are standing around at the fish auction...

Giant Turtles....

So today I took a short boat ride with a local fisherman out to Prison Island, they built a prison here but apparently never used it. On the island is a tortoise sanctuary, this guy is 128 years old! Amazing. They like to have their necks scratched/rubbed- I imagine this is what ET would feel like!

And don't forget the babies, he is heavier then he looks!

Zanzibar

After a series of short flights on a propeller plane and much beauracy I made it to Zanzibar.... I arrived last night in the dark, so I didn't see much. This morning woke up and went for a walk on the beach.... amazing!

Kids playing soccer, fishermen coming and going...

Independance

Happy Indpendance day Uganda!! 50 years since you kicked out the British... hoping for a peaceful celebration today.

Stuck in traffic photos...

I took these two photos when we were headed home, needless to say we wer stuck in traffic, random Ugandan life on the side of the road.

International School of Uganda...

Just a couple pictures from the school.

This is a third grade class

It was a lovely school,mosrtly outside with wide open spaces for kids...

Ugandan Independence

Finished at the school today, and the witch doctors are still keeping me up... Tuesday is Ugandan Independence day and the government hasn't decided yet if Monday is a holiday or not. I am noticing an increase in Military and police presence for sure, let's hope its for peaceful celebration. One can never be sure in this part of the world.

Witch Doctors...

Every night since I have been here, I have been woken up at around 3:00am to the sounds of chanting and drumming off in the distance. When I asked about it at breakfast, I was told " that's the witch doctor who lives up the hill... I mean traditional healer."