February 22  Zanzibar

For the old city/island of Zanzibar we took the Stone Town walking tour.  As we left the ship were greeted by dancers and musicians, as was true for every African port.

 First stop was the Anglican Church built on the site of slave trade market.  The altar is located at the position of the whipping post where the strength of the slaves was tested.  Only the fittest could survive the long ocean voyage to come.

These guys were 30 feet up on a scaffold built by lashing logs together.  Primitive yet effective.

Behind the altar

Down in the catacombs is a slave holding pen.

The Stone Town is full of narrow streets and alleys

The Grand Market was on the walk

Our guide showing the fruit of one vendor

 Colorful macaroni

A 19th century fort built to guard the slave trade

This was over the entrance to the fort.  The trade routes must have slaves and cookies.

 Out in the aby

The Miracle House, first in west Africa to have electricity and an elevator.  People would come by in the evening just to see the lights come on in the house.

 A dhow in the bay.  All of the ports along this section of the coast are filled with these boats.  Very pretty.

Coming up later will be a special entry on the Doors of Stone Town.  And some infrastructure pictures.

Feb 21  Dar es Salam

Really getting into East Africa here.  Stanley and Livingstone area.  We selected the 8-hour tour to Historic Bagamoyo, the ancient capital of what became Tanzania.

There's a long sail-in to the berth through a great natural harbor.  Along the way there were throngs of people.  No idea why.  It was a Sunday, if that's meaningful.

Entertainment on the pier as we headed to our bus for the tour.

Bagamoyo is 75km to the north, and on a good traffic day (like a Sunday) it takes 1.5+ hours.  The tour organizer had a solution -- police escort, flashing lights, and everybody else gets off  the road.  Such is the power of the US dollar in Tanzania.

All along the drive there were areas of marketplace.  Just a collection of buildings and people selling stuff.  This was the kitchenware section of one.

We arrived at the Paradise Resort for lunch at about 1pm.  We were greeted by musicians,  dancers and a snake.  All except the snake were energetic.

 Following a buffet lunch we could go down to the beach.  Should you want to visit, this is one of the beachfront cottages you could rent.

 And here's the beach.  No one went in, although several had bathing suits.  The water was dirty and seaweedy, although there were some tourists and locals in a little further down.

 Kaole Ruins, location of the 13th century Muslim city.

 Example of the communities that we passed in the Bagamoyo area.

 We stopped at a fort built long ago to the protect the trade routes through this area

 A final stop at the Catholic History Museum and parish church in Bagamoyo.

 We made the trip back in 1:08.  The police escort was critical, especially for a traffic jam in the city as we neared the port.  Divided highway was no problem, we went over to the other side of the road (this country, like just about every place we've been in Africa, drives on the British side of the road -- the left side).

A long, tiring day, but interesting....dave

Saturday, At Sea

February 20, 2016

Our dear friend and traveling companion on this cruise died on board today.  I thought perhaps everyone who reads this might like to see Don having a great time.  I know this is how I want to remember him. 

 

 

 

Betsy,  our thoughts and prayers are with you.  

Feb 19, Nosy Be  Madagascar

We arrived at our anchorage about noon and were immediately approached by vendors in boats.  I'm not sure just how the transaction was going to take place since these guys were about 30 feet below us, but perhaps there were some people on the open deck 5 they were negotiating with.  

 It was a beautiful day, and the tender ride to the quay was about as pleasant as one of those trips can be.  The ocean was very placid.

At the quay we transferred to a small boat for our tour of Lokobe Natural Reserve, in hopes of seeing lemurs.

Our walk was through a jungle, a very narrow path and quite muddy with very damp clay.  Oceania deemed the tour "strenuous".  The first 10 minutes were, going uphill in poor footing, in heat and humidity that passed 85 on both scales, or so it felt.  There were three people in our group of 15 with walking sticks.  Two of them turned around after ten minutes and returned to the beach.  Interesting spiral in the tree trunk here.

  Chameleons and iguanas are part of the fauna in the forest.  This guy was invisible until he raised his head from the tree.  If our guide "Bruce" hadn't pointed him out, I would have never seen him.

 This guy, if I understood Bruce correctly, was 15 years old.  Unless he had been at the birthday party, I'm not sure how Bruce knew that.

The highlight of the walk in the woods, a mother lemur and child, about 25 feet up in a tree.  I never saw the black blob up there as Bruce had moved on and wasn't pointing.  Cynthia took this picture and you can seen the baby's head looking down at her.  

 Definitely not Cynthia's favorite part of the hike.

Following the 90-minute hike through the woods, we went down the beach where there were drinks, snacks, dancing girls and (of course) items for sale.

 It was a beautiful location.

On the way back to the quay the boat ride was bumpy because they were going fast.

We decided this tour had been a disappointment.  We were in a group of 15 -- the boat's capacity -- and Bruce led us along the trail.  The single file didn't allow most of us to hear him, and when he found something the line would stop as each person filed past Bruce, found the item of interest and took a picture.  Then Bruce would squeeze up to the beginning and we'd move along.  Bruce had three helpers, and if each of them had led a group of five it might have been better.  But Bruce was the only English speaker. The lemurs were uncooperative, but that's their right.

Other tours saw many lemurs, but in more of a zoo-like setting.  I guess when we get back home we'll drive up to Duke University and see the lemurs there.  It'll be about the same.

Other notes of interest for us on our trip:

Our stateroom attendant, Bayu is now a father.  His wife delivered their first baby, an 8lb 2oz boy this morning in the Philippines and Bayu is grinning ear to ear.   Dad named him Dirgo, which means "sea", since Dad is at sea. He gets off the boat in Singapore in about three weeks.  We'll hate to see him go but happy for him.

Oceania, at the demands of the Chinese government, has changed our itinerary through China.  The net result was our Beijing stop would be only a single day, leaving us to choose between the Great Wall, or downtown Beijing and the the Forbidden City and Tiananmen
Square.  As soon as that was announced, we added the Ancient Capitals overland tour to our trip, and we just found out yesterday morning (it only took the Chinese tour operator two weeks to decide if we could join) that we were in.

Our new itinerary has us leaving Shanghai via air on the third day there (April 4).  We will spend two nights in the ancient capital of Xian, then fly to Beijing on April 6 to tour the Great Wall, spend the night in downtown Beijing, and tour Beijing on April 7 before returning to the ship that evening.