Mugoya 4

Dar es Salaam was a whirlwind of activity. We spent one night recovering from the sauna-train and a chaotic morning trying to reach the ferry to Zanzibar. The touts (guys trying to sell us stuff) were in full effect as we arrived at the ferry – literally banging on our taxi windows, grabbing at us and our luggage, and following us once we exited the taxi. Luckily, Ken purchased our ferry tickets online so we beelined straight for the office where we would get our printed tickets. The ferry itself was enjoyable: on time, air conditioned, and comfy seats for a quick 2-hour ride to the island of Zanzibar.

Our hotel was on the northern beach in a tourist town called Nungwi with a quick 5 min walk to one of the most beautiful white-sand beaches. The boys took a half day boat tour to a snorkel spot (below average), dolphin sighting (too many tourist boats to really enjoy), and a random sandbar in the middle of the ocean (surprisingly fun!).

A highlight was meeting with our German friends again (from the train). We met at a local fish market and then enjoyed the evening with cocktails on the beach. We laughed, laughed, laughed:
· The locals were confused which of us was his wife (he kept changing his answer)
· We sheltered Vera from the sun like a pale-celebrity-princess chased by paparazzi who mustn’t let the sun rays touch her
· Compared notes on how to wash laundry in the shower (Nina recommended wearing a bikini, I recommended dissolving the detergent in the garbage can first).

On the last night we switched from our beach location to a hotel near the airport (for an early morning departure). We surprisingly loved the area where we stayed (old Stonetown) and wished we had more time to explore. The old port area of Zanzibar City had narrow streets that didn’t allow cars but only pedestrians. The architecture was super unique with elaborately carved doors on most of the buildings – apparently to ward off elephants? The streets were filled with bazaar-style vendors, which made for a very vibrant and festive mood to wander the streets.

Then we flew from Zanzibar to Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. Nairobi is supposed to be exceptional, but we were only there for one night so I booked a subpar hotel room near the airport. It was NOT a tourist hotel, as affirmed by the questioning stares from literally every person on the street. Even so, we had an eventful afternoon. The lady at the bar (yes, our room was above a bar) happily let Everett do his homeschool work in the bar (it was early afternoon so it was empty). Everett got a fade haircut for $1. And we found a very packed local chicken BBQ restaurant. When we asked for the menu our waitress said, “I’m the menu - I tell you what we have,” and then directed Ken into the grill kitchen and pointed to all the food options. Someone (not sure who) gave us fake money as change (it was bound to happen at some point – it looked real!).

Drumroll…. Introducing our new featured special guest!
Some of you know Kelvis, Everett’s cousin from Uganda. He is currently on winter break before his final year of high school, so we invited him to accompany us for a few weeks of travel. We planned for him to fly solo from Uganda to Kenya to meet us (a quick one-hour flight) - after that we would travel together. Unfortunately, as a young, solo, first-time traveler the airline gave him a very difficult time, demanding excessive documentation and money, and nearly wouldn’t let him board the flight. You guys, I pulled my first “Karen” yelling at the Kenya Airways desk agent (via a very bad Whatsapp connection) – like an entitled white woman demanding they better allow him on the plane or else! After a tense few hours he boarded the plane (his first flight, which he described as “fantastic!”)

It was around 11pm when Ken met Kelvis at the Nairobi airport – but he couldn’t get an Uber after multiple attempts and finally hopped on a boda (motorcycle) but the boda couldn’t go past the entrance gate (5km from the airport) so he started walking in the dark until a friendly couple pulled over and he hitchhiked … and then a taxi tried to charge him $30 for a return to the hotel when it should have been $4.

Nonetheless, we made it! We are overjoyed – Kelvis is ecstatic to travel and Everett is smiling ear to ear to finally have a buddy. We slept for 4 hours and went BACK to the airport at 3:30am for our flight to…. Mauritius!!Read more