Day 21

Spice Island

It is a sure thing that with all the fine food I had in the last weeks, spices played a great role. Pepper, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, cardamom, … they all have a nice taste. But before now, I only knew them dried and packed – I never saw the actual plants. But Zanzibar, also known as the Spice Island, is the place to explore the spices in the environment. Zanzibar has a long history of spice farming and trading, reaching back to the Omani Arabs time. Sultan Sayyid Barghash built the first clove farms and other spices followed. Today spice is not such a major trade commodity as it once, was but it still plays an important role.

The spice tour

There are many spice farms on Zanzibar, some belonging to the government and others are privately owned since the Zanzibar Revolution. We visited the private “Hakuna Matata” farm. Gallery Tours and the fantastic guide “Babu” Silima again supported us. At the farm one of the owner’s family boys showed us around. It was a real nice experience to see all those spice plants, to smell and to taste the spices. Most of them I would never had found without a guide. Is it the root, the trunk or the leaves that is important? What does a nutmeg look like, or a black pepper plant? And even in recognizing the fresh spices by taste I had some difficulties – but it was real fun and I learned a lot!

On such a spice tour you not only learn something about spices but also about various fruits and the local use of plants. For example, a coconut palm is a very handy resource: of course the coconut gives a full meal including a tasty fresh drink with the coconut milk. But the local people as well use the oil for cooking, the wood for furniture and jewellery, the coconut shell for bowls, the surrounding fibre for sturdy ropes, the leaves for hut roofs, the roots for medicine and everything that remains is used as firewood. Pretty economical, right? Our farm guide demonstrated how to climb on a palm and get a nut down. An impressive performance if you consider that there are no branches to hold on to. But he climbed the 30 metres high tree easily and into the bargain had enough breath to sing the “Hakuna Matata” song (meaning “No worries”) all the time.
After discovering all the spices they prepared a fruit dish for us. We enjoyed lots of freshly picked fruits including the coconuts, bananas, mangos, star fruits, … it was so tasty, refreshing, satisfying and also healthy – no wonder that they sing “Hakuna Matata” here all the time …

Stone Town

After the Spice Tour we went for a completely different experience. We took a trip around the heart of Zanzibar: Stone Town. It is known for its mixed architectural style: the partly hundreds of years old buildings reflect the Arabic, European, Indian and of course African influences. While wandering through narrow, winding alleys you discover new sights around every corner.
The fantastically rich carved wooden doors are very famous. They represented the wealth and status of the householder and are still a pleasure to look at.

But not only the architecture is interesting: I also enjoyed the lively atmosphere. It is not a museum town but a vibrant location with traders and nice little shops all over the place.

We started and ended our trip at two houses connected to famous people: Dr. David Livingstone, who started his last expedition from Zanzibar and Freddy Mercury who was born on Zanzibar and lived here until the age of 8. The houses are not that impressive but it is worth exploring the stories that lay behind them.

We again had a fantastic day and learned a lot of things. The only thing left to do was to have a superb spiced meal with a tremendous view over the beach to the Indian Ocean beyond.