Beach Time

Finally, my last post about the trip to Tanzania, and this one’s about the beach! (Read about Dar es Salaam, mountain trekking, Stone Town, and some day trips.)

During our time at the beach, we stayed in a village called Bwejuu (pronounced way-jhoo) on the east coast of Zanzibar. The ride across the island from Stone Town was very pretty, and lined with palm trees, though the small villages we passed were a world away from Stone Town.

With sand that was literally white and the most beautiful turquoise water I’ve ever seen, not to mention palm trees everywhere you look, arriving in Bwejuu felt like arriving in paradise. The hotel we stayed at, Musthapha’s Place, was just across the street from the beach and was definitely one of the coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed in. Mustapha’s was small, with just seven rooms in total and about as many tables in the open-air restaurant. The rooms surround a small courtyard, complete with a bonfire pit, hammocks, and wooden swings. The ground of the entire courtyard and restaurant area was sand, allowing us to go barefoot (something that’s illegal in Rwanda!). At Mustapha’s, each room is unique, and you can reserve a specific room. We chose the cozy treetop room, which was definitely the coolest option. The “building” was made entirely of tree branches, and was accessed by climbing up some narrow stairs to reach the door. We even had a small patio overlooking the courtyard. Including breakfast for two, the treetop room was $40/night and, like our other hotels in Tanzania, was a great value.

Bwejuu is a small village, the only establishments being a few other hotels similar to Mustapha’s. The calm nature of the village and the relative lack of other travelers gave us a nearly private beach and made staying in Bwejuu very relaxing.

Breakfast at Mustapha’s, like at our other hotels, was excellent. We ate each morning on the sand, feasting on omelets, chapatti, fresh fruit, and a different delicious fruit juice everyday. The only restaurants in Bwejuu were in the hotels, and the menus changed each day, always focusing, of course, on fresh seafood. There were also curries, pizzas, and pasta dishes, as well as desserts like chocolate pancakes and banana fritters, which was basically a delicious caramelized/glazed/sugar-crusted banana. The service at most of the restaurants was pretty slow, even by African standards, but the fantastic setting always made up for it.

On one of our days in Bwejuu, we went snorkeling at a nearby lagoon, and it was the first time snorkeling for both Ryan and me. We had a fun ride out to the lagoon on a very rickety wooden canoe, giving us a spectacular view of the coast. Once we reached the lagoon, snorkeling revealed a whole other world under the water. There was so much more below the surface than I was expecting, including tons of seaweed, coral, and other plants, and of course various colorful fish, the most memorable being the blue tang (ie, Dory from Finding Nemo).

After snorkeling, we headed away from the beach to take a walk through the village. Again, the ground was comprised entirely of sand, and palm trees were everywhere. The houses were mostly of decent standard, nicer than most houses in typical Rwandan villages, and the only other buildings were a few very small shops. The people we encountered were all very friendly, greeting us simply with “Hi, how are you?” and “Jambo!” I don’t think many visitors venture away from the beach at all, as many people assumed we were lost and seemed confused about why we would possibly be there. After explaining that we were just going for a walk and wanted to see the village, the responded with “Welcome” or “Enjoy,” and went about their business. Despite foreigners being a bit of a novelty in Bwejuu, nobody followed us, stared at us, or asked us for anything. It was so wonderful to be able to really enjoy experiencing a new place without being harassed to the extent that it wasn’t even worth being there. Also in contrary to Rwanda, the houses weren’t all walled in, and the greater openness and sense of community was obvious.

The following day, we rented bikes for $5 each and spent the day biking along the coast. It was absolutely beautiful, with palm trees lining the road and nearly deserted beaches every time we stopped. We saw a few other travelers during the ride, but most of the people we saw were locals, either walking, biking, or riding motos. As on mainland Tanzania, we also saw groups of Maasai on the side of the road, hard to miss in their traditional red robes. Once again, though there were few other foreigners to be seen, we were able to enjoy our ride in peace, with no hassle or scene; it was wonderful. We ended our ride in Jambiani, a village to the south of Bwejuu, and then turned back toward Paje, the main town on the east side of the island. We stopped at a really cool low-key resort called Paje By Night, which describes itself as “not only a resort, but also a lifestyle.” The restaurant menu there was full of amazing options – pizzas, pastas, burgers, sandwiches, hummus, smoothies! The neat thing about Paje By Night, though, was how laid-back it was. It was definitely a “no shirt, no shoes, no problem” type of place, with all different kinds of people just relaxing and hanging out, nobody passing judgment on anyone else. After living in a society that is so judgmental volunteers have compared Rwandans to the “plastics” in the movie Mean Girls, experiencing such a laid-back place left a strong impression on me.

Unfortunately, we had to say good-bye to Zanzibar the next day. To get back across the island to Stone Town, we took the local transportation option, a dalla-dalla, which is basically a flatbed truck with seats around the edge, and a makeshift roof. Watching the road out the open back of the truck reminded me a lot of riding a car rapide (only a more upscale version) and made me nostalgic, as I so often am, for Senegal.

After a horrendous seasickness-inducing ferry ride, we arrived back in Dar. We relished our last night in Tanzania exploring the city center again and enjoying more delicious street food. After heading for the Dar airport in the middle of the night for our 5:10am flight, we has a huge delay in Nairobi and a brief stop in Bujumbura, and then it was back to Rwanda for me.