Zanzibar Safari Blue: Travel is not reward for working, it’s education for living”. Unknown

Today is our second day in Zanzibar and our tour is with Across Africa again.  It is called Safari Blue on their web page.  Our tour is to explore the Menai Bay Conservation Area which is home to two different species of dolphins. We are to take a dhow ride to snorkle and swim and have a lunch on a desert island. But as we disembark from the ship we meet two folks Theresa and Don on the dock.  Theresa said they were to be on this tour but her husband is handicapped and won’t be able to handle the dhow and he is also a diabetic and can’t take a lot of heat so she contacted the company and they said they would provide an alternative for them. I asked her what they would be doing and she listed off what was offered.  We decided we really hadn’t seen much snorkling and we might like to join them!   Since it was the same company and we too had paid we made the quick switch.  We ended up going to a spice farm and had a tour of all the spices the grow and sell along with an opportunity to purchase spices from them.  The tour was informative and many young men helped Teresa’s husband by carrying a chair for him to sit on while they talked. 

They shared that the Durian spice smells bad but they use it for gum. Jack Fruit has a taste between a banana and a pineapple.   They can get as big as watermelon.  The young men take reeds growing there and make us bracelets, a basket, a bracelet with a ring attached and crowns!!!! They put beautiful flowers in them too.  Anything they can do to encourage you to tip them  which we did.   

These are the Jack fruit which get huge and heavy on the tree. 

I had been dressed for Snorkling but it was cool with my suit underneath.  This is my woven flower basket to put seeds and nuts in as we walked a long. 

This is nutmeg.  Women here use it as an aphrodisiac but they say don’t take too much!!!  Not sure what happens if you do :)

This is the vanilla bean.  The ants farmed the sap to protect it from predators. 

We have our crowns on that they made us and you can see on my hand my bracelet too 

Here was the lemon grass area where they dry it and then package it for sale.  Sone also use it fresh to cook with. 

Here is our guide showing us the nutmeg tree

Here we sit to taste sone of the fruit then put our rinds in the plastic bowls.  They come with clean water for us to also wash our hands. 

This is their small village store where they sell the spices, some oils and vanilla.  I purchase some oils and some spice too.  They grow tangerines here and many varieties. Sone are very sour sone sweet.  They grow mangos here and he says there are thousands of varieties. The ones in their farm are red and yellow inside.  They also have pepper tress. They pick the pepper beans when they are green then dry them in the oven. They have white and black pepper trees.

They grow arabica Robusta riberica coffee.  They say it is good for your blood pressure and they also use parts of it for soap and perfume!

Coffee beans 

Then we go to the Jozani National Park to see Red Faced Colobus 

Our guide goes through all the regulations.  Others are there too to trek with us to see them. 


There is a small store for refreshments and bathrooms. Bathrooms are very primitive.  90% have no toilet paper and many don’t flush.  It’s pretty disgusting and for us we only use them if we are desperate.  We wait for restaurants or hotels.  

You might be able to see the monkeys tail but they really blend in. 

Our guide gets then to come down but we are not to touch.  They will bite 



They are slender and wiley able to leap far and jump very high. Hard to get the best shot but we do see them 

Our guide takes us to a restaurant for lunch which is part of the tour.  We order from a menu that we don’t much understand but the lunch is basically rice and chicken or fish.  It is a clean place and families are their eating too. 




All in all we are happy with our choice.  We weren’t crowded and had good AC and a very good guide.