A Day at the Beach . . . aaahhhhh!

Emily D.

We woke up this morning to another gorgeous breakfast overlooking the ocean. After enjoying our second to last ocean side eggs and french toast, we headed to the Jozani Forest, where we saw trees, plants, spiders, and monkies! Without some chacos and zip-off shorts, I felt a little out of uniform, but I somehow managed to escape the wrath of the knettles.
The monkies kept us entertained for quite a while. It was a family with the little baby monkies climbing everywhere. Many of them got a little too close for comfort since they do bite, but luckily one of our group members had experience with the monkey bite so he knew how to handle them. They seemed to enjoy putting on a show for us, while some of us braver ones attempted to feed them. Once we got our monkey fix, we ventured down a wooden bridge parth to view the mangroves. It was a beautiful sight as we learned of their importance in slowing storms and providing nutrients to the soil.
Our tour of the jungle concluded and we headed to the beach, and my favorite: lunch! But first, we waded out into the crystal clear ocean to learn about farming seaweed, those of us without water shoes carefully watching every step.
The rest of the day was ours. The beach was an unbelievable sight. Us girls set up camp in some chairs with our feet hanging in the water of the Indian Ocean. We have anticipated this day for a while, and we were fully enjoying every moment of it.
After a quick game of frisbee, the boys decided to make the journey out to the breakers. They slowly became dots in the distance as we continued to soak up the sun. As the rains headed towards us, we packed up our bags to head to shore. A single vendor on his bike stopped to sell some scarves, which of course were not mzungu prices!! In fact, they were Sunday prices!
Next on our day of paradise was a delicious treat- ice cream! Hershey syrup and all! While we were enjoying our snacks, the boys conned a man in a boat to bring them back to shore. We spent the rest of our afternoon at the beach watching Mandy do tricks, some of us attempting to do the same. Unfortunately some of the boys were unable to escape from the sea urchins and returned home with remnants of the spikes in their feet.
After a smooth ride home, we spent the rest of the evening in Stone Town. We went inside the fort in town to find a hidden market complete with henna tatoos and scarves, while the rest of the crew went to Africa house to join in acrobatics with the locals. Chris successfully completed a backflip off of the stone wall.
With one of the most beautiful sunsets yet, we all went into town for last minute internet and dinner. Cell phones would have been usefull at this moment when dinner plans got mixed up.
We returned from dinner, most of the girls looking snazzy wrapped in their new style of dresses, to convene for our daily journaling party. Sadly, it was our last night in Zanzibar, and we would all be hesitant to leave in the morning. However, our future days of safaris and five star hotels are worth moving forward from our wonderful days at the beach!!