Prison Island and Bargaining

The next morning I had breakfast in the hotel restaurant (a pretty good meal!) and went off toward the beach. I immediately ran into a fellow trying to sell me a trip to Prison Island to see the giant turtles. “How much?” I asked? I was ready to bargain. Immediately another fellow came roaring up and told me not to buy a trip from the first fellow. “He is just a businessman! I am the captain of my boat, I will give you the best price!”  After some very heated words I went with the captain who promised me a trip for 30,000 shillings (15 dollars American). The captain’s name was Ali, but he said that many people call him “Bush Baby”. We had a short conversation but his English was not very well developed and my Swahili is next to nothing. His boat was the “Hakuna Matata”, like the song in the Lion King. I think that’s one of the reasons I took his boat. I said that it means “no worries”, he looked at me puzzled and said, “No, it means: no problems!”

The ride to Prison Island took about 20 minutes and it was great to be out in a little boat again. However, when we got close to the beach he indicated it was time for me to step out. I looked and thought it might be just over my knees, but it wasn’t. It was up to my hips and the camera and all my money got soaked. I should have taken both my wallet and the camera out of my shorts before disembarking so I could hold them above my head.

Just before the camera got wet.

When I had a chance to check it, I found out the camera would no longer work. So I toured the island taking mental pictures and hoped that the camera would dry out as I walked. No such luck. I tried drying it in the sun, blowing it, taking out the battery and memory card. Nothing worked. So for this blog I am using pictures that I found on the internet from other tourists that have looked at the same things I saw.

Prison Island from the air.

I tried to dry out the camera at the hotel (it certainly looked dry) but with little success. I brought it to the kitchen and they left it in their rice bin overnight, but still no success. So my pictures for the blog stopped there, just before Prison Island. Anything else I “borrowed” from the internet (tourist websites have lots of pictures people share) or had sent to me by people with phones and email addresses (spice tour).

Here’s a description of Prison Island from a couple of websites:

Earning its name as a former prison for slaves and a quarantine station for Zanzibar and the mainland, nowadays the island gives you the chance to escape for some peace and quiet.

The island was once used by an Arab slave trader to contain the more troublesome slaves he had brought from the African mainland to prevent their escape before shipping them to the Arabian purchasers, or for auctioning in Zanzibar slave trade market. The slaves were dumped on the island.

In 1893, Lloyd Mathews built the prison. The prison idea was to send violent criminals from the Tanganyika mainland to the Prison Island. The Prison Island ended up being used as a quarantine center, instead of a prison, for yellow fever epidemics that once raged through the region. Prison Island remained in the ownership of the government which converted the newer quarantine buildings into a guest house.

The island lies just off the Old Stone Town, it is also a home to giant land tortoises that were imported from Seychelles in the late 19th century. Now it is more commonly known as a home of Zanzibar’s Giant Aldabran Tortoise colony, some of which are over a hundred years old! This endangered species came to Zanzibar as a gift from the government of the Seychelles.

Once on the island, you have the opportunity to feed and pet the tortoises, if you have time you may also like to take a stroll through the forested interior where you will see a wide variety of birds, colorful peacocks, bats, and beautiful butterflies. Keep your eyes peeled too for the shy and elusive Duikers – an unusual tiny antelope species. (http://www.zanzibarquest.com/tours/prison-island-tour-zanzibar.html, http://www.ecoculture-zanzibar.org/day-tours/prison-island-boat-trip)

Some people go to the island and spend a whole day there, snorkeling, sunbathing and feeding the huge tortoises. Most spend a couple of hours. I arranged to spend an hour and a half and Ali said no problem. I thought he would head back to Stone Town to get more customers but I think he just waited off the shore of the island. The tortoises were impressive! Some live to be 100 years old. I was there during mating season and at least three couples were… coupling. There was a lot of groaning and chuffing. Some of the kids found it a bit puzzling and asked their parents why the big one kept climbing on top of the smaller one; I was interested in hearing how the moms and dads steered around it. They did no better than I used to when we’d visit the Calgary Zoo with the kids.

The old prison really wasn’t much to see. And a big chunk of the island is blocked off from the day tourists. I think there is a resort on that side. An hour and a half was more than I needed. Even if Cynthia were with me (She reads every word on every sign.) I don’t think we would have spent more than two hours. But the beach is beautiful.

Shopping in Stone Town

Ali brought me back to Stone Town and then I spent the rest of the day snooping again and haggling with the storekeepers. I learned very quickly that you never pay the first price they give you, nor do you give in to their sob stories. You joke, you start walking out, and you pay somewhere between 1/3 to ½ of what they ask. My favorite stores were the ones where they let you look around polepole (slowly, slowly). There I chatted with the shopkeepers about the slower season, how the products are made and the various artists who made beautiful paintings in Zanzibar. One of the shopkeepers shared that the shops were warned about being too aggressive – that it was putting off the tourists. He said that these people might be able to get someone to buy something once and then that person never returns. Those other shopkeeper have to understand that when high season comes (June and July) there will be more than enough business for everyone.

I shared that this experience had happened to me a couple of times. The shopkeeper would practically take you by the elbow into their small shop and then show you some of their more expensive items and really push them at you. If you said it was too expensive they will say “I make it cheaper, how much will you pay for two?” And the total wasn’t cheaper. These people were desperate to make a sale and often I was their first customer at 2 in the afternoon. 

I bought from the friendly shopkeeper who let me look very polepole (pr. poely poely).