Spice Tour - Last Entry

On my third day in Zanzibar I went on a spice tour. This time I did go through the front desk to arrange it. It was only 15 American for a mornings worth of tour and a free lunch. Not sure if this was a good deal or not, but I didn’t feel like going out to arrange a tour myself.

I took the tour with a couple of American tourists. Bob, a dentist from New Hampshire, and Ted, his son who was serving with the Peace Corps elsewhere in Africa. We had a good time.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. We rode a cab with our guide to one of the local spice farms and he led us on a walking tour through the plantation. He was very knowledgeable and his English was very good. He explained that the island of Zanzibar did not have all of the spices and fruit growing on it until the Europeans came. They brought all sorts of plants and seeds with them from their colonies elsewhere and made the island like an experimental farm.

As we walked through the farm, the guide would stop, cut, dig or pull up something and then hand it to us to guess what it might be.

Too bad my camera was dead. The plantation was quite scenic. I asked Bob to email me some of his pictures. He said he would. Hopefully he doesn’t lose my email address. I will add his pictures to the blog when I get them. In the meantime I see if I can find a few pictures from other tourists that give a bit of an idea about the spice tours. All of the pictures show things that we saw with our guide. When I looked through the images on the net I discovered that there is quite a range in the tours and the kind of things you see.

A cup full of spice

Cardomen

Smell that?

Our guide showed us a great variety of fruits and spices. He crushed leaves or grass stalks so we could smell them. He also dug up roots, picked fruit or had some of his teen protégés shinny up trees to fetch fruit for us to eat. Some of the most impressive were nutmeg (see pictures) and cacao. With Cacao the white milky substance around the bean tastes a bit like yoghurt and kids will suck off the beans and then throw them away. He also told us of the many uses of certain spices, how they can be used as painkillers, balms for scrapes and wounds, insect repellent, stomach settlers, and aphrodisiacs. It was all very interesting, but I have a memory like a sieve… so I have little to share.

A citrus with a really thick rind!

Cacao

Star Fruit

Nutmeg

Vanilla

Here’s some information from a website:

Since ancient times, a flourishing sea-going trade has existed between the nations surrounding the Indian Ocean. Goods from Indonesia, Malaysia and India have been arriving on the coast of East Africa for centuries, borne on wooden dhows sailing the monsoon winds that blow across this region. It is certain that spices from Asia arrived in Zanzibar this way long before the dawn of the European spice merchants.

Early in the sixteenth century Portuguese traders established a base on Zanzibar as part of their plan to control East Africa. They imported various plants, including spices, from their colonies in South America and India. Land was cleared for plantations, but the Portuguese never really developed their presence on Zanzibar beyond a military one.

It was left to the Omani Arabs, who ruled Zanzibar from the early eighteenth century, to develop Zanzibar economically as a spice-producing entity. Sultan Seyyid Said, the first Omani sultan to govern Zanzibar, quickly realised the potential of his new dominion, with its hot climate and regular rainfall, as a location for spice farming.

He encouraged in particular the planting of clove trees on his own plantations, and issued a decree to other landowners that for each coconut tree on their farms, two clove trees must be planted. Soon Zanzibar had become a major producer of spices. With the demise of the slave trade in the late nineteenth century, spices became Zanzibar's main source of income.

When the era of the Sultans ended and the long arm of the British Empire reached Zanzibar, the islands new colonial 'protectors' encouraged the farming of spices and other useful plants, bringing in European scientists to found experimental agricultural stations and government farms such as those at Kizimbani and Kindichi. Today these areas still contain spice plantations controlled by the modern, independent Tanzanian government.

But spices in Zanzibar today are by no means simply the preserve of governments keen to produce cash-rich export products or a useful tourist attraction. For the ordinary people of Zanzibar, spices and useful plants are a vital part of everyday life and a rich element in the island's strong and vibrant culture.

The spices grown in village kitchen gardens give their flavour to the distinctive cuisine of Zanzibar, provide innumerable cures for everyday ailments, and yield the dyes and cosmetic products needed to celebrate weddings and festivals.

From the dark-red stain of henna on a bride's hands, to the coconut-palm roof of a newly-constructed house, or the sweet aroma of cloves drying in the sun, spices and useful plants are woven into the fabric of life and culture of these fascinating islands. Touch, taste and smell the spices that grow here, and you'll be on your way to understanding the true nature of Zanzibar. (http://www.eastafrica.co.za/Zanzibar_Regional_Information-travel/tanzania-travel-article-spices-in-zanzibar.html)

What I thought I might see...

What I did see.

After the spice tour I did a bit more shopping for gifts for family a friends. Then I went back to the hotel and packed.

The next few days would be spent waiting. The ferry ride to Dar es Salaam was significantly rougher than my earlier ride. Quite a few people had to use the sickness bags. I was quite queasy too. But, I chose not to go up to the front outdoor deck, I didn't want to lug all my stuff out there and I didn't trust leaving it behind. That might have been my mistake. The air conditioning along with the rocking and rolling and the sounds of others using their bags probably didn’t help. Fresh air would have helped.

So long, Zanzibar.

I arrived back at the hotel, retrieved my luggage, had supper and got in a good night’s sleep. At this point I am listening to the Oilers game against the Ducks (It started at 5:30 in the morning here.) I’ve been keeping up with the playoffs as much as I could through NHL.com and a few other websites and I’ve listened to Oiler and Bruin games on radio station websites.  

I leave for Edmonton (via Amsterdam and Calgary) tonight at 11. So, unless something really significant happens this afternoon or on my way home, this will be my last blog entry. Hope to see most of you back in Edmonton where I hear it is snowing again. Yikes. Gonna be a big shock from the 27 degree weather I have experienced here.