Here are some of the surprising highlights from Zanzibar:
1. Stink Fruit! We had been hearing rumors about a fruit called doriani, a fruit so repulsive smelling that it is banned from many hotels and public spaces, a fruit rumored to be so strong that you could tell up to 3 days later that one had been in the vicinity. However, we had also been told that this fruit was absolutely delicious, so when we saw them on the side of the road, we decided to give it a try. We first asked if we would eat it at an outside restaurant, thinking that it would be alright in the open air, but the waiter took one look at the fruit and got a terrified expression on his face, waving his arms frantically in the air to tell us to get away. So, perhaps unwisely, we snuck it into our hotel room. We had an outside balcony and so we went out there, and used our room key to cut it open. Instantly one of the most repulsive smells, like a combination of a public bathroom and rotting onions spewed out. We kept cutting and got to the gooey edible inside. Making a face I tried unsuccessfully to get it to my mouth without getting it near my nose. It was sweet. This is true, but the texture was the worst oozy slime and the taste was a sweeter version of the smell, like honey coated public bathroom... in your mouth. My friends agreed, and we quickly ran inside, only to discover that the smell would not leave the room nor our hands. When we turned the room key in 3 days later, it still smelled like stink fruit.
2. Giant Tortoises! We got to feed 500 year old giant turtles. On a small island off of Zanzibar there is a tortoises preservation refuge to keep them from being hunted. They were huge, often over 600 pounds, and the closest things to dinosaurs I have ever seen. They would come meandering up and stand up on their hind legs to stretch their necks out and get leaves from our hands.
3. Monkeys! On Zanzibar, there is a kind of money called kima kunju, which are found nowhere else in the world. They have also been so exposed to people that they are entirely unafraid. You can sit right next to them and they just continue eating leaves and completely ignore you. Some of the little kids even poked them and they would just move over a little bit. I felt a bit bad for the little monkeys to be bothered by so many cameras and tourists, but frankly they didn't seem to care at all. We saw baby monkeys hanging onto their moms and monkeys swinging from trees two feet away and just monkeys doing everything that monkeys do!
4. We also went snorkeling, got to play with plants that when you touch them they immediately shrivel up and pretend to be dead, and we got to go to a spice farm and see and taste all sorts of amazing kinds of spices and fruits and see how they grow.
Love you all and I'll write soon when I'm back in Arusha!
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