At the end of September we took our first much anticipated trip to Zanzibar. Ever since learning about SEED Global Health I began dreaming of visiting Zanzibar’s tropical and exotic shores. We left at 7am, narrowly arriving on time to board the rather fancy ferry to the island. In less than two hours we were disembarking onto the shores of Stonetown.

Stonetown played an important role in the spice trade and slave trade, in the 19th century. It is now famous for it’s narrow and winding streets, beautiful old doors, mosques and the blending of Arab, Indian, Persian, African and European influence. All the other tropical islands I have had the pleasure to visit have had a latin influence and our time in Stonetown was distinctly different. Zanzibar is predominately Islamic; the call to prayer at the mosque could be heard throughout the day, men are wearing their traditional rounded skullcap and the women wear hijab.

The fruit of Jason’s ‘miles chasing’ with credit cards afforded us a wonderful stay at the Double Tree Hilton in Stonetown, which we thoroughly enjoyed and likely would not have otherwise stayed at. We were situated in the heart of Stonetown and able to freely explore the meandering streets. We spent our first day there walking around and peeking into shops, getting massages and drinking fruit smoothies by the water. We were celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary and Jason picked our dinner spot at Emerson on Hurumzi. It was a magical night as the sunset turned pink then orange over the Indian Ocean amidst the call to prayer at the Muslim and Hindi churches. We sat on the floor and enjoyed traditional Zanzibar food while splitting a bottle of chilled white wine and listening to the live musical performance.

Saturday we took a small boat out to Nakupenda beach, avoiding the large tourist groups and instead bartering with a local boat driver to drop us off at the beach for the day. Nakupenda is technically a sandbar in the middle of the ocean, growing and shrinking in size with the tide. It felt like discovering one of the world’s best kept secrets, except that it was number one on Trip Advisor and by mid-day the tour boats had dropped off large amounts of mostly Italian tourists.

Saturday evening we explored the night market, famous for making ‘Zanzibar Pizza’, a sweet or savory version crepe like pizza, along with huge amounts of grilled seafood and spicy hot sauce to go with it. The market was lit by hanging lights or freestanding lanterns, casting just enough light to let you view the food offerings up close. We had the most delicious grilled shrimp with hot sauce on the side and a nutella banana pizza to top it off. The savory pizzas were not my favorite, I thought they tasted similar to an omelette.

Sunday morning we found the best cappuccino I’ve had in Africa, wandered around the larger perimeter of the city and stumbled upon the most charming cafe on the water to read for the morning. We took the short 15 minute flight back to Dar Sunday afternoon and I continuously marveled that the gem of Zanzibar is only 3 hours, door to door, from our house. So of course I’m plotting our return.