Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of this past week our group enjoyed some much needed R&R at New Teddys on the Beach in Jambiani, Zanzibar (amazing hostel that we all highly recommend!). To get to Zanzibar we had to first take a ferry. Knowing traffic in Dar es Salaam is a bit chaotic, we planned for the 25 minute drive to take around an hour....even with planning extra time we barely made it in time! Between the aggressive mob of "helpers" outside the ferry (one person tried to steal my bag to carry it for me so I would have to pay him to get it back!), arriving right before the ferry was to depart, and the language barrier, our weekend was off to an adventurous start. However, everything happens for a reason. We made our ferry and the only seats available were the best seats in the house (in our opinions) at the very front of the boat! In Zanzibar we boarded a dala dala and drove to the east side of the island to our hostel where we weary, dusty travellers were created with freshly made watermelon ginger juice.
For the rest of the weekend we enjoyed the sun, beaches, delicious food, meeting Masi warriors selling their wares along the beach, walking in the village, dancing, and sailing out to snorkel in the reefs. I don't think alt prac can get any better than this!