No we did not go to see a show from the Spice Girls Comeback Tour 2008. Instead, we took part in one of Zanzibar’s famous activities. We took a tour of a Zanzibari spice plantation where there are all sorts of spice and fruit plants. There were cumin plants, fresh pepper, turmeric, ginger, lemongrass, passionfruit, jackfruit etc. Saffron is one of the only spices that is not grown on Zanzibar. There are a number of tour operators that run spice tours from Stone Town to a spice plantation to see the various spice plants.
Now when we arrived in Stone Town on Sunday, all of the tour operators were closed but we were able to book a tour with Mr. Mitu Spice Tour. Mr. Mitu is a privately owned spice tour company but according to the guide book and several travelers – he is the one to use!
We boarded the spice tour bus on Monday morning and proceeded to the spice plantation where as I mentioned earlier, we saw a plethora of amazing spice groves and fruit orchards. We were given spices and fruit to sample as we wandered through the various plantations. Along the way, little children followed us and weaved several creations using grass including baskets, hats, ties, rings, necklaces etc. Roanna was by far their favourite from our tour group and by the end she was fully decked out in grass-jewelry and accessories! One boy offered to make her a hat which she kindly declined and when we returned at the end we found that he had made it anyways. Too funny!
We also purchased some lovely fresh ground spice, teas and lemongrass/coconut oil from the vendors at the end of the spice tour! After we visited the various spice plantations, we sat down in this large semi-circle and enjoyed various fruits including jackfruit, oranges, sitapalam, nungu, melon, etc. The “fruit tour” tour guide cut pieces of fruit for all of us sitting around him. It reminded me of my dad who always cut pieces of fruit for me and my mom or my grandmother would always feeds the grandkids a sweet dessert known as ubattu from one plate!
After the spice tour, we had lunch sitting in a traditional hut. The lunch was fully vegetarian and included a pilaf rice dish with fresh spices, a coconut curry, spinach and fresh chapathi! Yum! There was also a traditional henna artist so some of the women on the tour including Roanna got traditional henna tattoos (which are temporary).
Afterwards, the tour operator took us to visit the Slave Caves near Mungapawni Beach. These caves were used to hide slaves after slavery was abolished. Our tour guide told us a story about an ancient snake deity that lived in the cave but Roanna and I both had trouble following him! There was also this source of water in the cave which the slaves hidden would drink for sustenance. We also heard stories about a passage which many slaves would take in the hopes of escaping only to discover that after 10 km – the passage hit a dead end. According to our tour guide (and again he was somewhat hard to follow), many slaves died on this path while searching for freedom. After visiting the dark and historic caves, we walked through this path towards Mungapawni beach where we had some time to swim and enjoy the sand. Each beach in Zanzibar has a completely unique character – this beach was characterized by a rugged terrain leading up to the most crystal of waters. You could literally see your feet when you stood up – the water was that clear!
