Tanzania

Tanzania and Zanzibar

We went to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is a small island off the coast of Tanzania. It’s population is 705,000 and its capital is Zanzibar city.  Zanzibar is part of Tanzania.  The countries bordering Tanzania are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Malawi. 

This is Zanzibar’s flag. They have their own flag, like Ontario has a flag in Canada.

This is Tanzania's flag

When we stepped off of the plane, it was HOT and even worse the airport had no air conditioning !! It was a very small airport but very very busy.  It took us a long time to get through customs.  I was going crazy because it was so hot and busy.

Then we drove to Stone Town. Stone town is the old part of Zanzibar city and we were staying just outside of it.  

We decided to go on a tour around Stone town. First, we went to a market. The market was full of spices and fruit.  It was fun to see. We enjoyed smelling all the different spices and looking at all the exotic fruits.

There was also a fish market but it was really smelly so we decided not go into it.



We went to see the old slave market. This part is very sad. 

 The slave buyers would trade, bribe and kidnapped people because so many people wanted to buy slaves.  The 19th century was the busiest for the slave trade with 40,000-50,000 slaves being sold a year. When the slaves arrived to Zanzibar, they were striped naked and cleaned. They were forced to line up in rows and the potential buyers would inspect them. 

The slaves were held in cells. Women and kids in one and men in the other.  There were 40-50 slaves in each room.  They were chained to the wall or ceiling and there weren't any washrooms. It was a very sad to see these rooms and to learn about this history. 

In 1873, the slave market was closed and buying slaves was made illegal.  


After that, we saw Freddie Mercury's house. Freddie Mercury was the lead singer of Queen. He was born on September 5th, 1946 in Zanzibar.  He died on the 24th of November, 1991 in London to a disease called Aids. When he was young he moved to India and stayed there until he was 17. He then moved to England and when he was 22 he started his music career.  

When we were in Stone Town, we had this special drink. I forget what it was called, so I'm going to call it drink. Now this drink was made out of sugar cane, ginger and lime. It was so sugary and sweet...I Loved it.

We went to the beach and stayed at a resort.

  When we were there we went on a tour of Prison Island and went snorkelling.  We took a small wooden boat to Prison Island, also called Changuu. Changuu was a place where rebellious slaves were made to stay. It also served as a coral mine. The main reason we went there was to see the giant tortoises. They were so big I couldn’t believe it. We were allowed to touch and feed the tortoises but we had to watch out because there were giant tortoise poops everywhere.Here is a picture of me

compared to the tortoise. 

How did the tortoises get there? In 1919, a British governor, gave 4 tortoises to Prison Island and the tortoises started to breed and made tons of other tortoises.   One of the original tortoises is still there. He is 158 years old!

After the tortoises we were back on the boat to go snorkeling. Our tour guide took us to a nice and deep spot and dropped us off. We saw a bunch of fish but I saw an eel. It was cool. 

Then we went back to the beach and went back to our hotel.


We went to Dar es salaam. Dar es salaam is a city in Tanzania. We went there to meet my dad's friend Sri from university and his family. We went to a boat club and my Dad and I went kayaking and tipped over while riding a wave. It was funny. Being with Sri and his family was really fun. If you're reading this Sri say hi to Isaac, Jasmine, and Louise. :)

That was Tanzania and Zazibar.
Sam