Monday, December 2nd, 2024
World Tour Day 30
On our drive from the east coast of Zanzibar to Stone Town we made an hour stop at Tangawizi Spice Farm Zanzibar. The farm grows a large variety of spices and fruits. We walked through the property with a guide and learned how each plant was processed and produced. There was nutmeg, clove, avocado, cocoa, vanilla, red banana, black pepper (and white pepper is the same plant just with a different processing), coffee, jackfruit, caper tree (used for mattresses), cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, lipstick fruit, aloe vera, pineapple, lemongrass, and coconuts.
We learned that the cinnamon tree is a super plant because you use every part of it from the roots to the bark, and when the bark is removed for cinnamon sticks it will grow back and recover. The roots are used for vapor rub like eucalyptus. A man showed us how they climb up coconut trees and another one made us king and queen crowns from weaving a local plant. The lipstick fruit looked like lychee but was used for makeup rather than consumption. A fruit and tea tasting session was a great way to end tour, especially because mangoes were in season.
Our overland tour made it to Stone Town after around 1 hour, where we enjoyed a rooftop lunch. After lunch was a walking tour which included stops at key locations for the slave trade, spice and fish markets, and the birthplace of Freddy Mercury. For dinner we celebrated my birthday early with seaside sunset cocktails accompanied by Carmel and Benny, followed by a seafood dinner with the larger group we are traveling with. The mango octopus salad was divine. It was a quick day in Stone Town but we learned a lot about this historic place.
