a few days in paradise

We spent a wonderful four days in Zanzibar -- a quiet island off the coast of Tanzania.

We loved spending the better part of one day on the Eastern side of the island where it's secluded, quiet, and beautiful. It was super relaxing and provided me (Warren) some nice rest and relaxation! Finally went for a much needed run and started a new book.

Melissa, on the other hand, spent the day learning to kite-surf (and getting sun-burned!). It's quite a difficult sport but by the end of the day, she had mastered three of the five skills.











During our stay we visited the Jozani Forest in Southeast Zanzibar. This is a red colobus monkey here in the tree staring at us taking pictures of him. They live on leaves and fruit and Jozani is the only place where they exist. There are only 2,300 remaining in the world.

One of the highlights was definitely the famous Zanzibar Spice Tour -- an all-day tour which included an introduction to various spice trees and plants. We learned about, tasted, and smelled cardamum, peppers, coffee, cloves, nim, jackfruit, cinnamon, vanilla, and many others. Melissa is here with a section of a cocoa seed. It's covered with a sticky, squishy, sweet covering. The inside is dark and bitter -- what is generally processed into beloved chocolate!

Here we on our hotel room balcony. (Yes, that is the view from our room). Each morning we had breakfast overlooking the Indian Ocean and truly had an amazing time in Zanzibar. We are sad that our time in East Africa is down to only a week! But for now, we are excited to head to Rwanda to do work with Cards from Africa.

seven days in the bush...

We had an amazing time during our safari. We will post more animal pics on facebook, but here are a few favorites.












This is what Mel likes to call the “Circle of Life” picture. It is next to the Tarangire River, where many animals come for water. While this picture only captures the lions (lying on the ground on the right) and elephants, there were actually zebras, wildebeest, and giraffes in the distance. These lions had killed 2 zebras a few hours before.












The experience of seeing animals in their own setting, yet so close, was very unique. While some of the animals are afraid of vehicles, most in Tanzania have grown accustomed due to the large tourism industry. Later on during the safari, we saw an epic “necking” battle between 2 adolescent giraffes fighting for a female.













This is a picture of black kite in Ngorongoro Crater. These birds are more fierce and skilled than we expected. We were warned that they might snatch our food, so we were taking cover under a tree (hovering over our packed lunch). I (Warren) took one bite of my chicken, and this black kite actually swiped it from my hand!












Mel’s favorite animal sighting was this Mama cheetah with her 2 baby cubs. They are about 6 weeks old. They only have a 1 in 20 chance of living as many predators prey on the babies for easy kills. We had an awesome guide, Christian, who we nicknamed the “Cat Whisperer”. We saw 3 adult cheetahs, 2 leopards, and over 30 lions during our trip. We were very lucky!











Warren wanted to bring home this hyrax. Interestingly, the closest living relative of this animal is the elephant. They were all over the Serengeti Visitor Center.


We are back in Arusha today and leave for the beaches of Zanzibar tomorrow.