Zanzibar Part 2 - Nungwi

It was going to be hard to top Kendwa because we loved Kendwa - it had the perfect balance of activity and relaxation. But, we had made plans to meet our friends from Kigali in Nungwi, so we packed our things and caught a short cab ride to our next hotel. We met them in the café early that morning and got settled into our new bungalow. It wasn’t quite Kendwa, but it is still paradise!
Our friends had an epic travel day getting from Kigali (planes, boats, busses, taxis, and more), so we were all down for a swim on the beach and lots of doing nothing. Even doing nothing is pretty entertaining here. We watched a group of women ready to offload some fish from a small boat with hundreds of 5 gallon buckets. They were each dressed in colorful African Kangas (cotton wraps) and against the picturesque blue water and wriggling fish, it was a sight to behold. The rest of the afternoon we read and relaxed. That evening, we were able to watch the Olympics on a big screen in our hotel. It was wonderful to watch and feel a little connection to home. The food was great and we were all satisfied with the day.
The next morning we woke up early had some breakfast and headed out for a day of snorkeling. The boat ride out was stunningly beautiful as we circled the northern tip of the island. The blues of the water are hard to describe. We anchored our boat just a little swim away from the reef and got into our flippers, masks, and snorkels. For the next two hours we swam around enjoying all sorts of coral, thousands of fish, and the quiet of being under water. It was magical. After a couple of hours we were all getting sufficiently burned so we swam back to the boat for lunch. The boatmen had peeled tons of fresh fruit, fried up some chapati bread (think thick tortillas), and even managed to grill a huge bonita fish on the deck of the boat. It was a feast! We decided to check out another spot for snorkeling, but the growing surf made it not so good, so we decided to head back. This is where things got a little interesting. The seas had grown to pretty good sized swells and our boat filled with 17 people had us all looking at each other and saying - really? We took on lots of water, were all soaked by the end, had a couple of pukers, one Maltese woman in a bit of a panic, and four guides that had there game faces on (although they were laughing too). For a couple of hours, we all held onto the boat as we swayed and rocked and crashed and splashed through waves that seemed to prevent us from moving at all. Luckily we made slow, but steady progress and once we turned the boat to go with the wind and waves, it was sunny, peaceful and beautiful. A collective sigh of relief and some clapping for our “captain.” We made it home safely.

Now, we have washed off the salt and sand, are nursing some burned bodies. A cold (sort of) beer and relaxing sunset to finish the day.

We know we are blessed. Cheers.