We were really looking forward to getting some good beach time in on Zanzibar before the end of our trip. (The beaches in Colorado just don’t seem to compare.) Zanzibar is a chain of islands off Tanzania. It has interesting history because it was a major trading port between Asia, Arabia, and Africa. They were called the Spice Islands and merchants came from all over to trade everything from spices, slaves (50,000 were sold in the market annually), ivory, etc. Now there is an interesting mixture of Indian, Islamic and African culture. We enjoyed seeing the diversity of people: Indian women wearing bright and beautiful saris (Indian dresses), Arabs in their black robes and veils, and African muslim women with very brightly colored dresses and veils. We spent our first day exploring Stonetown noting the Arab and Indian architectural influences. It reminded us of the old parts of Cairo. We also delighted in the street vendors selling fresh seafood skewers. They had marlin, tuna, barracuda, crab, prawns, lobster, and mussels. It was $1 for a hearty shishkabob and we loved it! After that we headed to Kendwa on the Northern tip of Zanzibar Island. We spent 6 days here relaxing. It was a beautiful spot with crystal clear turquoise water, soft white sand, and few tourists (but enough for volleyball). Not to mention no trash, rocks, seaweed, jellyfish, crocodiles, riptides, etc. We layed in the sun and watched the locals passing by: men in their sailboats and canoes, and women fishing in waist high water fully clothed in their bright wraps. We found ourselves torn between getting lost in the incredible relaxation and the excitement and anxiety of coming home (wish the economy was better).

Now we are in Cairo (and no we are not extending our trip). We are gradually working our way back home using the return portions of all the round trip flights we took to get here. Tomorrow we fly back to Bangkok, 12 hrs later we continue on to Brisbane, we have 4 days to get to Sydney from where we fly home on the 5th and arrive in Denver around the same time that we left Sydney (gotta love the International Date Line!). This is clearly not the ideal way to go home, we had hoped to continue around the world and fly from Africa back to the States. However, from a financial standpoint this was clearly not ideal either. So, since we have more time than money, we will go back the way we came.

Unless a curve-ball is thrown at us, this will be our last transmission from the trip. So, you may find yourselves with more freetime, now that you won’t be reading our wordy emails.

We appreciate all of you guys joining us on our journey. Your letters were excellent soul food for us. It is bitter-sweet to be at the end. We are sad that this incredible experience is nearly over but we can’t wait to see our family, friends, home, cats, etc. We find that the excitement of going home is equal to the excitement we felt for the trip before we left. The trip has definately highlighted how fortunate we are in the States. It is incredible to see how poor the people are in so many of the places we have visited. But at the same time we have seen that money doesn’t buy happiness. Particularly in Africa, people seemed so happy in their daily lives. We saw numerous instances of people dancing for no reason, by themselves, in the middle of the day, without music.