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The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage - Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Fourteen

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November 13 (Friday, Day 16, Zanzibar, Tanzania) -

Zanzibar bus queue on the dock

Before meeting for our tour, we weighed ourselves and were pleasantly surprised to see that we were at our pre-cruise weights. Yippee!!! (Not using the elevators on the ship really does work!) We met for our tour at 8:45 AM and boarded our air-conditioned bus. We were going to Jozani Forest Reserve to see red colobus monkeys that can only be found in Zanzibar. The forest was about 22 miles away from the ship and the drive was on a nice asphalt road. Our guide said that the road was about 1 year old. Who knows what it was like prior to the asphalt?

More after the jump . . .

Butcher shop

Schoolgirl and shop

Donkey cart

Ox cart

Bustling side street

Another donkey cart

Zanzibar was 95° and 96% humidity. Even Snookums thought it was hot. We got to the forest and started our nature walk. Several scrawny cows were milling about so we had to watch where we stepped to avoid piles of manure. We quickly came upon a family of red colobus monkeys in the almond trees. They only eat the leaves of the tree and don’t drink water. They just survive on the leaves. They have 4 fingers (and no thumb) on their hand and 4 fingers and a thumb on their feet. After we saw the monkeys the bus took us to the mangroves and we walked through them. There wasn’t much to see other than two types of tiny crabs, but it was nice and kind of cool due to the shade. Then the bus took us back to the dock about 1 hour early. It was a great tour and no one complained that it was finished by noon rather than by 1.

Monkey, dining on leaves

He looks surprised

Apes, viewing monkeys

he monkey defends himself with a stick from the menacing ape. Or, he's offering it as a token of peace. We don't know which.

But there was peace between the species. This time.

Next: More monkeys! In trees!