Spice Tour

Zanzibar is well known for all their spices and back in the day, they used to be a major supplier of spices. Even though it's not the case today, you can still go on a tour of a spice plantation and see all the spices that are grown on the island. Since we only had one night in Stone Town we wanted to make sure we got the spice tour in. After setting our bags down, sorting out our laundry situation, we grabbed the cameras and went on spice tour.

I must say, it was such an incredible experience. I don't think Arnold or myself was expecting to be blown away by the tour. It was just us two and our guide and his helper. They would pick leaves and bark off trees for us and then we would try and guess what spice it was by the smell. In their plantation they grew: cinnamon, lemon grass, coffee, vanilla, pepper, cloves, curry, aloe, plus lots of fruit (and more spices I can't remember). They know everything about all the plants around them and how each plant cures different sicknesses and acts as their own local grown pharmacy.

The people in the village are very, very poor, but so unbelievable smart. In Canada we have everything at our finger tips, but I could never in a million years walk into the forest and know what berries to eat, let alone which ones would cure my stomach ache. We spent two hours in the spice plantation, smelling the various spices and then sampling all the fruit that they grew (Coconut cut straight from the tree and into our mouths). After the tour was over, we had a traditional lunch, served with all the spices that they grow and more fruit. The fruit in Africa, is probably some of the most amazing fruit you could ever have. It is soooo good! We left the tour blown away by what we saw. Our guide for the tour was my age and could already speak 5 languages and knew how to clot the blood from a cut by using the sap from a plant. Definitely the best $25 we have spent.

Love Melissa and Arnold