We left Chumbe and headed to the east side of the island for a few more days on the beach. Zanzibar has a number of exclusive resorts, but we wanted to go to an area where hotels are a little more integrated into the community. Jambiani is a small village of about 4,000 stretching for several miles along a pristine white sand beach, where women farm seaweed in the shallows and kids play soccer between high tides.
Soccer on the beach
Seaweed farm at low tide
We stayed at Casa del Mar, and took a few of their guided excursions (free in the low season!) to the Jozani forest to see red monkeys, and sailed on a fishing dhow out to the reef to snorkel.
Mangrove crab
Red colobus monkey
Our small dhow
Red-knobbed starfish
We also took a village tour by EcoCulture Zanzibar, and learned a little more about folks every day life. We tried our hand at twisting coconut fiber into rope, and met a natural healer who seemed to know a plant for every conceivable malady.
Making coconut rope
Playing Bao la kiswahili
Our last night, we rented bikes and went up the road to Paje, where there are a few backpacker hostels with fast internet, and a fusion sushi restaurant. It look a little longer than we thought, and we ended up coming back along the beach far after dark. We had headlamps, but the wind and the old bikes made it definitely type-II fun. When we finally got back to the hotel, the proprietor had actually gone out to look for us, which made us a little embarrassed but also glad that someone had noticed.
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