Though we did have a couple of days in Tanzania before Rwanda, it was more of a transit experience than any sightseeing tour.  From Rwanda we bused back into Tanzania.

It is always interesting when you are travelling in Africa.  There was not much information on when and where the buses went from near the Rwandan border to Dar Es Salaam.  It is usually not done.  A Rwandan man helped out by giving us a town to shoot for after the border where he said we could get a bus to Dar.  We got to Kahama, Tanzania no problem, and had three groups of people encircle us as we got off the bus, all vying for the muzongo prize (muzungo is a white person), having us ride their bus to Dar es Salaam.  We methodically, even though it was chaos all around, chose the one we wanted.  In the end we did not back the right horse and the bus broke down costing us a night, who would have known.   

Kahama was not a place that saw many visitors unless you were a Canadian working in the Barrack gold mine nearby.  We stayed at this 5 dollar a night place, which amazingly Rosanna agreed to.  We were taking a look at the room, I was almost ready to say "I do not think so", and Rosanna says "this place will be fine".  Wow!  You should have seen the bathroom, it was not a pretty site.  Soon after she said that, I squished a massive cockroach in the bathroom before it could scurry into our bedroom.  My wife never ceases to surprise me.  The place was not that bad, and it would do for a night.  I couldn't resist taking a pictue of the bathroom to keep as a momento.  

We got into Dar a couple of nights later.  It had felt like it had been a long time since Rosanna and I had been in a city, something like three weeks. Rosanna was especially thrilled to be able to buy chocolate again and eat something other than rice, meat and french fries. We stayed near downtown and got a bunch of errands taken care of that we had been waiting on and organized ourselves to get over to Zanzibar.

Just thinking about heading over to that place was cool.  Zanzibarrr...  Sounds like something out of Arabian Nights, something from a mythology text book.  It felt like the place was not truly real, and now we got to check it out, sweet!  The island has a lot of history and was a capital for different empires over the years, mostly muslim. One notices several influences including Arab and Indian when looking at the architecture and beautifully carved wooden doors. We spent most of our time in Stone Town where many of the run down old buildings added character and charm. It also helped being surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches. 

We were thrilled to finally be in a city where a festival was taking place and we spent three days at Sauti Za Busara (a music festival), which performed a wide range of music and dance in an old stone Fort.  The setting was awesome and the bands were great. The biggest buzz at the festival was for an old Zanzibar lady (Bi Kidude) who had to have been at least in her 80's and was famous for her taarab singing (an Arabic style of song) .  It was cool to listen to her sing with such passion.

After the festival and exploring Stone Town, we went on a spice tour of some of the island farms where our guide showed us many different types of plants and trees that produced spices (ie. cardamon, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla). Rosanna was of course loving it.  We did not make it to the best beach on the island, which was too bad.  The beach we ended up at (Jambiani) had massive amounts seaweed covering it.  It was still nice to see the ocean, and experience another Zanzibar location.  On the way off the island we stopped at a small forest park (Jozani) and visited with some endemic monkeys swinging in the trees and with some giant tortoises being rehabilitated nearby.

After five nights we left Zanzibar, got back to Dar, picked up our Indian visas, and got ready to make our way into Zambia.   We had a hard time deciding between an overnight bus or the train to Lusaka.  The train took longer, 40 hours compared to 29, but would be more comfortable with a sleeper bed.  We agonized for a while then went with the bus. Traveling in Africa is funny sometimes because you end up at a place and it seems like everyone knows what is going on except you.  We arrived at the Zambian border late and stayed at the border town overnight (OK), who would have guessed.  The next day we sat around the border for 10 hours waiting for customs to clear us?  Who knows.  Finally we left and had an overnight bus ride through Zambia.  So much for seeing the countryside.  After 48 hours we pulled into Lusaka and hoped on another 6 hour bus ride to get to Livingstone and Vic Falls.  Since we had come this far what is another 6 hours right... You just wish someone would have told you it was going to be this way.  The train would have been magical comparatively, but what can you do, just have to keep trucking through. You win some you lose some.