"Land of Contrasts"

Clichés rarely make good titles, except when they're completely true.

Our Lonely Planet guidebook stated that Nungwi, on Zanzibar's northern coast is a place where "old and new collide at full force". There is a narrow road in Nungwi that separates a 50-metre-wide band of coastline from the town. On the one side of this road are white sands, people to match, lots of beer, turquoise waters, and frequent offers for marijuana from enterprising locals. On the other side is an overcrowded muslim school where children learn in three shifts, their teachers teaching from sunrise till 8pm. There are also small stone houses with thatched roofs, little girls running through the streets wearing their hijabs, and small street "restaurants" selling delicious food at incredible prices. But the same striking blue sky can be seen from either side.

On Thursday we went snorkelling out on the Mnemba atoll. The choppy two-hour ride on a motorized dhow boat was nothing short of nauseating, but it was well worth it. When we got to the atoll, our captain told us we could jump out, set the anchor, and then fell asleep. The other people snorkelling with us were on an overland trip from Cape Town, South Africa, to Arusha, Tanzania. They were a rowdy bunch, but fun. They hailed from Brazil, Australia, the UK, Norway, and Canada. The reef was fantastic-- the fish were the most stunning shades of blue, red, yellow, and every other colour in between. I lost count after 34 species of fish.

In the evening, we brought our new friends into the town for some local cuisine, and then had a couple of beers while watching Spain solidly trounce Russia. I am not a vindictive person (or so I tell myself) but I did enjoy seeing Russia bite the dust. At half time, our entire group burst into a carefully orchestrated rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", but the very serious football crowd did not seem to appreciate our efforts to entertain them. Kyle and I noted that while everyone in the bar was white, there was standing room only at the bar's entrance-- the black locals who could not afford drinks were not allowed to enter, creating this very strange apartheid-era ambience. It felt very strange leaving the bar and then entering again past the crowd at the entrance

Friday was another beach day (although we spent a lot of time in the shade-- Wednesday was rough on the skin). And today, Kyle and I enjoyed our first foray into scuba diving.

But that story will have to wait, because I have exactly one minute and twelve seconds left of computer time.