Well...as you can tell by the cute little sailboats, we're still in Zanzibar. Today was devoted to finding out more about their spice trade roots. Our first stop though, was at the 3rd Sultan's other residence. He had that House of Wonders for he and his 4 legal wives, but he also had a huge palace for his 99 concubines. They each even had their own toliets. Talk about luxury. The palace had running water and aqueducts that brought it in from miles away.
Caught Dot in the candid photo. That's tough to do with a photog that is always on the lookout.
The palace had these decorative pools around the perimeter and now the locals use them as bathing pools and to wash clothes. There are lilly pads growing in them, so we weren't inclined to even dip our hands in.
Addie and Dave in deep convo...actually probably discussing cameras :-)
About half of the group...we were waiting since our guide, Jihad, walks so speedily through all of the museum and palace.
Now off to the spice farm. That was amazing...a mix of many different smells. Our guide would crush up the leaves and have us guess. We went 0-8 I think. There was cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon grass, lavendar, cloves. They also had a variety of fruits growing like starfruits and coconuts.
Here is Chad painted with the "war paint" I couldn't understand the name of the plant but they kept calling it "lipstick." It is some red pigmented plant that is native to South America. Marlee and I played with it in Ecuador.
Speaking of Coconuts...this was a trip. A guy that called himself the butterfly...climbed up the coconut tree and did a performance for us. He was singing and striking poses. He even swung is legs out to the side and made it look like he was sitting in a chair off the side of the tree.
The only support that he had came from a rope tied around his feet. How strong. He threw down about a dozen coconuts to us and cut them up for us to try. 
Dave drinking some fresh coconut juice.
Em Dennis getting her fill too. The men would drain the extra milk then cut the pulp for us to eat. It wasn't that bad..i'm not a huge fan of coconut, so I'm a pretty harsh critic.
I broke down and finally tried it. :-) After the spice tour we headed back to the hotel to change and go grab some lunch. After our crab pasta, a group of us decided to hit the beach for some rays. While we were walking, we passed a group of kids playing soccer...we couldn't resist.
I've been told in the past that soccer was a communist sport...I disagree. I feel its an ambassadorial thing, kinda like smiling and laughing. Everyone understands it and everyone likes it. It is definitely the easiest way to connect with people of other cultures.
We're off to the dive shop to get ready for tomorrow. Until next time, I miss you all. Be safe. Check out the group blog at www.UGAinTZ2008.blogspot.com
Britt
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