Zanzibar

Zanzibar.. The Spice Islands.  The names themselves conjur up exotic travel, Dhows carrying exotic goods from the East blown by the trade winds, Sultans and harems. Zanzibar became the capital of the Omani empire in 1698 and has a rich history with a unique blend of Arab and Swahili cultures. On a darker note it was formaly the centre of the slave trade to the East until Livingstone had a hand in bringing about its abolition.

The capital, Stone Town has a certain faded charm, with crumbling merchants houses and palaces with intricately carved wooden doors and snaking alleyways.

The meat and fish markets make for a colourful and vibrant experience, though not for the faint hearted vegan.












Away from the capital are a host of gorgeous beaches, spice plantations to visit and the Jozani forest with an uber cute troop of Colubus monkeys. These days its a great add on to a Tanzanian Safari to the Selous or the Serengeti reserve 

I first went to Zanzibar for the Millenium, and was lucky enough to pop back on a flying visit hosted  by Serena hotels en route to the Selous Game reserve last September. As the sun has come out in London, I thought it might be time to share these sunny shots of East Africa.

I laugh in the face of ridiculously complex bus networks!

Hurrah for me - just arrived home in no time almost to my door from the San Telmo markets area on the other side of the city. The Buenos Aires bus system seems to consist of about 200 independently run companies all with different routes, I have taken pot luck a couple of times relying on my luckily good sense of direction and getting of somewhere that seems to be in the general vicinity of where i wanted to go. Today i was a little further afield though. So i bowled up to a news stand and asked for a bus guide in Spanish, then managed to decipher the 200p long manual with maps and grids that seem only to tell you that there might be a bus of use to you going through somewhere nearby in this quadrant but we wont tell you exactly what street. Anyway...number 17 you are my lucky bus!