Wednesday, February 27th to Saturday, March 2nd, 2013
Wednesday morning I woke up and finally got a glimpse of the hotel and the beach. Wasn't disappointed at all. A beautiful spot with all the sandy beach I could want.
Looking up at the hotel from the beach. Behind those palm trees on the left is my room.
The next four days were going to look very similar, splitting my time between relaxing on the beach, relaxing on the balcony of my room and doing a little diving. It turned out to be very nice. I did 2 dives each of the 4 days, and then spent the rest of the day relaxing (or got up and relaxed until 1130 or 1200 and then went diving). Either way I was always back on my balcony by 1600. It was fantastic and so was the diving. I had heard mixed reviews about the diving but I have to tell you, it blew me away. I saw all kinds of things I'd never seen before. The one day it was just me and the dive master so we just took our time and he found lots of stuff for me to look at. There were turtles and sharks, and leaf fish and eels and frog fish and octopus and well just about everything. The only thing I missed seeing......the sea horses (still never seen one) so I guess they will stay on the list for now.
Anyway, here are some pictures from my first 4 days....and what a great 4 days it was.
Turtle!!!!!!! This was really the first turtle I've seen while diving. During this 45 minute dive I also saw like 5 others. They're so awesome.
Clown fish family.
Got pretty close to this one. So pretty.
Puffer fish. Not sure I've seen one this colour before.
Scorpion fish trying to hide from me......he couldn't.
That's a fish hiding in there as well. I'm pretty sure this is another type of scorpion fish.
This may not look like it but it is a little feather starfish. I had played with it so now it is all curled up. They feel really neat.
Heading back to land after a couple great dives.
I spent most of my evenings at the hotel but I did manage to venture out to the surrounding village to check out the area. Obviously I'd never been here before and wasn't sure what to expect, but the guys at the hotel assured me it was perfectly safe and although a Muslim area I didn't need to be concerned about staying covered. I did stay as modest as possible and wandered up the road.
Lots of people on the move by every means you could imagine.
Yes, I did stop to take some picture of theses cute little chicks.
Look how cute and fuzzy they are.
I noticed that there were a lot of people, but men and boys in particular wandering in the same direction. I decided I needed to find where they were heading. Turns out it was soccer time. It seems all the men and teenage boys spend their evenings here. I happened to be the only woman in attendance but after a friendly "Sister, sister, come watch" I got a little closer. I don't know a lot about soccer but the majority of these boys were pretty good. They even had a referee. What I found interesting was the disparity that you saw in even this small group of people. What I mean by that is, everywhere you look in Tanzania you see the poverty and world wide disparity between the rich and the poor. But even on this field I saw guys who had full soccer gear (shorts, shirts, cleats, shin protectors,socks) and guys wearing mismatched shoes and socks and even guys in bare feet and old dress pants. I'm sure around here there is a lot of take what you can get but I assure you it doesn't dampen their enthusiasm for the game or for life in general. Always such a refreshing attitude.
Watching the sunset from my hotel patio. Not a bad view at all.
Lovely little fish. I do believe this is a leaf scorpion fish. I love the colour.
A little nudi just hanging out,
Hermit crab. Seems he found a shell that has been sitting on the bottom for quite sometime. I think he came out to take a look at me.
The little place we stopped for lunch one day. There is one "day trip" you can go on, to Mnemba Island. A very beautiful spot on the opposite side of the island from my hotel. A very beautiful spot whether you dive or just snorkel.
Now I know I've never seen a puffer fish that colour before. Looked so cool under the water.
Another feather starfish.
Seriously...how cool is this fish? This is a frog fish. Pretty sure I've never seen one before but it blends in so well I've probably gone right past them before thinking they are part of the coral.
Hmmmm....what's that?
I think it's a shark!!!!!! Just a little one.....just a baby. But you can see him looking at me.
Happy in my underwater playground.
Looking at the beach from the dive shop.
Where I got to spend some time relaxing on the beach with a book. I can't complain.
Some of the pretty coral garden.
This looks like a little poppy to me.
A third little feather star fish. I really like them.
The turtle is looking at me!!!
I guess he got tired of all my picture taking.
"I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden in the shade". He thinks I can't see him but we were totally staring each other down. In case you didn't catch the reference, that eye you can see belongs to an octopus who is very well camouflaged in his little hiding spot. He actually changed colours in front of me. But as long as his eye was open I could spot him.
My days usually ended with my book on my patio and then a nice glass of wine with dinner. It was a beautiful and relaxing 4 days. Not disappointed at all.
Tomorrow I would check out the history of this great little island.
Julie
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