{"id":9795,"date":"2017-08-07T15:48:22","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T12:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ants-in-pants.com\/?p=9795"},"modified":"2017-12-31T10:48:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-31T08:48:00","slug":"zanzibar-tours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ants-in-pants.com\/en\/blog\/zanzibar-tours\/","title":{"rendered":"Organized Tour in Zanzibar: Dolphins and Colobuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

We spent several wonderful days<\/a> in Zanzibar and we enjoyed our time a lot! At some point of time we had such a euphoria moment that we even booked the organized tour to see dolphins and colobuses. This experience showed again that there are very few really professional tour companies and even fewer good guides in them. That is why if you have an opportunity to see something independently, it is better to rely on yourself.<\/p>\n

Tours and excursions.<\/h4>\n

In Zanzibar, they offer several tour destinations. Spice tour<\/strong> is said to guarantee to awaken your senses after visiting the spice plantations with the opportunity to pick, smell, and savor fruits and spices which you have probably never seen at the supermarket shelves. It also includes the ruins of Marahubi Palace, the Kidichi Persian Baths, and rural areas (it is in the latter that you may see and try cloves, tangerine trees, lemon grass, mangosteen, \u2018lipstick trees\u2019).
\nPrison Island<\/strong> visit requires a boat. The place earned its name as a former prison; the island is one kilometer long and a quarter kilometer wide. The location is perfect for swimming and snorkeling, the waters are said to be crystal clear.
\nStone Town by vehicle<\/strong> is a 3.5-hour tour for mzungu which includes the guided tour on town history and the visit to the market \u2013 something we did for free and on our own.
\nWe chose the Dolphin Tour<\/strong> which also included the Jozani Forest visit. As the tour description promised, it takes one to Kizimkazi fishing village to see the bottle-nose dolphins in the open sea. According to the tour description, if you are lucky, you may swim close to the dolphins. The description of the tour company employee was even more bright: as she promised, as soon as we see the dolphins we should take on the snorkeling equipment, jump into the water, grab the dolphin\u2019s fin and swim together with it. Not only this description but also the very low price of the tour (about 17 euros for the whole day) should have put us to thinking, but, as mentioned above, the island is too heavenly to think. It is also said that Kizimkazi is a site of a 12th century mosque, the earliest evidence of Islam in East Africa, and is thus worth a visit for both natural and cultural reasons. Jozani Forest is to be visited to see Red Colobus Monkeys unique to Zanzibar, as well as civit cats, leopards, jumping shrew, red and grey squirrels, to mention the least from the description.
\nNext morning the guide picked us up. During the day he uttered about 5 sentences altogether, most of them were like \u201cGo\u201d, \u201cGet into the car\u201d, etc. Certainly, we did not learn anything about the village mosque or anything else, but Kizimkazi<\/strong> turned out really beautiful (although, to be honest, this beauty is accessible by daladala on your own).
\n\"Kizimkazi\"<\/p>\n

\"Kizimkazi\"<\/p>\n

\"Kizimkazi\"<\/p>\n

Dolphins and snorkeling.<\/h4>\n

The boat driver pointed at snorkeling equipment and gave the briefest instructions ever: \u201cDo not lose this, otherwise you will pay a lot\u201d. Our boat departed seeking for dolphins and we were all ready to grab the dolphins\u2019 fins and swim with them in the open ocean (shame on us, but we quite believed this). Our boat was riding through the ocean for one hour and it is needless to say that we did not see even a single dolphin. \u00abNot a dolphin day\u201d, the boat man said with a shrug.
\nIndeed, the nature in unpredictable and it is hard to organize the meeting with dolphins. Snorkeling was the next activity. Perhaps, our readers are more advanced, but it was our first time snorkeling and we had not been born with this skill. Nobody explained to us how to put on the mask or the tube. No matter how we put them on; when we disembarked into the open ocean, Victor swallowed some water and understood that it is not only that he was wearing his tube in the wrong way, but also that it leaked. He got really scared and started to clear his throat and swimming towards the boat (needless to say that the boat driver did not even look that side). The guide and the boat driver looked at Victor and started to laugh, \u201cIs this your first time?\u201d Obviously, this was not too funny for us.
\nFinally, this horror finished and we stopped for the lunch. On the way, they showed some representatives of the ocean fauna to us.
\n\"ocean<\/p>\n

\"ocean<\/p>\n

\"ocean<\/p>\n

While we were in the ocean, the water went low-tide, and that is why we also recommend to photo everything when you see it: the landscape may change dramatically within several hours.
\n\"Zanzibar\"<\/p>\n

\"Organized<\/p>\n

\"Ocean<\/p>\n

\"Tours<\/p>\n

Red colobuses<\/h4>\n

. Then they brought us to Jozani Forest<\/strong> inhabited by very rare Zanzibar red colobuses. Half of them (a bit more than 3000 monkeys) live in Jozani. Since Zanzibar red colobuses had been isolated from their big land friends for 10-15 thousand years they are also very different. Anyway, the monkeys are hard not to be noticed in the forest.
\n\"Red<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/p>\n