an update on the life of a beach bum

After many days in Nungwi (where a goat grazes on the beach above), at the northern tip of the island, we ventured south east to a beach called Matemwe for 6 or so days and are now even farther south on the east coast at a little joint called Paje (Paw-jay). This will be our last beach stop and I'm sad to say that we will be leaving the beautiful, warm waters in a few days to begin our long journey back home. However, it is quite overcast and windy today so perhaps the beach gods are telling me I need to hit the road. Matemwe and Paje have both been great for their own reasons. Matemwe was a very remote and quiet beach with few people, hotels, or restaurants. The water was an unreal shade of turquoise, as it is everywhere around the island, and the sand is the consistency and color of flour. Each morning after the tide went out, the shallow water was full of village women gathering seaweed to dry. The rest of the water was full of fishing dhows waiting to be taken out for their daily run. Around four o'clock, the fishing boats would start coming in and the beach would be crowded with men, women, and children waiting for the fishermen (pic below is of the first boats coming in one day). The peaceful beach would come alive with the cheers of a good catch, yells of negotiations and prices, and the slapping of sticks tenderizing octopus (octopi??) and squid(s) in the sand.

We went snorkeling (me) and diving (Keith) one day while we were at Matemwe which broke up the monotony of island life for a bit. Snorkeling was amazing. I snorkeled an awesome coral reef near an small island called Mnemba. Mnemba is uninhabited besides one resort, which costs a mere $1500 a night to stay...per person. Yep, you heard me. Needless to say, I only snorkeled there and did not even touch foot on the actual island. Anyway, the snorkeling was the best that I have experienced and I saw amazing fish, lobsters, eels, corals, plant life, etc. Keith's diving was a bit murky but he saw a sea turtle swim by him so murky or not, I was jealous. Other highlights of the snorkeling trip include me losing a toenail and seeing dolphins swim right next to our boat. The dolphins were cool. The toenail loss, not so much. I bruised it four months ago on a snowshoeing trip and I think the descent of Kilimanjaro might have done her in. I thought everything was fine and figured if it were to fall off, it would have done it a few months ago. So, here I was putting on my wetsuit next to an Austrian dude on our boat when I looked down to see all of my toe nail polish had come right off. Reaching down to pick it up and comment how weird it was, I realized that it wasn't just the polish but the entire nail. I'm pretty sure the Austrian was not impressed and now has an unfair impression of American women. Other than watching the local fishermen and worrying about diseases and fungi that enter the body through nail-less toes, most of my days consisted of reading in the sun, running on the beach, and planning my upcoming school year. It was relaxing and grrreat.

Paje is where we sit now and while it is a bit more busy, we are glad to be here. Matemwe was a bit too remote for us after almost a week of being there. The food options were slim and you can only stare at the same things for so long. So, Keith and I rented a scooter again to drive down the coast in search of another beach and different accomodations. We came upon Paje and decided to pack up our things in Matemwe and head south. We piled the two of us, our two backpacks with all of our belongings needed for the past month, four 1.5 liter water bottles, and a can of Pringles onto our little VeSpa and headed down the road. We were quite accostomed to the locals staring at the two whiteys scooting down the roads, but I think it's safe to say that we had even more people staring and laughing at us with all of our cargo. I was told by navigator Keith that it was very important that I not wave to any children on the sides of the roads, itch my leg, adjust my backpack, or to basically move any muscle whatsoever. I okay with this, as I was not going to be the one to cause our mode of transportation to become unbalanced. I was determined not to make us tip. Everything went smoothly for the first 30 minutes. Here we are all happy and ready to hit the road. Keith warms up the bike with his backpack tied to the back...and then I get my backpack on and squeeze into the slot between Keith and his backpack.












Then it began sprinkling a bit of rain. Then the rain began feeling a bit more like what I would imagine pellets of a BB gun to feel like. Then we noticed we were passing many scooters parked on the side of the road under trees or buildings and we were the only ones still trucking along. Keith made some mention about how we were too tough for that and we were "hard-core bikers". As we plugged away at the miles, we passed a sign that said our destination was 20km away. About 15 wet and not-so-pleasant minutes down the road and we see another sign claiming that our destination was....20km away. Of course, why would we not be making any progress whatsoever on a scooter in a rain storm. We passed the time by laughing at the people staring, the situation, and ourselves and soon we were within a few miles of the finish line. And then the monsoon came. In all honesty, I'm really not sure what a monsoon is but I'm pretty sure I experienced my first one. The rain came down in sheets, the roads became flooded, and to make matters more difficult the traffic thickened.

Trash floated down the streets (the drainage system isn't a priority here) and were were inches deep in water that looked like chocolate milk, felt like bath water, and smelled like a toilet. Pleasant, really. Then like the scene out of a movie, in case we weren't already soaked and filthy, a bus happened to pass through a flooded part of the road at the same time that we did and we were completely drenched. You know the scene, were the woman is waiting at the bus stop in her nice work clothes and a bus comes by and the water flies up and comes down on her like buckets? Well, that was us. Except we weren't in nice clothes and we were on a scooter. This is the point where Keith mentions that there is a fine line between being tough and being stupid. I'm pretty sure we crossed it.....a few times. In hindsight, I think all of the scooter drivers parked and waiting under the trees and eaves may have been a bit more intelligent. In the end, we made it and besides being completely soaked with the nastiest water ever, it was actually kind of fun. We were pretty happy to see that our 3 cameras, laptop, and ipod survived the monsoon, as well.
Since arriving in Paje, our life has been much more uneventful. I've passed the time by watching kite surfers, eating tasty pizza, and drinking banana and cinnamon smoothies. We depart tomorrow and I'll update this again on our way back to the states.