Kande Beach, Malawi

Sorry it's been so long since I last wrote, but Zanzibar has been having a problem for the past 2 months of not having electricity on their island, which means no internet access!  It was a cute little island, we spent the first night in Stone Town, where we eat locally caught fish in a restaurant over looking the water & sunset.  The following morning we went on a Spice Tour & learned that cinnamon is actually bark, not a stick at all, who knew?  We got to try lots of spices, cardamon, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon grass, ginger, pepper (also learned the different colours is all from the same tree just depends on how long you let them grow for & if you dry them in a certain way - again who knew?) Then our guide climbed up a coconut tree & cut down 3 coconuts then opened them up for us to drink.  After that we had a taster of ginger tea, marsala tea, and lemon grass tea along with lots of fresh fruits, pineapple, custard apple, mango, banana, some others I'm forgetting now and then after that we went to the guide's mothers' house for lunch of spiced rice, coconut curry chicken and onion & tomatoe salad - YUM!  That afternoon we drove up to the northern part of the island & stayed at Sunset Bungalows which was right on the beach, all our meals were served on the beach & the sand was so beautiful & white.  We stayed there for 2 nights, before heading back to Stone Town for our last night, where we checked out the night market & taste tested white shark (I'm not a huge fan), Zanzibar pizza (mince, minced up veggies, egg, all in a crepe like pancake which they fry) and also "sweet" pizza (banana, chocolate in a crepe like thing) and then back to Dar the following morning.  The only part which was annoying about Zanzibar is that it's humidity is SOOOOO high & the temperature is super high as well & without any electricity, we had no A/C, not even a fan, which got very hot & sticky!!

We spent the night in Dar es Salaam, which I have to be honest, I do not recommend!!  A girl in the camp site had to go to hosptial cause a guy attacked her on her way back from the toilet one night - all for her flip flops, she got 8 stiches on her arm . . . note to self NEVER go back!  PLUS, again it was hot, humid & since we were camping, there was no fan, I don't think any of us where able to sleep we were all so freakin hot!

Leaving Dar we drove for 12.5 hours, eating sandwiches in the truck on the road, and arrived into a small highland town in southern Tanzania, name of which evades me now.  It was a wonderful campsite, but we arrived so late & left very early the next morning we didn't really get to enjoy it much, but they did have hot showers, (for those counting this is my 3rd hot shower since leaving Rwanda)

Yesterday we again had a 12 hour drive day, but crossed the border into Malawi & spent the night in the northern region on the beach, in a town called Chichuwa (I think) and again just really an over night spot, we had dinner, relaxed, played darts, slept, and then back into the truck today for our drive to Kande Beach.

Along the way we stopped in Muzuzu, got some local cash, a few snacks, stopped at 2 markets and then arrived about an hour ago at our camp site, which is again right on the water's edge of Lake Malawi, which is so freakin big it looks like the sea & has more waves than Zanzibar ever did!

We're here at this camp site for the next 3 nights, not sure what we'll do, but I'm sure it will be fun!  Okay, gotta run, I'm making dinner tonight with Jess - I think we'll be making beef pot pies (well something like that, we are camping remember, so no nice pastries available to us)

I'm exhausted by the end of each day and have been sweating more than I ever have in my life, I'm not sure how people live here full time without A/C, but I'm having so much fun!  After our 3 nights here, we head south again & have one night in the capital of Malawi (some name with an L) and then the following day we cross into Zambia, headed towards Victoria Falls, which I think is in Livingston, but I might have the confused with another town. 

P.S. Happy 34th Birthday MMW, wish I was there to celebrate with you like last year, but we'll celebrate our birthday's in July, when I'm back home :)