Phi Phi Island, Thailand



            

                                                                                                                                              Far- Away Sail and Dive

Ahh .... Back to the Beach

Shimba Hills, Kenya

This was my guide on a half day Safari through Shimba Hills, Mombasa, Kenya

                                                                                                   This is Helen Maina, one very hard working Taxi Driver

                                                                                                 Thank you, Helen.

Sable Antelope                                                          Giraffe                                                                                             Water Buffalo                        

Exotic Zanzibar, Tanzania

Home of the East African Spice Merchants

 Visitors go from plant to plant trying to find the spice within. A guide may use a knife to carve

off a root or branch or bark and then ask you to smell or taste it to guess what it is.

Without a guide, you'll never find nutmeg sitting on the forest floor or think to peel the bark off of

a cinnamon tree but these are some of the fun things to do on a Spice tour.

Use caution with the bright colored ones because turmeric can leave a stain on clothes that will last a lifetime.

Nutmeg grows on a tree and is the pit of a fruit that looks somewhat like an apple.

The nutmeg trees are huge and the under-forest is dark.

Vanilla is a vine that grows on large trees and cardamom seeds grow at the base of large,

ginger-cousin light green plant that has shoots or runners from which the seeds are picked.

Cinnamon leaves are good for chewing and pepper is hot, green, and fresh tasting

before it is dried and ground to become black pepper.

The guides may offer you a green coconut while you're on the tour and they're very good.

Green coconuts don't have sweet milk – it's more like subtly flavored water – and the meat is delicious.

     My guides and their cow.   

I convinced the Captain on the S/S Cleveland that even the Steward

deserved a day off in Tanzania. Early in the morning I caught a Taxi

to the Ferry Dock and started negotiating a price for my ticket to the

Island of Zanzibar, famous for centuries in the Arabic, Indian, and

African trade routes along the Eastern Swahili Coast.

Stone Town is where the ferry lands and you have to pass through

Immigration and have your Passport stamped

to take a walk through the old Stone streets with the heavily carved

wooden doors, imbedded with spikes to keep out stampeeding Elephants.

After my journey up the mountain to the Spice Farm, tasting delicious pineapples,

oranges, bananas, papayas, mangoes, melons, and coconut meat, We

stopped to dine on Indian Cuisine in Stone Town. My driver and I hired

a small outboard boat with Skipper to take us over to explore the nearby Prison Island,

Changuu, home to a family of giant Aldabra Tortoises (Geochelone gigantea).

The average weight of a full grown male is 550 pounds.

These Turtles live to be between 170 and 250 years old.