We dropped Terry off at the bus station - he was going to try and jump on a bus and get to Dar es Salaam this evening so he could catch a morning ferry to Zanzibar. We made arangements to meet in Zanzibar tomrrow afternoon then left him. Hopefully he'll make it - he was looking very stressed dealing with the touts when we left. BAck at the tour company's office Aretha and I made arangements to get a ride to the airport (We're on the same flight) and then went for a wander through the center of Arusha. Ended up at the crafts market and spent a lot of time hanging out with some Masai women who were doing bead work. Didn't end up buying anything from them but it was still interesting. Did end up buying a Bawo game and a couple strings of beads.

The drive to the airport also took longer than advertised, and combined with us being a little late we gotcame very close to missing out flight! But we got it - Makuta Makata! The flight was short and unexciting. Couldn't even seem to find Kilimanjaro after take off - and I went to all the trouble to be on the correct side of the airplane! The view of the island when we landed made up for it though... The most incredible tourquoise water. I decided to stay with Aretha since she'd already booked a nice hotel room - I'll just have to pay the upgrade to a double. The room is very nice - airconditioning, attatched batroom with hot water (!), two giant beds - excellent!

I went to the travel agent and enquired abot flights again - since now I'm thinking I can save a couple days by flying directly from Zanzibar. Basically it's the same price, so I'll figure out the exact dates and come back tomorrow.

Spent the afternoon wandering around Stonetown (the old part of Zanzibar Town). It's interesting - kind of a cross between a greek island and a middle east city. Lot's of winding roads through old buildings, lot's of mosques and traditionally dressed people, and unfortunately a lot of tourist. Honestly I'm a little disappointed - I'd expected more. Zanzibar's real appeal is that it's off the coast of Africa, not Syria. Pretty amazing how different it is from the mainland.

Found an internet cafe with not too unreasonable prices and did a quick email scan. Then got hopelessly lost while trying to find the way back to the hotel. Ran into some other lost tourist, but at least they had a map. Someone passing by recognized the international distress signal (looking at the map upside down) and stopped to direct us - actually was only a couple hundred yards form the hotel! Decided to splurge and have a nice dinner so ate at the hotel (recomended by the guide book) - not bad, but still disappointing. Fortunately the shower was not disappointing - hot water - heaven!