Zanzibar so far

The next step in our journey brings us to Zanzibar, which included a 9 1/2 hour bus ride from Moshi to Dar es Salam, a quick overnighter in Dar es Salam, a couple hour ferry ride to the island, and into Stone Town at last. We had one casualty along the way when we (I) lost the lonely planet somewhere between the chaos of customs in Zanzibar and the exit gate, which to the traveler is kind of like a holy man losing his only bible. Luckily and randomly the hotel we are staying at happened to have a copy in their give and take book shelf and we were back in business. Zanzibar is historically known as an island primarily involved in the slave trade and the spice business. Today it is mostly tourism and beautiful beaches, but still produces and imports a fair share of spices such as vanilla, cinnamon, lemon grass, and many others. Stone town has big colonial buildings and narrow cobblestone streets that are like a labyrinth through the town, and some are so narrow I can nearly reach my hand from one side of the street to the other and are obviously too narrow to drive anything but a motorcycle on. Many look like alleys you wouldn't consider walking if it were in any other city but they happen to be main drags here. It is a Muslim community and things are rather conservative. Zanzibar has an overwhelming number of touts known as papasi in Swahili which translates to ticks, rightfully so. They are pesky people that swarm you everywhere you go that want you to stay at a motel, go on a spice tour, take a trip to an island, get a taxi, sell you some sunglasses, etc, and they have a tendency to become rather annoying. They get a small cut of the price you pay if they lead you to a certain hotel, restaurant, or shop, so needless to say there are a lot of "extra-friendly" very persistent people around. That aside, tonight we went to one of the gardens, like a small town park, that was full of food vendors of all sorts offering nearly every kind of grilled sea food, bread, sugarcane juice, and much more, all Ala' cart style. For those at home it's Pig out in the park if you will that happens every night, and reasonably priced at that! I tried a small piece of grilled octopus tonight, something not usually found on the traditional menu. If I were to describe the food here in Africa in one word, it would be carbs. It's tough to find a meal that isn't made up of primarily carbohydrates, not always the healthiest ones either and often fried. Being a health nut and all, it's difficult to maintain a consistent balanced diet while traveling due to inconveniences and availability of most food, but I'd be a hungry fellow if I tried to eat in the same fashion I do at home. I will say I am ready for something other than eggs and white bread for breaky, and I'm starting to crave some of Ma's home cookin. Fruits and vegetables are plentiful here however, it's just preparation of the vegetables that becomes difficult, as we're not backpacking with a traveling kitchen. Okay enough on that tangent.