Relaxation in Nungwi and (more) Adventures in Travel

Our last 5 days or so in Zanzibar were spent relaxing in the northern beach village of Nungwi. The vast majority of our time was spent relaxing by the pool or in the Indian Ocean–so nice!

We had an unexpected extra day in Zanzibar. Our exit from Africa to Rome went a little something like this:

• 2.AUG 5:00am: woke up in Nungwi
• 6:00am: picked up by taxi to head to Zanzibar Airport
• 7:45am: arrived at airport
• 8:`15am: trip #1 through security into airport. After searching for any sign of where we should go (there were none), I asked a worker who was milling around where to check in for Blue Panorama. He pointed to a group of angry-looking Italians (and one INCREDIBLY angry Englishman). As we walked over to the group, a couple of them turned to us saying, “18-hour delay!” Huh? I figured something was lost in translation, but nope, our 10:00am flight was now scheduled for 4:00 the next morning, according to this nice airport worker who had a printed email from Blue Panorama that he was letting people look at.
• 9:00am: led backwards through security (literally having to put our bags back through the conveyor belt to leave the airport) to wait for a bus. We were told that Blue Panorama arranged a bus to take us all to a hotel for the day. There was no Wifi at the airport, so no way for us to try to verify anything…just having to trust the airport worker with the piece of paper
• 9:45: bus arrives and we all load our luggage through a back window, which is then perilously stacked to the ceiling in the back seats
• 9:55: I get a seat in the very back row
• 9:57: bus leaves airport
• 10:01: suitcase falls hard into the back of the lady’s head who is sitting next to me. I do my best to push it off her and have to put my weight into holding it and other teetering luggage up the rest of the ride
• 10:17: arrived at our hotel, a 5-star hotel called Hotel Verde which had been pointed out to us days before by our driver–turning out to be a not-so-bad flight delay! We are given three rooms along with a buffet lunch and dinner

• 3.AUG midnight: wake-up calls to get ready for the bus
• 1:12am: bus left hotel towards airport
• 1:30am: back at airport
• 1:40am: trip #2 through security
• 1:45am: in line for check-in, all six of us are handed a print-out in Italian, letting us know that our flight has been delayed again, this time 50 minutes. What’s another 50 minutes on top of 18 hours! Easy peasy.
• 2:14am: reached the front of the line and are told we need to pay 50 USD per person to leave for the departure tax. (side note: apparently most airlines include this in the airfare cost, but Blue Panorama doesn’t include it to make their prices seem cheaper) We’re told we can pay in USD or Euros. I have $1 in USD, no Euros, and 10,000 Tanzanian Shillings, which is equivalent to about $4. Needless to say, I’m a little short. The worker tells me I can get USD or Euros outside the airport. “Where?” I ask. He tells me to go ask the workers at the security scanner. I ask those guys and one of them grunts and points outside. “Where?” I try to clarify, and he grunts and points a little more to the left this time, so I head backwards through security and out into the parking lot in search of $300. I eventually find a Bureau De Change, which has a promising-looking cash machine that is turned off. The door to the building is open, but lights are off and no one is in there.

• 2:30am: trip #3 through security. Back at the ticket counter, I show the airport worker the pictures I took of the unhelpful Bureau De Change. I mention I saw another cash machine at a bank kiosk where I could get shillings and he confirms that yes, I can pay in shillings, and the amount due is 720,000. I’m thinking this could be a problem since the max you can withdraw is 400,000 at any one time and I had read that is also a daily max for some banks. I head back out backwards through security, and amazingly, the door to the ATM is unlocked amidst this row of locked up buildings, and the cash machine actually works and lets me withdraw the necessary bounty. Hilariously, the largest denomination is 10,000, so, I ended up with a pile of 73 bills to ransom our way off the continent: 71 10k bills and 2 5k bills.

• 2:46am: trip #4 through security. Everyone is amused at the wad of cash I’m lugging back up to the ticket counter. I count it slowly in front of the airport worker, then he hands half the stack to another worker and together they confirm that we are allowed to leave