White Powder Sand and Pale Blue Waters

I've been in Zanzibar for 4 days now.  The first 2 nights were spent in Stone Town bumming around.  Stone Town in OK: Some cool shops, some good eats... the night market has great food.  Watching the local boys jump into the ocean form the quay wall was amusing.  But it is very built up, in poor condition overall and, a city.  It was not why I came to Zanzibar.  OK, let's be honest: I didn't really kow why I wanted to see Zanzibar.  It's been somewhere I decided long ago I should visit.  So I arrived with no real plans.  Well after 2 days in town I headed across to paje.  It's on the SE coast of the main island.  The beaches are made up of an incredibly fine white powder.  The tide moves in and out hundreds of yards in an hour.  The water is bathtub warm.  It is the typical tropical paradise I suppose, a wonderful place to just kick it.

I managed to get a bit sunburned today.  I wore sunscreen but was out longer than planned.  Wandering around at low tide.  The sand is teeming with critters.  Far off in the distance waves crash against the reef.  Closer to shore boats sit marooned, women collect seaweed from gardens, kid play.  And while there is at least foot of water the kite boarders struggle to learn their new hobby.  The combination of warm shallow waters and a fair wind make this quite the place to learn kite boarding.  I thought about giving it a whirl but decided that can come with my next trip. 

The sand here is different than anyplace I have been.  There are shells everywhere an occasionally coral mixed in.  So it may be generally soft but yu do need to use some caution, especially around the sea urchins.  I am used to seeing them on rocks but here they are randomly strewn across the sandy bottom.  The other curious hazard was the baby sea snake I saw... just a few feet from my ankles.  And twice as I wandered about something large squiggled under my foot and as I stepped away quickly vanished.  I've no idea what it was.  It did feel pretty funny though.               

Tomorrow afternoon I'll need to head back to Stone Town to catch y flight the following day.  I'll be coming back hee though.  I need to see the national forest, go skin diving and possibly learn to kite board.  Zanzibar is a pretty cool place.