The best beach in the world accorrding to us guys'

Here we are on Paje. Just another beach bum shot. We went back for another day and spent the day on the beach. What a good day! From the second day of motorcycle renting, to the beautiful sand that felt like flour, to swimming in the bath-warm water, it was great.

Moving on from that, we raced back to Old Stone Town, went out for dinner and hopped on the night ferry from Zanzibar back to Dar es Salaam. The ferry turned out to be a lot better than our expectations with mattresses to lie down on and Filipino TV soap operas. The AC was pretty strong so Andrea and I cuddled throughout the night. I was actually quite rested and pleasantly surprised to discover that we had arrived in Dar having had a good nights sleep.

We opted for the bus this morning instead of taking the train as we were able to leave Dar at 7:00 AM, just making it in time for the bus from the ferry dock. The bus ride was about 12 hours and Andrea woke me up as she saw giraffes, zebras, elephants and monkeys in one of the national parks that we drove through. It was a lot of fun to meet people on the bus and I had a chance to talk to a journalist/videographer who made documentaries for the local television networks, which is good as it will mean less Filipino TV soaps. He had some interesting stories about HIV/AIDS in Africa and the highway that we were on, the Tanzanian-Zambian highway. He said that this particular highway has helped the spread of the virus because of the lifestyles of truckers and the freedom of sex workers in the region. Basically, it has become a corridor for the virus to get into the middle of the continent and out again.

We're here in Mbeya and leave at 6:20 tomorrow morning for a bus to the border and then on to Chitemba. Please pray that we keep safe on the roads, that we find good people to meet and laugh with, and that we love more and more as we go on.

Much love,

Michael and Andrea

Zannnzzzibar!

What a beautiful day we had today in lovely Zanzibar. We rented motorbikes and drove to Paje on the east coast of the island and swam in the Indian Ocean, the Indian Ocean! The sand was white and felt like flour between our toes. OK, from the beginning, from Arusha. We arrived in Dar es Salaam having met some nice people on the bus, stayed at the YWCA and went to Anglican mass Sunday morning. It was fun to see the Anglican preacher with a Tanzanian twist. I think we should send Christian Harvey (how many wins now buddy?) over there for some lessons in facial expressions while preaching. The first photo is us the next day on the Catamaran. We actually jumped onto another ferry which was actually not going to Zanzibar, it was only 16 cents a piece so we sheepishly go off the ferry without asking for our money back. We met two Brits (Hugo and Roisin) and an Edmontonian (Mike) on the ferry and went to the Flamingo hotel with them in the middle of Old Stone Town. Crazy place. It's a crazy network of alleys and mini streets. We met up with Gray, a South African hitch-hiking from Capetown to Cairo but stopped in Uganda discovering his girlfriend was pregnant, and he brought us out to town. We went to the market for street meat and had the time of our lives. That is until three in the morning when Andrea had to rush to the sink in our rooms and then to the toilet. Hmmm, I'll leave most of the details out but she didn't have the best night. She was, however, in shape for a motorcycle ride across the island with the Brits this morning. We had the time of our lives and my motorcycle training and my international driver's license came in handy for sure. Those were both Andrea's ideas so I am once again glad I married that girl. The Internet is pretty shaky here so I'm going to post it. I haven't mentioned going to Freddy Mercury's bar, the South Africans that got stopped by the cops and crashed the moped, and the intense Scrabble games to be had.

We leave soon enough back for Dar, catch the train to Mbeya, and enjoy the sights along Lake Malawi between the border and Lilongwe. We hear that Livingstonia is pretty good so we'll check it out.

No malaria yet and keep us in your prayers.

Much love from Zannzzibar!

Michael