I had a rough night again, but late managed to get to sleep. In the morning my stomach was still bugging me, but the fever and toilet dependency seem to be over. So we packed, left our bags at the hotel and headed in to town to do the spice tour. As soon as we left the hotel it started to rain and the farther we went the harder it got. So much for our tour in the sun. I thought the tour was OK, I know Amy really enjoyed it, but I just have so much apathy towards tours. There were 20 of us in total and they took us to some ruins (a palace and a baths complex), spice plantations (cloves, nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cocoa, lemon grass, and coffee), fruit orchards (mangosteen, papaya, jack fruit, star fruit, custard apple, bananas, and lychee), vegetable farms (cassava and various potatoes), a cave, and a beach.
The ruins were the remains of various sultan's projects. Nothing too exciting and not really that old - just over a hundred years. The highlights were getting up close and personal with a roosting bat in one of the side rooms of the Persian baths, and the kids playing in the beached dhows at the palace. The spice and veggie farms were interesting - it was pretty amazing to be handed a leaf or branch to smell and / or taste and to immediately recognize the spice. The highlight of both the plantations and the orchards was definitely the tastings - unfortunately the rain was pretty consistent throughout that part. Lunch was at one of the plantations and was fantastic. The cave was a hole in the ground with a puddle at the bottom - not very exciting.
The highlight of the entire day was the beach. We got a break in the rain for about an hour and it was wonderful to go for a swim. When we first got to the beach it was a deserted stretch of white sand with a few dug out canoes and a rotting dhow bounded by picturesque rocky cliffs at the ends and the bluest water and greenest jungle on the sides - perfect! Unfortunately just a few minutes after we got there other tours started to arrive and soon it was packed with people - but the water still felt great.
After the tour we arranged to be picked up tomorrow morning to go to Nungwi (on the north coast), and checked into the lodge we stayed in our first night here. We were unable to get our penthouse again, but scored the room next to it - doesn't have quite the view but still pretty nice for a dive. Went out for a walk and ended up at Africa House to watch the sun (and a few beers) go down. I decided to ignore my stomach (it still hurts, but has seemed unaffected by anything I've eaten) so for dinner we went back to the gardens for street food.
