COS Trip: Farewell Zanzibar, Hello Dar es Salaam

Packed and ready, I headed out to the port at 8:00 to buy my ticket and head to the docks. I made it through customs and waited for my travel companion. About 9:15 as we were standing in the ferry line, someone walked through and told us we had missed the ferry to Dar es Salaam. The 9:30 ferry had left at 9. So, the ferry line weeded it’s way smaller as people realized the only ferry that would be departing at 9:30 was to Pemba Island, not Dar es Salaam. What a joke. We were so mad! Now what?!? The lady I was traveling with and I managed to find a place to stash our bags and we went into town for some coffee and a break.

We returned at 11:00 hoping to get onto the 12:30 ferry with our 9:30 tickets. It was crazy as everyone pushed and shoved to get to the front of the line. As the ferry arrived, they cleared a path and a bunch of kids did this ceremony thing. I think one of the presidential candidates got off the ferry. Then, all craziness broke loose as everyone fought to get on the ferry. Luckily, they honored my ticket, but the ferry was definitely overloaded and I ended up sitting on the floor in the isle. Shortly after our ferry left at 1:30 (yes an hour late), a man came around handing out sea sick bags. I thought that strange. He got really upset when I refused to take one. A few minutes later, the rough water hit. Holy cow was it bad. My guess, about 75% of the people were vomiting into their bags. Now I get it. I survived the trip, but it took forever! Our 2 hour ride took about 3 hours.

When we got off the ferry, the lady I was traveling with and I tried to find a bed to stay. We followed the map, kind of. I got the scale wrong and we walked WAY WAY Way out of the way before having to hail a cab to get to the YMCA. The cab driver proceeded to drive horribly, turning the wrong way down a 1 way street…twice! Both times we were stopped by an armed army man and having to pay a hefty bribe each time. I’m not a fan of the taxi drivers in Dar…I can tell you that. We arrived at the YMCA exhausted and hungry. After stashing our bags, we headed to a nearby restaurant that had a very large menu with anything you could ever want on it. I’m going to sleep well tonight!