Zanzibar
As I stepped outside the Abeid Amani Karume International Airport, I felt a warm, dense gust of wind blow past my face. It smelt like summer. It smelt like salty water, surrounded by white sands and coconut trees that seemed to be crossing us as we drove down the smooth, sturdy, paved road. What caught my eye at first was how the palm trees soared to the sky, as if they were trying to touch the clouds. There were vivid and myriad hues of green in every corner. Everyone was welcoming, especially the tour guides; asking us how our flight was, or how we were going to get to our hotel. Soon after, a taxi driver picked us up and we were on the way to our hotel. As we wound our way to our hotel on the sun-drenched roads of Zanzibar, the clear, turquoise sky stretched endlessly above us. Wisps of clouds drifted gracefully in the sky.
On day 3, I decided to go to Salaam Cave, which houses turtles of all different shapes and sizes. In the cave, I swam through the cave’s heart, where the water was as cool as moonlight and tasted faintly like salt. Around me, turtles glided gracefully like ancient spirits-slow, serene and silent. The scent of moss clung on to the damp air. My fingers brushed the rippled shells of those smooth, cold and gentle ancient sea creatures. The sunlight leaked through the holes of the cave, breaking into beams which shimmered off the clear, glassy and turquoise water. The water was as transparent as glass. It felt unreal.
After visiting the Salaam cave, I decided to venture off to the Nakupenda Sandbank. According to pictures online, the Nakupenda Sandbank is a long arm of sand, with clear blue waters surrounding it, with hardly civilization near it. The boat ride was around 10 minutes long, with the crystal clear water turning into different shades of light blue as we ventured deeper into the Indian ocean. Once we arrived, it felt like a fever dream. The pristine, white sand stretched across the water, with no pollution or any other things disrupting the natural beauty of this sandbank. The water was so clear I could see fishes of every color and gradient swim pass. This beauty could never be seen anywhere else apart from here. The warm sun reflected off the cool water into oblivion. However, the one thing that ruined it was how there were people everywhere, making this scene a little less enjoyable. Standing on the sun blanched stretch of soft, smooth and silky sand made one feel like being in another world, cut off from the world we know, in the middle of the ocean, stretching into eternity.
