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The Legacy of Spice

A rich part of Zanzibar's past and present is spice. Nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and vanilla are but a few of the spices grown on the island. At one time, Zanzibar was the world's largest producer of cloves. The bountifulness of the spices grown here drove much of the trade upon which the Sultans of old benefited.

Many spice farms still dot the island of Zanzibar to this day. A popular tourist activity is to go on a 'spice tour', where a guide knowledgeable about spice farming guides you through a world of amazing exotic plants.
Spice Tour
Our guide, Rambonero, takes us on a tour of a local spice farm. [enlarge]
Sampling Game
On our spice tour, Rambonero would get us to scratch n' sniff before revealing what the spice was. [enlarge]
Local Spice Farm
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Pepper on the plant
The pepper must be dried before it smells or tastes like actual pepper. [enlarge]
Explaining Vanilla
Rambonero explains how Vanilla grows (it is a parastical plant that grows on other trees. [enlarge]
Vanilla Bean closeup
A closeup of Vanilla beans. [enlarge]
Climbing for Coconuts
one of the employees at the Spice farm ratchets his way up a coconut tree to get us a coconut. [enlarge]
Shucking the coconut
A coconut is prepared for us so that we can drink some of the coconut water inside. [enlarge]
Coconut ready to drink
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Bruce and his flock
Bruce conducts some business as we complete our spice tour (Bruce is the owner of the Imani Beach Villa, and came along with us on our spice tour). [enlarge]
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[ Kilimanjaro trip home page | The main trip report | Real-time Trip Updates | Chombo & his men | Wildlife Extravaganza | Spotlight on the Maasai | Exotic Spice Islands of Zanzibar | Route Descriptions | Maps, Graphs & GPS Data | Audio & Video Repository | A Contrasting Tragedy | Markus' Report | Trip Preparations ]

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