Bogomayo Island

This island is a tiny island just off the coast of Dar Es Salaam.  The 3 of us set off one weekend to it.  The ferry to the island is situated in Oyster Bay, a relatively posh area of Dar.  Here tourist shops are abundant as are functional ATMs.  Restaurants serve pasta, pizza, Chinese food, and more westernized food.  Yes for those of you reading my blog 2 weeks into meals containing rice, Oyster Bay shall truly sound like heaven.

Anyways, we then approached the ticket counter, shelled out 30,000TSH (Muzungo/foreigner price) and climbed onto a leaky fishing boat.  Our boat man had the motor in one hand and a pail in the other to throw out the incoming water.  One of these leaky boats in total costs 4 million shillings (approx 2500USD).  This usually means that the boatman probably does not own his boat.  Rather, a wealthy owner leases out the boat in exchange for a cut of the profits from fishing. 

As our boat mates (the ones that can't swim) began to panic, we were told we were switching boats mid ocean to a medium sized ferry boat.  The rest of the journey was uneventful, minus another mid ocean switch to a little fishing boat.  We finally made it to land. 

Heheh.

Just a pretty picture. This boat probably costs 1 million TSH...on way to ferry ticket counter (visible at far end of picture)

I found some babies on the beach that were excited to be in a picture with me

The skies unfortunately got overcast midway through our trip

I love this picture



 

As noted above, we got some play time in the water and were Enjoying the day with some kids we found on the beach, when suddenly, it got overcast and we were trapped in a rainstorm on the island.  Thankfully, the island had a bunch of Tiki Huts  We got under and got ourselves some Zege, or Chipsi Mayai Or Chips and Eggs and enjoyed the rest of our trip watching the rainstorm pass by. 

 

Our return from the island was an adventure in itself!  The rain storm finally subsided Thankfully, during this time Nat had spent some time becoming friends with the man coordinating the boats for pickup.  We were told that if we missed the final ferry, we'd be stuck on the island over night.  I'm not sure if there are people that live on the isand, but for sure there are people that bring tents and camp over night at the island.  But, back to the point. Thankfully, Nat had friendsted the boat coordinator guy.  He KNEW that we muzungos would step back,and wait and get stranded on the island, so he comandeered the final boat that came to pick us up to stop right at our feet.  Trust me, we needed this!  For every 1 muzungo that got on from the left side of the boat 20 natives shuffle their way on from the right!  We were being hoarded onto the boat, and told to jumpi quiki because the boat would get full.  Thankfully, all three of us and 3 other Muzungos on the island made it on on time.  I think the scarcity of resources has infused the natives to really internalize that phrase ''the early bird gets the worm''..but anyways, the point is we were safe and on the boat!

 

Once we jumped aboard the final ferry, we realized we'd SOME HOW climbed aboard a boat filled with Witnesses! Yes you read it correctly -- Jehovah's Witnesses.  So we spent the rest of the trip taking photos with the witnesses, and made it back.

 

We ended the night having pasta, pina coladas and coca colas on a restaurant ON the indian ocean with the sunset lighting up the scene all around us.  We also found a pet kitten to feed our bony leftovers to.  What an exciting trip it was.