One of the first stops of the day was to a place called Jaws Corner, which is a small open space at the intersection of 4 or 5 narrow streets. The locals sit around around the outside of the space, loitering, and not really doing much. At Jaws Corner, though, was a great little coffee baraza - where tiny espresso-size cups of fresh coffee are sold for 50 shillings each (about 3 cents, by my math). The coffee was fresh, and strong, and delicious. It was perhaps the least touristy thing I did on the trip to Zanzi - just sitting down with a hot little cup of coffee, and loitering for a bit, not a tourist in site.
While wandering, I stumbled upon this amazing photo shop - Capital Art Studio, a tiny studio, the walls of which were covered in black and white photos. Talking to the owner, he explained that his father, a photographer, came to Zanzibar from India in the 1920s, and opened the shop, and that he had taken it over from his father and continued to take photographs of the island and its important events. All of the photos in the shop were taken by him or his father, and were of Zanzibar and Stonetown. The photos were beautiful - black and white landscapes, shots of old wooden boats, portraits of locals, or pictures of the narrow alleyways of Stonetown. He sells reproductions of the photos - and what started out as a plan for me to get a couple eventually ended up in an hour of browsing through stacks of photos, some difficult decision-making, and going home with six.
The (somewhat entertaining) downside of Zanzibar were the "Beach Boys" that the wise cab driver, on the way into Stonetown, said to avoid. Stonetown really isn't big, so I kept running into these guys throughout the day - and they would always come up and ask questions about where I was from, if I was looking for anything, if I wanted to buy a cd (they would sing you the most popular track from the cd they had), or if I wanted to buy a set of spices. Don't get me wrong, they were actually quite friendly - but their gimmick was basically that they would follow you around as an impromptu tour guide, waiting outside of whatever shop or restaurant you would go into, and then continue to follow until they got paid. You can say 'no thanks' all you want, but with some this doesn't work, and they would continue to walk around with you. The strategy I ended up adopting, to various degrees of success, was that if I really couldn't get rid of them I would just to give them 1,000 shillings to go away. These guys might not actually be the "Beach Boys" the cab driver spoke of (for the most part they were harmless - and always got a bit of a laugh when I would come out of a store a half an hour later and they would just be standing there waiting for you), but I am choosing to call them that. The worst one was the last one of the day, who actually demanded 10,000 shillings (ha!) and got somewhat upset after I gave him a thousand to go away. I told him I would happily take the 1,000 shillings back after he said he "didn't need it" - but it turned out he wanted to keep it after all.
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