100 days! It feels like we’ve been gone forever and I can’t believe we’re still less than a third of the way through.

Today we slept in until 8, which is pretty late for us. It was quiet, just the right temperature, and we had blackout shades. It felt amazing to get a solid night of sleep.

The complimentary breakfast at this fancy hotel was excellent. I had coconut water out of a fresh coconut, a potato dosa, fruit, pastries, and very good coffee. My only complaint is that I got too full to try all the things I wanted to try.

We came back to the room and played a bit. Millie made up a new version of hide and seek where we hide Judy and then write clues and build a trail towards her.

Nick organized a tour for us at a local spice farm. Zanzibar is known as “spice island” because of all the spices that are grown here. We learned about the role that cloves played in the East African slave trade yesterday. They are still a large export for Zanzibar.

Our guide picked us up at our hotel and drove us the 30 minutes to the farm. Millie was not into it at all and decided ahead of time that it would be boring. Once we arrived, our driver and guide handed us over to a new guide and his assistant. He walked us through the farm to show us all the fruit trees and plants. Nick is a plant-lover and I’m a cook and food lover, so we enjoyed it. Millie was bored but mostly well behaved. Towards the end she started asking “is this done yet?” which was not the most polite thing to ask the guide.

We saw many fruit trees: jackfruit, durian, clementine, custard apple, papaya, mango, and the very sour cucumber apple. I was amazed at how everything grows without much maintenance, it’s just the perfect climate for all of them.

We saw various spice plants and trees and got to smell and taste everything. We smelled fresh cinnamon bark, leaves, and roots, which was like nasal-clearing vaporub. We tasted fresh cardamom right from the plant. We saw how vanilla grows on a vine. We rubbed lemongrass on our skin to protect against mosquitos. We picked and crunched up curry leaves straight from the tree. We chewed on fresh cloves and they numbed our whole mouth. I tasted the extremely bitter bark of the quinine tree, which tonic water is made from. We picked off green peppercorns, split them in our fingers and tasted black pepper before it was dried out. We ate ginger and turmeric fresh from the ground. The strange red seed in the photo below is nutmeg before it’s been dried out.

I noticed Nick looking at me funny and he told me my teeth were stained yellow from the way I had bitten into the turmeric root. They stayed like this for hours.

At the end of the tour we were given silly crowns and hats woven from coconut tree leaves. Nick and I felt like fools but we had to play along and wear them.

Our guide walked us past a guy who did a hard sell for fragrances made from the spices, and then to a full table of spices for tourists to buy to bring home. I could feel the disappointment when we didn’t purchase anything. I felt guilty because I understand this is their livelihood, but we just aren’t souvenir people. Especially when we have months left of living out of our small bags.

The tour concluded with a fruit tasting, where a guy cut us slices of delicious fresh fruits and fed them to us off his knife. We had orange, watermelon, pineapple, jackfruit, and durian. I’m not sure I’ve ever had fresh jackfruit before, but it was our favorite. Millie tasted but didn’t like the durian, I can tolerate it but don’t love it, and Nick gobbled it all up.

We greatly enjoyed what we tasted and learned, but felt confused and annoyed by the tipping and upselling. We paid up front for the tour and set aside some cash for what we thought would be a decent tip for one guide. By the end of the tour we needed to tip five different guys: a driver, the first guide, the second guide, his assistant, and then the fruit tasting guy. I wish these costs were baked into the tour price or that they had clear guidance for what is appropriate. We would be happy to pay it. Any time we have asked we have been told “it is not necessary and any amount is appreciated” We can read the room; it definitely feels expected. I often leave second guessing if I’ve not given enough or given too much. Add it to the list of why we’re not tour people.

We came back to the hotel with a plan to swim, but Millie wanted “quiet time” and we were happy to hang out in the room. Her version of quiet time is jumping around on the bed and being read to.

We have been reading books to her on her iPad via the Libby app. The good part of this is she can have unlimited books. The bad part is she picks the worst quality ones. Today we read about 15 Peppa Pig books.

She shocked me when she went quiet for a few minutes and set up a drawing station for herself. I saw she had a Peppa Pig book propped up and she was copying the illustration. I was blown away by how good her drawings were.

We went to an early dinner at a nearby restaurant overlooking the ocean. We had two different seafood curries and appreciated them more after having just tasted all the fresh ingredients.

Millie continued to draw intently which meant that Nick and I could have a decently long uninterrupted conversation at dinner. This is a rarity, and I appreciated it.

After dinner, we walked along the beach. Millie ran and danced in the sand and water until the sun was all the way down.