Ruins, ruins & more ruins

Historically, the trip along the coast has been a very engrossing and haunted tour of a great group of "rag coral" old forts, palaces and other assorted ruins. In Mombasa, Kenya there was Fort Jesus - an important fort that had changed hands frequently between the portuguese who originally built it and the arabs and Omanis who settled there.



Of course these are all slave trade ports as well, and many of the forts were later turned into prisons, so they are the sort of places where if you listen hard you can still hear the screams. Zanzibar, of course, has its palaces, baths, and active stone town, and south of Dar are the Kilwa Kisani ruins - huge old coral rag houses, tombs, forts, palaces, and mosques - that are in the middle of a village that bustles around them with not much care.



Currently, we are splurging on a stay at the Old Boma - this is an old German municipal site that was recently renovated with exquisite care by a non-profit foundation. We can only afford to stay one night in its thick walls, before we hit the public buses to cross the Mozambiquan border early tomorrow.



Here is the Old Boma website. The foundation that runs it contributes back to the local population and there is nice locally produced artwork on the walls. We have hot water for the first time in weeks - glorious....
http://www.mikindani.com