Bagamoyo

Shortly after I got back from my trip to Egypt, Whit and I decided to go on a little road trip. So we hopped in the car one morning and drove northwest to Bagamoyo. We wanted to check out their beaches and we heard it had a bit of history that we wanted to know about so we just went. Really we wanted to see if it was worth using the two nights we get off a month to go there and stay. If you want a beach, it's not...if you want to spend time at each historical site then it would be. We looked at a couple of the hotels and they were nice but the beach just wasn't. Then we drove through town not really knowing where we were going. We had a map but you never know if you are really where it says you are. And so we went down this road that on the map looked like it should be a major road...yea it wasn't. We just hoped that it would end up at Kaole Ruins where we wanted to go. After a while we began to question whether it was. But then we saw a sign and headed into the site. We found the guide and he showed us around. The site is the ruins of the first mosque in East Africa. The building was completely made out of coral, it was pretty neat. There were some tombs as well...one that had a story. It was called the Lovers Tomb. The couple had drowned in the ocean and when they were found they were still holding onto each other. Today many couples will go there to make a promise to each other. Whit promised she would never let me drown alone...so if you find that I have drowned and she's not there holding onto me, hunt her down.

This is the mosque. You walk in the door on the left and that's where the men pray. And then inside you pass through another door and the women pray there.

This is me and Whit in front of the Lovers Tomb.

This was our guide Eric. We had a lot of fun with him. He's standing in front of the door at the Old Arab Fort. This was in Stonetown, an area in Bagamoyo. We went and saw more of the town but it was quick so it wasn't as good as the Kaole Ruins.