Went to Bagamoyo today, which is a town 75 kilometers North of Dar es Salaam. We left at 8am and it took about 45 minutes to get there. It was nice to get out of Dar to an area that is less populated and more of a calm atmosphere. Bagamoyo was an old slave and ivory port, as well as a passing town for some famous explorers such as Livingston, Stanley, Burton, Speke, and Grant. The word Bagamoyo comes from the Swahili words for bwaga moyo, meaning throw down your heart, an expression that reflects the thoughts of the many slaves in regards to their outlook of their future. Our first stop was the Kaole ruins where we saw where a bunch of old graves were. We also saw a 15th century mosque as well as a 500 year old baobab tree. After the Kaole ruins we went to a few of the little shops on the side of the road where there were really nice wood carvings for cheaper than you can find in Dar and you can watch them make them right in the back of their shops, which was neat. We searched for a place to each lunch, which we packed, but there were no places that allowed picnickers, or as they say picnicki! During our search we found the Bagamoyo church that was built in 1868 and was the first church on the East Coast of Africa. We ended up driving around until we were so hungry that we stopped at this little local fire hall and they let us eat our lunch there. They were really nice and let us put on their fire jackets and helmets and take a picture in front of the fire truck. The building was just built last year and the fire truck was really new and nice, which was surprising because the rest of the town was old and full of ruins. After lunch we went to the art market and it was so cool there! There were tons of authentic African art as well as wood carvings. I found this one picture that I loved, but of course it was 350,000 tsh! The one guy that did a lot of the really nice paintings ended up being friends with our cab driver, Iddy, since they were little! He even had his own website of his paintings! At around 3pm we headed home and made iced coffee’s (ahhh, so good….very peachy!)!
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| Field of Sunflowers! |
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| Where they used to chain the slaves to before they auctioned them off at the slave market |
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| The fish market where they start auctioning off fish as soon as they catch them |
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| June 17, 1868: the first Catholics arrived in Bagamoyo...1990: Pope John Paul II arrived and they erected this cross on the same site as the original cross. |
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| I love love love this painting! |
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