Swing with joy into the Zanzibar sky
When I opened our blog today I was surprised to see that it is 1,5 years ago since I updated you guys on our journey to Zanzibar. I am sincerely sorry about that. But soooo much happened. After our first season 2018/2019 the rain season in April/May 19 allowed us all to take a breath, take a step backwards, rearrange things and move forward again. Most of you might know it. But for those of you who don’t here is the news:
Mustafa and I, we separated in April 2019. This is to be honest one of the reasons why I stopped blogging. I was not sure how to explain that to the crowd or if I should tell you guys. Now after all that time which was challenging as you can guess things are running smoothly again. Mustafa and I are very good friends and even better business partners who can trust each other like no one else. He has a new girlfriend in Germany (long distance relationships suck :-)) and I found my new love on the island.
So since that is said here an update of what was going on all that time:
Since July 2019 we were so busy at our Evergreen Bungalows in Bwejuu. People were telling us that things would slow down in September but no way. It was unbelievable but every month was busier than the previous one. It was amazing to have a happy crowd around, become friends with some of our guests and spend amazing time with them. So our daily life was work hard, party hard, sleep less 🙂
The best nightlife you can find in Paje by the way where on every day of the week you can find an amazing location to dance and chill.
March 2020 could have been our record month if Covid-19 would not have happened. Our last guests (a lovely couple from Hamburg) arrived with one of the last planes to Zanzibar and stayed until 27.03.2020. They did not want to leave because they felt like being at home at Evergreen.
For us Corona started at a good time because we planned to close the hotel in April and May to pimp our bungalows again for the next season. But who could have guessed that the world would go upside down and change tourism completely.
We payed our staff until May although they finished working end of March because we feel responsible.
Our decision to open our beach bungalow resort on 20.6.20 was not easily taken. Although officially Tanzania opened its borders in June almost no guests were arriving. Anyhow our bungalows need love and life, being closed means they would fall apart. So we were brave, called almost half of our employees back and opened with a nice Swahili night, bonfire at the beach and Live music. Island people were so happy to celebrate with us after a long period of closed restaurants, bars, parties. All of us were looking forward to some social life.
Believe me, when the rain season meets the Ramadan and the Corona time this lovely island is just a sad place to be at. So we gave people hope and more places followed us and opened one after the other. Now in mid September almost all places except of bigger resorts are open again and wait for adventurous tourists from all over the world to show them Zanzibar’s sheer beauty. The rain passed months ago and the beaches are cleaner than normally. You can walk for miles without seeing any other tourist. Of course the challenges are big: if we make enough cash to pay our staff than this was a good month. I don’t want to think about the rent which is due end of October…..anyway life goes on! And where can it be better than living it at the beach? Be assured I am the happiest person because I stayed in my secluded paradise during the Covid-19 outbreak: no lock down, no masks, no panic and social distancing is happening by itself here on those empty beaches 🙂
Welcome back guys. We and the local people of Zanzibar welcome you with open arms. We need you to make sure the village people survive!
King Size Beach Bungalow 
Palmtrees at Evergreen 
Evergreen Bungalows Small Size Beach Bungalows
Lot’s of love,
Claudia and the whole Evergreen Team