Meeting Stephanie Ledoux in Zanzibar

On the Second day Stephanie arrived. Stephanie Ledoux is a fantastic artist. Stephanie is also a great photographer and travels a lot. Specially to far and exotic places.
Check her blog: Stephanie-Ledoux.blogspot.com

Before she traveled she prepared an  old photo album with collages and color backgrounds to draw over later. She keeps collecting things in the streets to add to her sketchbooks. She does not draw chronological in her book, but rather choose a page appropriated to the motive.

We connected immediately, and soon we were wondering through the city and drawing together. I showed her the areas I already know. We didn't had a plan, so we moved at our own pace. It was wonderful how good we traveled together..being able to understand the other's need to stop and draw and most of the time encourage with the example the other to also do a drawing.

We encountered for example this fantastic scene: Two guys playing Bao. When I finished I started drawing her. Check Stephanie's post in her blog Stephanie-ledoux.blogspot  about this experience here.
There are also two other posts in her blog about our time in Zanzibar together here and here.

Trying to get a SIM card.

Where can I get a SIM card for my phone? I asked at my hotel.
At the Darajani Market, they said, and gave me a map.

Stone Town is a labyrinth of small alleys. I was constantly looking at the map trying to make sense of it. Soon a guy started offering me a tour...that I rejected but he started following me and asking where I want to go.. he offered to take me there for free but in every interesting corner he would tell me something about it...

With my "guide" we arrived soon to the market, and he also helped me to buy a card. At the end of course I ended paying for his services.

A cardboard box is all what these two young entrepreneurs need to  have their Sim Card store at the market.

Some drawings I did the next day, like this alley in the Spice Market.

Markets are great places for drawing people.

From Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar

Dar es Salaam means the residence of peace. I arrived at night at my hotel, but very early in the morning I started hearing the sounds of the city. I drew the view from my hotel window.

The hotel was not far from the port. From my window I could sketch the city. There is certain beauty in the chaos. The text on the left side is part of a page I had to cut, since the guy insisted on having "his" portrait.

Although I grew up country with a colonial past: Ecuador, I forgot that I should have expected a variety of cultures, races, and colors. The many buildings in construction in  Dar es Salaam show that there is money in this city, but also lot of poor people in the streets.

The VIP area in the ferry was comfortable. Juices and water where complimentary. There was a great view of the other passengers.

Zanzibar used to be part of the Oman trade routes, and for a short period even its capital, which explains why the majority of its population is Muslim. The Stewardess in the boat wore colorful headscarves. To draw people in a Muslim in country is a sensible issue, especially women. Even asking permission could be consider rude, I usually start drawing something around and let them to ask me to draw a portrait.

The Flight

Berlin - Istanbul -Dar es Salaam

Although I travel a lot, I always feel fear by flying. It is not the fear of an accident, but to loose my plane. Always I try to arrive to the airport with many hours of anticipation. I can only breath again when I am on the system, usually after check-in, with me seating in front of the the boarding gate. Still things can get wrong, like on my way back when I was waiting at the wrong gate...

I tried to start writing in German this time, but soon stopped.  I feel stupid when I write mistakes. My English is not much better, but I think there are more bad English speakers in the world that bad German speakers, so I feel in a good company.

This was my first time with Turkish Airways, and I was pleasant surprised. If I would hade time I should had stopped a few days in Istanbul. It has always been my dream to sketch in Istanbul. Next time should be..

By the way most of the drawings are made with Pitt Pen from Faber Castell color sepia, size S. These markers are water resistant so I can add watercolor after. I feel is better to spare the color in only few areas,  like my hand and the guy. This is called color bridges.

A nice detail was the Turkish sweets you get when arriving at the plane!

Zanzibar

When I was a 10 years old there was an ice-cream shop in my town with the name Zanzibar...without really knowing where it was, or if it was real,  I associated the name of this island with the tropics and spices. I never heard it again and so it stayed in my memory as the echo of something taken from a tale.

In 2015 I got an invitation form the Goethe Institute  to teach a workshop in Dar es Salaam, in Tanzania. After reading the Email, I immediately opened google maps to see where else can I go in that country... And there it was, not far away from the coast: Zanzibar! The island was real.

This is the story of 4 intensive sketching days in Zanzibar, with the best company that I could have imagined: the fellow artist Stephanie Ledoux