Omar Jaramillo makes a good case for getting lost in Zanzibar.
Lead Image: Omar Jaramillo drew this scene in Zanzibar, Tanzania. He cut a rectangle out of the previous page so part of this sketch showed through to form an attractive title page to this segment of his journal.
Jaramillo was visiting the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar, in Tanzania in Africa, and his travels took him to Old Town, a World Heritage Site. He went out exploring and sketching, but soon found himself lost in the streets and alleys. No worries. The architect is enough of an adventurer to know that this is sometimes a fortuitous development.
“If you are not in a hurry, getting lost in a safe, picturesque town is the best thing that could happen you,” says Jaramillo. “You place more attention to the details around you and sometimes you find fantastic motifs to paint, instead of the common places marked in every travel guide.”
He adds, “I tried to find my way back to the market following the route my guide showed me the day before. At the same time I was checking in a map to follow the names of the streets. No map helps you there. Very soon I realized that the narrow alleys in Stone Town were like rivers, with buildings between them, and then in the end all of them gather in the big sea that is the market. In the many ways I followed the rivers I always found something interesting, so getting lost was all the time a pleasant experience.”
