Last minute trip to the Kenyan Coast: Part 2!

Mmmm: cheese!!

Day Three

I had read a lot about a bakery/coffee shop somewhere in town, so I decided to explore the area and attempt to find it. I got up pretty late, threw on a bathing suit and dress, and started wandering around town.  I walked for quite a while but I eventually found the place. It was quite a hot hike to the small strip mall, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the shop was next to a full fledged delicatessen! There were French cheeses, Italian cheeses, salami, olives, prosciutto, and bagel chips. I was in heaven!!

It had been a while since I had real cheese and bagel chips don't exist anywhere near Kisumu, so I bought some delicious cheese, peppered salami, some assorted olives and a huge pack of bagel chips. After gathering enough supplies for a picnic for 4, I went to the coffee shop and had breakfast. It was pretty late in the day, and although I had hoped for fresh pastries, they were all out. But they had delicious brownies,  and I was on vacation, so I had a brownie and an awesome iced coffee for breakfast.

My only real goal for the day was to find the turtle sanctuary I had read about in my guidebook. After finishing my coffee I decided to walk to the beach and along the ocean all the way to the turtle sanctuary...which I estimated to be about 2 miles. I walked for a while and decided it was too hot and I wanted to go for a swim. After the long, hot walk and a lot of swimming I was actually hungry. I sat on the beach and had my little picnic of bagel chips salami and cheese. I suddenly remembered that it was actually a national holiday, so I called the turtle sanctuary make sure they were open. Sure enough, they weren't. So I lingered over my little picnic, applied sunscreen for the 4th time (SO HOT) and wandered the 1.5 miles back the way I came. I sat at a nice looking beach bar named Hemmingways and had a mojito and read a book. It was such a pretty day, and I hadn't sat somewhere and read in a while, so I was pretty darn happy.

Sunset and our view from dinner

Interestingly, I had heard that one of my Kisumu friends was in the same small village for the holiday to go diving, and while I sat at the bar she returned my texts and proposed to meet up for dinner...at the hotel bar next door to the beach bar I was sitting at! I paid my tab and walked over and sure enough she was just sitting and relaxing about 50 yards away from where I was :P

We sat and chatted, had dinner at her beach hotel overlooking the water, and caught up. It was so perfect to just sit and watch the sunset and enjoy the warm evening while having a tasty seafood dinner on the water. All-in-all it was a pretty relaxing and easy day, and it was nice to meet up with a Kisumu friend!

Day Four

I woke up determined to achieve 2 goals: to get to the turtle sanctuary and to check out somewhere else to sleep. I liked the little sleepy village of Watamu, but it was touristy, I was full of Italian food, and I was a bit tired of getting hassled by the "beach boys." All over the coast are young men who stroll the beaches looking to make money of tourists any way they can: they will help you find the dive shop or fishing operator you want, will play "guide," sell you less-than-legal goods, and (I've been told) offer a variety of "services" I wasn't looking for. So I had a leisurely breakfast at the Italian cafe across the street from my hotel then found a tuk-tuk to take me to the turtle sanctuary.

Getting mugged by monkeys

It was a few miles outside of town, but I got there no problem and just in time to watch a small group of tourists leave and have the place to myself. I got a tour of the little place from the knowledgable volunteer, and learned about what turtles nest on the Kenyan beaches and what times they are around. It seems I was there in an off time, and no baby turtles would be hatching during my stay, but I got to see a few of the rescues they had taken in and were nursing back to health. Most had minor issues like eye infections or a broken flipper, and they were all doing great!

Mugshot of the glasses breaker >:(

It was cool to see the big turtles flopping around in their giant kiddy pools, they are such pretty animals!!

Trees reclaiming the ruins

After the turtles, I wandered to the deserted beach across the way from the sanctuary that the turtle tour guide had recommended. There were only a few other tourists around, but by the time I got out my towel and went to lay down, big FAT raindrops started coming down. I gathered all my things back up and ran for cover in the trees past the dunes. The rain showed no signs of stopping, and I was getting soaked under the trees, so I walked down the beach path to what looked like a private house. I hoped to just stand in the carport and wait out the rain, but the nice housekeeper of the property ushered me into the doorway of the kitchen and tried to feed me.

I politely declined since I was dripping wet, and sat on the stairs under the cover of their front stoop and called a ride to come rescue me. After about 30 minutes, my tuk-tuk returned and shuttled me back to town to get my luggage. I thanked the nace house keeper, headed back to Watamu, grabbed my bags, and headed out of town towards a small eco lodge called Mida Creek. First, I stopped at the Gedi Ruins.

Gedi Ruins are the remnants of a small Swahili village that are just inland of Watamu. It's a walled city made of coral from the nearby coast and is complete with mosques, houses, and advances like drainage gutters and overhead basins to flush toilets (according to Wikipedia). It is rumored that the ruins are haunted, and I arrived in the late afternoon after a rainstorm, and the steamy, deserted ruins definitely had a haunting quality to them.

I was greeted at the parking lot by a huge troop of monkeys - on the road to the ruins my tuk-tuk driver insisted I stop and buy 20 cents worth of chopped up bananas ("You'll see why!!" he excitedly urged me...) and as soon as I was out of the tuk-tuk I was swarmed by monkeys. They were bold and practiced: before I knew what was happening, one monkey jumped up, grabbed some banana out of my hand, knocked my sunglasses off my face, and landed right on them on the gravel path. I was so annoyed!! He popped one lens out of my new prescription glasses and put a HUGE scratch right down the middle of the remaining lens.

Gee, thanks. Now you tell me...

In one throw I chucked the rest of the bananas a few yards away and handed the empty bag to my driver as he laughed and took pictures of the monkeys scrambling around me and looking at me expectingly. I was less than pleased, and asked him to watch all my things in the tuk-tuk while I wandered around the ruins. I had opted to not take a guide, and was really glad to have the whole place to myself. There was a winding trail through the excavated sites, but strolling around by myself I could see how the place gave off a haunted vibe (eerily silent, dark and winding paths through thick forest, lots of animals in the trees watching you...). I even ventured a bit off the trail a few time when I saw a wall or tower that hadn't been excavated yet just to see what it must have been like before it was rediscovered and cleared for tourists.


I saw the ruined mosques and houses, but my favorite part of the whole place was a giant tree that the park authority had built a wobbly ladder/staircase into. You can climb up into the giant tree and stand on a rickety platform and see the main clearing of the ruins from above. The climb was short, squeaky, and pretty interesting, but it was worth the view!

I was glad I hadn't caved to all the pressure at the main gate to get a guide, and was happy with my eerily quiet walk through the ruins alone. The deserted paths and foggy forest were really neat to see alone, and although I'm not usually a fan of ruins, I really enjoyed the experience.


I returned to my tuk-tuk to find it also deserted.....

My driver was nowhere to be found, although he had agreed to stay by the tuk-tuk and watch all of my belongings....After a lot of shouting his name and finally having to call him, he reappeared ("I was just nearby!"...sigh). We took off towards Mida Creek, which is a creek that is just south of Watamu. The eco lodge was a few kilometers inland of the coast and totally off the grid. I happened to be the only guest, and the staff of four gave me an overly warm welcome and showed me to my own cottage. It was a fantastic room with a huge bed down stairs and a large covered deck on the second floor with three more beds and a couple of hammocks. I opted for the giant bed downstairs, but the upstairs looked like a cool place to lounge in the evenings and stay cool.

The head staff member, Benson, offered to walk me down to the creek and show me around while the rest of the staff was cooking me dinner. He looked bored, and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful sunset, so I took him up on the offer. We took a short stroll to the creek, which was totally empty since the tide was completely out. We walked across the creek bed and he pointed out different snails and frogs and creek animals for me as the sun set over the far bank.

Lamp lit dinner for one

When we returned to the lounge of the lodge I found that the staff had whipped up an amazing meal for me. I had chicken, fries (a Kenyan staple, but a refreshing change from Italian :P) fresh veggies, and fruit. It was kind of overwhelming being their only client for the evening, but they were all awesome, and I bought Benson a soda to drink while I finished my Guinness and he told me about all the activities I could choose from the next day. I settled on a canoe trip up the creek to an island complete with a hot lunch on a deserted beach.

I went back to my huge cottage and was pleasantly surprised that it was cool, breezy, and perfect which was a sharp contrast to my stuffy Watamu accommodations. I had a great night of sleep and was excited for my last full day on the coast.