Watamu and the beach boys

We left for Kenya on 31/8/2007, we landed in Mombasa and after a two-hour minibus ride we reached our destination, Watamu to be exact. The place hosting us was the Barracuda Inn, which is also a nice complex, about thirty bungalows set among little paths in dense vegetation, the problem is that the management is, to say the least, scandalous. The management of the Barracuda Inn is truly pathetic, the food is of the worst quality, the sun loungers on the beach are falling apart and on top of that there isn't even a single umbrella! How can you be in Africa and not have any umbrellas on the beach? They could also have cleared the seaweed from the beach. But apart from this sore point, as soon as we arrived in Watamu we decided to take a walk on the beach and were immediately pounced on by some guys, who in no time at all won us over with smiles, jokes and plenty of charm.

They are DASHA and MOMO, whom we had already heard about both online and in person through friends who had already gone on excursions with them. They offered us a package of excursions that included 2 days and one night of safari in Tsavo East park, a blue safari and an excursion to Malindi. As far as the safari goes, my friend Paola and I chose Tsavo East, but if we'd wanted to we could have chosen other parks such as Masai Mara or Amboseli, which involved more days spent in the savannah. We stayed at the "VOI Lodge", a beautiful structure in the savannah where you can choose whether to sleep in the rooms or in super-equipped tents with a bathroom. We slept in a tent and it was truly a wonderful experience, hearing the sound of the birds and of nature all around from inside.

After a few days Momo and Dasha organised the blue safari, taking into account the alternating high and low tide; a boat excursion that includes entry to the marine park and also a bit of snorkelling where possible. Always with the beach boys we then went on excursions to the island of love and to a little beach stupidly called "Sardinia 2" (I find it ridiculous to colonise certain local realities with improbable Italian names...), truly enchanting places with crystal-clear water and very white sand. On those occasions we had lunch on the beach; lobsters, prawns, swordfish... all cooked simply on a grill, truly excellent (unlike what the Barracuda Inn offered daily!). All the boat excursions were done with DOLPHIN SAFARI'S, whose captain MOHAMMED proved to be extremely kind and helpful.

The trip to Malindi was rather disappointing, "ruined" by the Italians who imported tons of bars, restaurants and bad taste next to a scene of such poverty. One evening we went to a beach party at the Rosada in Malindi, it felt like being in some slick joint on the Rimini seafront, in a pretentious style as if we were on Viale Ceccarini where a cocktail cost almost as much as in Italy. Of course, the place is run by Italians. In Watamu another beach boy whose name is FARA often took us to the "Come back", a very nice open-air disco bar with little tables, a dance floor, and hip hop reggaeton music, frequented by both white people and locals, open until dawn.

We also went to an orphanage near the village of Timboni, very close to Watamu (we walked there, always accompanied by PEACE and ALI', two other very nice beach boys), where we left pens, notebooks, pencils and erasers that we had brought from Italy, knowing that in certain countries stationery is expensive and in any case essential for the children's education. We truly got on very well with these guys! In Watamu we often went out for dinner (not to be repetitive, but the buffet menu at the Barracuda Inn is poor and of low quality), the Mapango restaurant at the Aquarius hotel is truly excellent, rather refined but delicious with quite affordable prices. Even the pizza isn't bad considering we're very far from Vesuvius! Then we also went to the Jambo, a little local restaurant in the centre of Watamu where you eat excellent fish on a veranda overlooking the town.

We spent the last days lazily on the beach. We intend to go back, thanks above all to those guys who showed us a beautiful country and made our holiday unforgettable. Thanks to MOMO, DASHA, FARA and all the other guys who accompanied us during the holiday!