Kenya, the True Paradise

Hi everyone, we're Daniele and Marzia, a couple from Bologna just back from a wonderful trip to Kenya, in magical Africa. Below we'll tell you, in broad strokes, about our long-awaited week of holiday, having dreamed for a whole year of the day of departure. We left from Milan Malpensa on an Air Italy flight at 2.30, with an hour's delay. The plane was decent and the cabin crew very friendly. After about 9 hours we made a stopover in Zanzibar for about an hour and, after about 45 minutes of flying, we arrived in Mombasa. At the airport a bus was waiting for us with our Eden Viaggi assistant (our tour operator). From Mombasa, after about two hours by bus, we arrived in Watamu. Already along the way we began to understand how different the Kenyans' way of life is from ours...

and then driving on the right, we assure you, is impressive! Having arrived at the Aquarius village, the layout was explained to us: it was made up of 3 areas. Lili Palm (where we stayed), Mapango and Aquarius. In the latter, located a hundred metres from the rest of the village, was the restaurant where breakfast, lunch and dinner were served. The international cuisine was fairly varied and decent. To reach the restaurant you have to walk a stretch of road outside the village. On that stretch of road, at any hour, you meet the famous Beach Boys (lads of all ages trying to sell anything from trinkets to various excursions to visit the area). To connect the rest of the village to the restaurant they're building a bridge, with the completion date to be announced….

As soon as we arrived we contacted Zucchero straight away (I'd say the best and most trusted beach boy in the area, whom we'd contacted from Italy through his website) to agree on when and which excursions to do. We booked 3 excursions, including the two-day (one-night) safari, the trip to the marine park and the visit to Malindi. I'd say we saved quite a bit compared to the village prices, and it was well worth it. On the first day we took a nice walk along the coast to reach the so-called Island of Love. A place where, at low tide, a fantastic area of coral emerges and natural pools of crystal-clear water and tongues of sand are formed.

The first excursion was a boat trip with local guides, which went like this: in the morning we sailed along the whole coast of Watamu until we reached a spot where we did some snorkelling with fins and mask to admire the coral seabed and the marine life. It's spectacular to dive and have a variety of fish a centimetre from your nose... Then we stopped at another spot and got off to swim: given the low tide, tongues of sand had formed between the crystal-clear water. A few metres from us a small shark then passed by, wandering near the shore. We set off again and stopped once more on a beautiful beach where our companions prepared a fantastic fish barbecue (lobsters, prawns, barracuda etc.).

After lunch, some lads who were on the beach offered us a canoe trip along the river to admire the dense vegetation made up of mangroves (naturally, after haggling over the price of the trip we got down to a ridiculous figure, since it was well worth it). After lunch we set off again and returned to our village. We walked quite a bit, and along the beach the usual Beach Boys accompany you, trying to convince you to buy something. You have to take it philosophically, because at times it becomes relentless, but rightly so — it's their way of earning a living and you have to understand without getting annoyed. The day of the safari arrived and, up very early (at 5), we set off in a minibus with our guides to have breakfast in a bar run by an Italian couple.

From there began the long journey of 2 hours or perhaps more along a road (if you can call it that) of dirt track to reach Tsavo East Park. Once inside the park we began to see the animals. All sorts: elephants, zebras, gazelles, baboons and, soon after, the first lion. After that we saw 2 more, including one with cubs licking its whiskers after eating who knows which animal (by then too little was left to tell what it had been). We stayed for the night in a fantastic tented camp where, from very close, you could admire the animals when they came to drink at the little lake. Back from the safari, on the penultimate day we visited the orphanage in Watamu. It was a lovely experience to see the happiness of the children who welcomed us by singing a welcome song that gave no hint of their sad fate.

We left at the orphanage the things we'd brought from Italy (pens, notebooks, clothes that are superfluous for us) to try to give a small help for the future of those children, even though what we brought always seems too little... Then we visited the town of Malindi, where in the old part of town you really taste the true poverty of this place (people living in ramshackle huts, roads that aren't roads, and countless traders (Kenyans are all traders...) On the last day we spent our time relaxing and sunbathing, after a violent morning downpour that gave no hope of such a beautiful day. Unfortunately the last day has come and we have to leave... At Mombasa airport we waited for more than three long hours after check-in in a waiting room that had only a pseudo bar, with prices and a shilling-to-euro exchange rate that were a rip-off..

you couldn't go to the duty free, you just had to stay there waiting to board the plane… imagine the boredom..(the plane was 2 hours late) I'll conclude that it was a wonderful experience and, if the chance comes, we'll go back to Kenya, given that a week, even if intense, passes quickly and you find yourself at home imagining what you could have done if you'd still been there… We thank our tour guide Zucchero (zuccherowatamu.spaces.live.com) who managed to give us unique emotions, and we wish him all the luck in the world so that with his work he can live with dignity, as he deserves.