A Dive into Kenya

Hi everyone, we're Giuseppe and Giada and we stayed in Watamu at the Eden Village Watamu Beach. A wonderful, comfortable place, always friendly and helpful staff, lovely rooms, a stunning sea — at low tide, breathtaking sand atolls form; the walks out to the coral reef are unforgettable and you can spot numerous species along the way, including the legendary and ever-so-lovely pufferfish! As for the resort, the soft entertainment is good and never intrusive, the soft all-inclusive is good and the cuisine, looked after by the Italian chef, is simply divine. The resort is organised down to the smallest detail, you're never left on your own, the Eden staff are always on hand for any eventuality, and the local staff are full of kindness and courtesy — we Italians have a lot to learn from these wonderful people.

We'd recommend a budget including the cost of the trip and various excursions of at least €2,100–2,300 to make the most of the beauties the place offers. A trip we'd highly recommend! As for the excursions, I want to tell you about a truly special person who made our trip unforgettable, namely the tour guide Tuffo, a young man from Watamu who, thanks to his flawless organisation and his knowledge of the place, gave us unforgettable days. With him we did a 3-day, 2-night safari in the Amboseli and Tsavo East parks, a full-day blue safari in the mangroves and a tour of the little streets of Watamu. The safari was a powerful, unforgettable, primal experience; we saw a host of animals, including the cheetah, very rare to spot, breathtaking landscapes, sunsets that still give us goosebumps today when our thoughts go back there, to those moments we'll never forget.

We stayed one night in a tented camp and the other in a lodge, two different experiences but both absolutely enchanting. Much of the credit for the safari's great success goes to Tuffo, who met all our requests, such as going by Jeep instead of minibus, which is very important for a successful safari. And then in the Jeep there were only 4 of us, and we crossed minibuses packed with as many as 8 people!! Great too was the driver who accompanied us, the legendary Akim, who thanks to his great knowledge of the parks gave us scenes worth framing, like the photo of the giraffe with Kilimanjaro in the background, like the “breakfast” of 4 lionesses tearing apart a freshly killed buffalo...goosebumps!!! Not to mention that to show us a proud cheetah in all its splendour he went way off-road, getting truly within a metre...

In short, if you want a safari you'll remember forever, trust the experience and organisation of Tuffo and you won't regret it! Included in the package with the safari, Tuffo also took us on the blue safari, another wonderful experience; there were only 6 of us on a huge barge with a glass bottom to admire the seabed, and who knows how envious the other boats we crossed at sea were, all smaller than ours and overflowing with people! We visited the Watamu marine park, a paradise for snorkelling lovers, where you can observe hundreds of different fish species; after that we landed on a little island where we had lunch with coconut rice in octopus sauce, fresh grilled lobster, fresh grilled tuna, and plenty of seasonal fruit...

All truly delicious, and the island was truly enchanting — in short, impeccable organisation, and for that we'll never stop thanking our friend Tuffo! A couple of days before leaving, Tuffo took us for a wander around his Watamu, where he lives, and that's where, besides doing a bit of shopping (there's lots of very interesting local craftwork), you grasp what it means to be in Africa. Walking through the little streets you see poverty, people living with next to nothing, the children crowding round us for the biscuits we had bought for them... What moments... We were deeply moved when one of them took my girlfriend by the hand and called her mum, or when another picked up from the ground a biscuit that had fallen in the mud, which I stopped him from eating... Even though the locals made me understand that sooner or later that biscuit would have been eaten by someone else...

I'll say no more, but we think about it, we really think about it a lot... Well, what can I say, Kenya is not simply a holiday... Kenya is a treasure chest, a magic chest in which you can observe untouched nature, landscapes to remember, live unrepeatable experiences, meet genuine people and a reality we know only thanks to TV, but until your eyes see it up close, it's impossible to truly grasp what the real Africa is... If you can, go to Kenya, it'll stay in your heart forever, and like us, the moment you're on the flight home you'll already feel the need to go back, because when you go to Africa you leave a piece of your heart there, among those places, among those people... I'll leave you all Tuffo's contact details; if you go to Kenya don't hesitate to get in touch with him, he's a serious, reliable person with great knowledge of the place...

With him, the success of your holiday is practically guaranteed! Bye and thanks for reading... Giada and Giuseppe E mail: tuffo1@yahoo.com Cell:+254 722 586665 Sito: tuffosafari.marmin.it