Arabian Nights

This is going to be a quick post, without too many photos.  Dad was taking all the pictures today - didn't need to overwhelm this island with BOTH of us snapping away :)

Anyway, I'm sitting on the little roof-top veranda in an old Swahili house, catching the cool breezes off the Indian Ocean.  Life is tough.

We flew here from Nairobi this morning.  When we arrived at the airstrip at about 12:30, someone from this lovely house was here to meet us.  There was one guy, and he indicated that two more were waiting outside the airstrip gate.  I was like, "man, 3 guys to meet three of us...?!"  But I soon realized why...

... it was a little walk to the dock.  There, we boarded a really cool old dhow and motored across the channel to Lamu.  We were serenaded by the captain, and I think he even started reciting some poetry to me, once he saw that I understood some Arabic!  And once we got to the other side of the channel and hopped off the dhow, I realized why there were three guys to meet us:  one for each suitcase!  It was a relatively long walk, in the heat of the day, to our little house, in the shadow of the Fort.  And it was the heat of the day, so we were all rather sweaty by the time we got here. I would have been a bit of a puddle had I had to carry my own bag (though my travel rule of thumb is never to travel with more stuff than I can carry for 45 minutes!).

After settling into our rooms, having our "welcome" drink of fresh passion fruit juice, we went for a wander through the town.  There are only a handful of motorized vehicles on the island - a tractor to carry the garbage away, a car for the Commissioner of the area, and a couple of motorbikes.  Otherwise, it's footing or riding on the back of a donkey!  Idyllic, no?

Going by foot is relaxing and wonderful - you just have to watch where you step because the donkeys really do seem to run the town!  We stopped at a little waterfront place to eat some lunch, went into a few shops, marveled at the tiny windy narrow allies and lanes and coral walls, and chatted with lots of people along the way.  This evening we went out again to get some supper, again on the seaside.  I was a bit worried that it would be way too hot here... but so far, so good!  The breezes are just beautiful!

More pictures and stories to come!