A Wrinkle in Time

After the beach we headed 6 hours north (another crazy bus ride and then a short boat ride) to a beautiful town called Lamu, a Unesco Heritage Site. 95 % of the population is Muslim, so many men wear long robes called kanzus and kofia caps, and most women are covered from head to toe in a black buibui. There are over 20 mosques, and the calls to prayer can be heard all over town at all hours of the day and night. It is a Swahili town, so the architecture is quite different from elsewhere in Kenya: many of the houses have beautiful courtyards and intricately carved doors.
The town is situated on an island where there are no cars (except the ambulance and the district commissioner's truck), so people either walk or use donkeys for transportation! In fact, the "streets" are so narrow you can touch the houses on both sides when you are standing in the middle. It's great, especially with kids, you never have to worry about traffic (except perhaps the odd donkey wandering about), and you can walk safely any time of day or night. People also use beautiful wooden sailboats, called dhows, for fishing. Except for the fact that everyone has a cell phone, you could quite easily imagine yourself transported back a few hundred years. It's really quite incredible that a place like this still exists.
We found an great place to stay, called Queen House: three floors, two bedrooms, fully equipped kitchen, an incredible terrasse on the roof with a view onto the ocean. Probably the most luxurious accomodations we'll have on the entire trip.
One day we went to Shela, a beautiful beach only 30 min walk from the town. Another day we went fishing with captain "Lemon Squeeze" on a dhow. Just watching the captain and his two mates manoeuvre the boat was fascinating. They barbecued the fish for us at lunch, and I have to admit, it was pretty amazing (Samantha, there's hope for me. I'm learning to like fish!). We also had the chance to have a local guy, Matata, come and make a Swahili meal for us at the house. There was fresh coconut milk in everything: the rice, the fish, the vegetables. Absolutely delicious! It was nice because while he was cooking, we had the chance to talk and learn about life in Lamu. He was lamenting the fact that a few people now had motorcycles, and that Lamu just wasn't the way it used to be. Lamu is finished, he said. We had a good laugh, because for us, staying in Lamu is like travelling back to the Middle Ages. It's all about your point of view, I guess!