Praying Lizards

Our trip out of Lamu was a combination of tedious and eventful; a hot, crowded bus driving along a bumpy road for most of the trip. Bumpy enough that we managed to blow a tire and got to take a 45-minute break on the side of the road.

The blown tire was swapped for a threadbare replacement, but thankfully that only needed to carry us a few miles down the road where we got something a little sturdier.

I can’t say enough about how nice our stay at Jambo House was. The German owner, Arnold, doubles as your tour manager, helping you to organize boat trips, dinners, or anything else you can think of. Breakfast was served on the rooftop patio every morning, starting with a serving of fresh fruit and the most amazing juice you’ll ever taste. You then get your choice of an egg dish, of which there were a number of options, but we could never resist the delicious French toast.
One of the most important tasks we undertook in Lamu was that of wiener-wielder for the local cats. (Go ahead and re-read that sentence, you most likely got it right the first time.) Most of the cats are gaunt, but we took particular interest in one little grey-and-white kitten who lived near Jambo House. We bought sausage from a nearby bakery and fed the kitten whenever we walked past.

Now I have to relay part of the story that may offend some, so be forewarned. Keep in mind that I’m simply repeating facts.

“What’s his name?”

“Pussy.”

(Blushing.) “Oh! And that kitten over there, what’s her name?”

“They share the same name. Pussy.”

In this picture you can also see part of Michelle’s henna painting—yet another service that Arnold was able to arrange for us.

We took a couple of trips to Shela beach—miles and miles of virtually untouched sand that you have almost to yourself. We played with my supercool underwater camera, a Christmas gift from Sara and Sam. So cool!

(Holy crap! I just noticed the fish swimming past Michelle’s face in this picture!)

We did eventually track down Elizabeth-the-tailor, who made Michelle a cute wraparound dress (under construction in this picture) and me a couple of shirts. I ordered one more “traditional”-looking white shirt that I haven’t actually seen any person here wearing, so it’ll either be really awesome, or make me look like I’m trying way too hard.
So Lamu was great, and we were sad to leave as we boarded the bus Mida Creek, an ecological reserve on the coast near a bird estuary. A mix-up with our room led to somewhat dampened spirits, but we were eventually assigned a hut and then sat down to a tasty dinner of grouper and coconut rice.

We had a couple of visitors during dinner. First up: this guy. Overcome by the excitement of the lamp on our table, a praying mantis crashed into our lamp and came to rest near Michelle’s plate.

As my brain was working to process this (I had no available slots for “dinner/praying mantis”), another guest:

“HOLY ____ ____, IT’S A ______ LIZARD.”

Yes, a friendly lizard had worked its way into the crack in the table and popped its head up next to my dinner plate. He stayed for a while and we were hoping to see him go after the praying mantis, but he soon got spooked and disappeared.

Today we’re going to explore the camp and the estuary. It’s very serene here (minus the braying donkey who screamed us awake this morning). I’m writing this post from a covered restaurant/bar area above the main office of the camp, and it suddenly started raining.

The camp has limited resources, but I’m nonetheless able to post because Kenya, despite its status as a developing nation, has a much richer array of wireless services available. I’m using a Safaricom USB modem ($30) and a top-up card that gives me 1GB of bandwidth ($10) anywhere that has cell coverage (which is just about everywhere we’ve been so far).