Lamu

Ah, where to start with my extended weekend in Lamu, Kenya!

We arrived by airplane on last Saturday afternoon, landing on a dirt runway at the Manda Island airport which lies right across a small body of portion of the Indian Ocean from Lamu. The airport was my favorite yet – a thatched roof over a concrete slab with plastic lounge chairs composed the terminal and check-in station and stray cats freely roamed the area. We hopped on a dhow boat, a traditional wooden sailboat, and sailed across to Lamu town of the archipelago islands.

The city was so unique and thus I will do my best to describe it through words and some pictures. The Lonely Planet guide book states that Lamu town is “the core of everything the archipelago stands for in the hearts and minds of inhabitants and visitors alike, a living throwback to the Swahili culture that once dominated the entire Indian Ocean coast.” Arab settlers created a bustling trading post on Lamu island early in the 16th century, exporting ivory, mangrove poles, tortoiseshell and thousands of African slaves. Though initially regarded as a minor player in the East African power game, after a victory over the competing traders of Pate island in the 19th century, Lamu town became a prominent force and splendidly wealthy off of ivory and slavery trading. Most of the beautiful Swahili homes around today were built during this prosperous time, which ended in 1873 when the British forced Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar to close down the slave markets. Since then, the economy of the island went into rapid decline and the town was forgotten until rediscovered by travelers in the 1970’s. “Lamu existed in a state of humble obscurity, escaping the runaway development that happened elsewhere on the coast,” says Lonely Planet. Thus the town I visited remained true to its architectural heritage and culture, a characteristic recognized in 2001 when Lamu town was named to Unesco’s list of World Heritage sites.

The town itself is very compact, with the white stone and coral buildings stacked one on top of another with narrow walkways winding throughout. Many of the buildings had ornately carved wooden doors that were spectacular! Instead of dodging cars like I was used to in Eldoret (no cars are allowed on Lamu) I found myself dodging piles of donkey poo, since these animals are the primary mode of transport. Marissa and I agreed that Lamu town reminded us of Venice, the way the streets meander in and out between the buildings, minus the canals. We wound our way through the city to our lovely hotel, Jannat House and climbed our way to our top floor, thatched roof, open air room. The only downside to the room, was the loudspeaker from the mosque next door aimed right at us – we noticed this at sundown, when the muslim chanting was broadcast loudly to call people to mosque for the evening. The day we arrived was the beginning of Ramadan, which meant finding lunch during the daytime fasting period would be a challenge!

We luckily were able to find food each day, and were by no means scraping by. I enjoyed some of the best tasting juice smoothies and seafood I’ve ever had, for extremely reasonable prices! Besides the food and beautiful culture of the town, my favorite parts of the trip were (1) the beach, and (2) our dhow boat day trip.

We walked to Shela (pronounced Shey-la) beach, which is a 40 minute walk from Lamu town on our first full day, and found an almost deserted, undeveloped horizon of sand and water awaiting us! The sun was strong, but a lovely constant breeze kept us surprisingly cool. The sand was white and soft, and soaked with enough moisture from the earlier high tide that it didn’t get picked up by the breeze to fly in our faces. We ventured into the ocean, which was the temperature of bathwater and clear, and swam out to sandbars close by for another awesome perspective of the island.

The next day we were again drawn to the ocean, but this time took a dhow boat ride to the eastern shore of Manda island to the site of an old Swahili town ruins. Our ship was powered by wind only via its lone sail, which made for a peaceful and relaxed trip on the water. We took a pit-stop to wet our whistles at the floating bar, and continued on our way. The town ruins were very interesting, thanks to the tour given by our dhow boat captain, and the icing on the cake was climbing to the top of the hill overlooking the Indian Ocean on the east coast of Manda island at sunset. Our ride back to Lamu found us under a blanket of stars so bright and infinite that we all were pinching ourselves to make sure we weren’t dreaming!

The rest of our time we spent meandering through the town, visiting with the locals, shopping (and for Ryan, bartering his headlight for some jewelry with the town’s silversmith). I never would have known of the existence of such a unique town had it not been for my adventurous peers who departed back to the States after this trip, leaving me to hold down the hostel until the next batch of students get here next week. I miss them, but can’t wait to catch up when I’m back in Indy in October :)

**I will be adding additional videos on my youtube channel (username: doubleevers) as soon as the internet speeds up a bit to allow me to!