The magic of Lamu archipelago along the east coast of Kenya

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There are no words to describe what I felt at the sight of 'Island of Lamu archipelago off Ndau .....
It is a Sunday as many in Watamu, where I live with my husband, get up early in the morning, put the pot on the fire and while fixing the room and our stuff to the beach, waiting for the smell of coffee envelop us completely .. .
Some biscuits soaked in coffee and milk before returning to prepare for the sea .... the time is unfortunately not the best here at Watamu .... the presidential elections of December 2007 changed many things, especially for a resort as Watamu .. ..
By now the agency is closed for a month, tourists, very few who come here are veterans and they already know everything and everyone, so we can only enjoy a little 'we this paradise ...
While we go to the beach a thought flashed through my head and say spontaneously to my husband: "Why do not we go see your parents for a few days ???"..... He looks at me bewildered and I see his eyes light up joy ... I said, "Really you feel ???"....
I've thought a little 'sincerity, but my conclusion was: Yes!
Time 10 min and he was already on the matatu (the local public transport with a few shillings that takes you everywhere!) To Malindi to go to book 2 seats on the bus that would take us the next day in Lamu.
There are many companies, all reliable enough, obviously you need to know that we travel on these buses Africans with everything that you can take, and we choose one where there's room the next day ... with 1000ksh (approximately € 10 ) totals and from there we can reach Mokowe Lamu ...
Happy as a child comes home and we decided to prepare our little luggage that will accompany us for those days long awaited ....
We've been married a year and we have not had a chance to visit with her ... I already know her father ... but not the mother ... who was waiting anxiously with all the people of Ndau .... .
Monday has arrived ...
I had already made the trip to Lamu more than once, but that day there will never forget ... every moment I was to think how he would be meeting and especially how the impact would be felt only with that reality by telling My husband, his childhood ... his adolescence ...
I keep looking out the window, holding on to the large holes, I can not stand ... I always try to see past that memory of that road already traveled a baobab .... ... a palm tree ... a village ... the river ... people ... saying goodbye to our children .... pass the checkpoints with policemen that alternate up and down .... in fact a collection of things that makes this trip a unique experience with the added fact that you are sharing a day with the locals ...
Rumors swirl that barely understand the "corridor" of that bus a bit 'broken-down, the laughter of the guys who tell, the comments of this war proclaimed, then ended thankfully, where everyone told her with respect, the screams of children who are tired of moving from a passenger sitting next to see to find a different game ...
What a journey! After almost 4 hours to get here we embark on Lamu, Mokowe ....
Here begins the assault !!!... not because we were tourists, but because it works so there ... When they get these bus loads of people who must bear in Lamu owners of the boats to try to attract as many people as possible to their crossing ... and we must keep "game" ...
Agreed to go with a small hull 100ksh head and viaaaa ..... that day and hour channel that divides Lamu from Manda was invaded by the wind and small waves continued meant that our trip to Lamu is to Mokowe turning into a cold shower continues!
Surely if we were dozing we woke up!!
Here we are in Lamu .... anything and everything looks new!
Even here the assault to take you to bed in some niche typical and economical, you can take to see the rooms and then negotiate the price once you have chosen ...
The houses that line and face the "channel" of the Indian Ocean dominate my vision along with many fishermen on their boats "dhow" and many "Punda" donkeys that run jumping the dirt road full of everything imaginable and the impossible ...
Even from here you begin to grasp that I do not know, that only Lamu can give ....
There is something magical in the air of Lamu ...... and I felt .... and then ... just watch the eyes of my husband Hadha to understand that we were finally entered into her world ... in his childhood ... in that atmosphere that even with his move to Watamu had not dropped at all ....
The Lamu archipelago consists of six main islands and a multitude of small islands where even today you can absorb the daily lives of its people ....
E 'enchanting walk through the winding streets of Lamu, the main island, together with Ireland, and you can immerse yourself completely ... the Swahili culture is dominant here, the houses with wooden doors carved by local artisans, women walking shrouded and mysterious in their "dark-dark," rumblings are heard in the narrow alleys of the hooves of donkeys, palm trees with the wind emit a sound so mild that along with the creaking of wooden dhows "parked" along the shore form a melody can be heard only here ....
At sunset, people stop working ... you go to pray ... and then returns to walk the narrow streets and to meet for conversation and to tell me the day ...
Us?? After a quiet day in the narrow streets of Lamu to greet all the acquaintances and friends Hadha we decide to take that long awaited trip to the islet of Ndau ... a large dhow waiting for us at 4 am there at the main dock ... . Help!! This was my expression at the sight of the boat crammed with people and then not so great!! NO NO NO AND THEN! I never will go there, there!! Anxiety overwhelmed me and I burst into tears so interminable that all they cared and made me sit and calm down ...
My thought was now gone as we arrived on that island if we had not taken that boat ....
Unfortunately, the smaller islands are not easily achieved since there because even there the tides and, being an archipelago of mangrove islands with large and small canals that separate between these islands sometimes the tide is so low that boats can not navigate ... the problem is also Quendi is high, there are points where there is so much current and wind that seems to penetrate into a blizzard!!
In short, there was every reason for me not to trust all of that crossing on the boat loads of people and goods! Hadha angry me back in the room and I am always in a vale of tears, I apologize in any way. .. he understands, but now ask me how I think of going to see her family, because that's the only way!! Those few hours of sleep can make me think and to learn the next morning if there are other larger boats that reach these isole.Sìììì! !!!... Found the boat "passengers" who in 5 or 6 hours reaches Kizingitini small village on the island of Pate, from there with a sailboat we could achieve Ndau.
Hadha lends itself to call her so that the next day someone would come and take Kizingitini ...