Malindi

After leaving Pat & Cathleen at the airport in Nairobi, I took off to the Kenyan coast to do largely the same trip my sister Megan did a year earlier. I took a night bus to Mombasa, and felt the bumps so badly that I sometimes wondered whether we were taking the road, or just driving across back country. We arrived early, and I spent the morning wandering around the old town before catching a matatu (Kenyan minibus) to Malindi.

Malindi (my first Megan recommended destination) is a town on the coast a couple hours north of Mombasa with large beautiful beaches. For some reason it has become incredibly popular with Italians. Not only do you see Italians all over the place, everyone thinks you're Italian! Instead of Jambo, many of the locals great you with ciao. I was amazed to see several Kenyans speaking fluently in Italian. I spent two nights at a resort on the beach, that had a huge pool surrounded by palm trees. (Sadly the rest of the place was falling apart; I guess that's why it was pretty cheap.) It rained much of the time I was there, but I still had time to enjoy the beach a little bit, and I hired a boat to do a little snorkeling at a nearby coral reef. I also enjoyed some great Italian food at "I Love Pizza" (good call Moogs!).