Weekend in Diani

Our first week in Kenya is over! Teaching the kids has been very rewarding, but also quite intense. Every night, we've had to prepare classes for 4-5 classes the following day. So when Friday night finally came, it was time for some serious R&R.

Diani is a small tourist town about 2 hours drive from Mombasa. We got a lot of advice before we left, so Liz, I and 3 other volunteers we headed to Diani with a pretty good idea of what we were going to do there. We stayed at a cool little eco-lodge called Stilts. As the name suggests, we stayed in bamboo huts stilted about 3 metres from the ground. It was simple but beautiful!

We spent Friday night relaxing at a beach bar called 40 Thieves, and turned in for an early night. We had booked a tour on Saturday, and it was fantastic. It started with an hour drive to Shimoni, where we boarded our boat for the day. There was no dock, so we had to wade out into the water then jump in a smaller boat to take us to the main boat.

Our first activity was dolphin spotting. There were some early sightings, but it seemed like whenever we headed towards the dolphins they disappeared. This would be done on their terms. Eventually a pack of 5 bottle-nosed dolphins appeared next to the boat and swam along with us, and luckily I was taking photos at the time and was able to react quickly and get some nice photos.

Next we geared up for some snorkelling. Our guide told us the sights were comparable to the Great Barrier Reef, and while I'll give the nod to Australia it was still really cool. We were in the water for an hour or more, then we boarded again for a crab and chicken lunch. Finally, we put up the sail and relaxed for a while, before heading home.

The previous night, we had tried to get into a restaurant called the Cave but didn't have a reservation. On Saturday night, we returned with reservation in hand, and took in the spectacle of eating in a giant cave. It was a bit on the posh side, but the atmosphere was something to behold and we had a great meal and took lots of photos.

On Sunday, we returned to 40 Thieves for a day of relaxation on the beach, then headed back to Mombasa in the evening to plan our lessons for Monday. We're currently teaching the digestive system, rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100, and how to construct letters.

Walking through the slums of Mombasa, teaching in a school, sleeping in a tree house, snorkelling, eating in a cave... what a week! This week, we're planning a trip to a local wildlife park (in fact, we just got back but we'll write about it later), and we're either going to return to Diani or else do a mini-safari on the weekend. Stay tuned.

Chris