Mombasa, Kenya

A quick stop for bus repairs in Kenya

After a sad goodbye to the kids at Good Hope on Sunday night, Sofie and I boarded the bus to Mombasa bright and early Monday morning.  We were told that it would be a nice easy 6 hour bus ride, but we have certainly been in East Africa long enough to know that that won’t be true!  Despite the fact that our bus driver drove the bus off road like it was a four wheeler, it still took us nearly 10 hours to get there.  We encountered such obstacles as a small lake in the middle of the road (which we got stuck twice!), a bumpy dirt road for at least 4 hours of the drive, and major traffic coming into Mombasa (which is when our driver demonstrated his off roading skills in the shoulder of the opposite side of the road.  However, when we weren’t fearing for our lives, it was quite a fun bus ride, since we had lots of snacks including fruit salad, and we got a mini safari once we got into Kenya.  We saw three herds of elephants, zebras, monkeys, and my favorite, superb starlings!

Problems ahead!

Our lovely hotel (taken on our boat trip)

Once we arrived in Mombasa, we checked into our luxurious all-inclusive hotel on the beach.  Our original plan was to spend two nights on the beach, and then head to Nairobi for two nights, but after about 10 minutes in our hotel, we decided that we just couldn’t leave!  So we went ahead and booked another two nights.  And that turned out really well for us because not only did we get an upgraded room (ocean view), but we also got a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine delivered to our room since we were “returning guests!”

Sea Cucumber and Sea Star

As much as we wanted to, we decided that we could NOT spend the whole day every day at the hotel!  On Tuesday, we somehow got suckered into a “sea safari” with a random beach vendor.  It actually was really fun though, and we got to hold sea stars, sea urchins, and even a sea cucumber!  And we only gave him $2 at the end, so it was totally worth it.  Wednesday, we went on a glass bottom boat ride complete with snorkeling at a reef and also in a sea star village.  We actually got to feed the fish from our hands at the reef which was super cool, and I have never seen so many sea stars in my life! 

Feeding the fish.

Sea Star Bikini

Giant Tortoise

Finally on Thursday, we were really adventurous and headed to Haller Park to see and play with many animals including giant tortoises, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, and a wart hog!  I particularly wanted to visit Haller Park because it is the home of Owen, the baby hippo who was adopted by Mzee the giant tortoise!  Does anyone remember that e-mail forward with the pictures of the baby hippo cuddling with the giant tortoise??  Well, it turns out that was actually a true story!  However, they are now separated because Owen was starting to behave like a tortoise and they were also afraid that as Owen got older, if he realized that Mzee was not a hippo, he might kill him.  They were separated in 2006 (apparently that e-mail has be going around for a very long time!), but our guide told us that Mzee still really missed Owen and is quite sad, while Owen is very happy living with his new girlfriend Cleopatra.

Owen!

Feeding the giraffes!

When we weren’t off on adventures, we had lots of fun hanging out at the hotel, eating 4 or 5 meals a day and swimming in one of the three pools (and going down the kids water slide!) or swimming in the Indian Ocean.  It was the perfect end to my time in East Africa.