The Ride to Lamu

Kate survived her first night in Kenya, despite the head that to a new arrival can be unrelenting. Her misery in the heat was traded early the next morning for a long, adventurous bus ride out to Lamu. The first 5 hours were relatively smooth...the bus speeding down a tarmac road through fields of pineapple plantations and remote coastal villages. Across the aisle from Kate and I sat a mother who suffered from some form of mental illness. She swayed and rocked in her seat, agitated by people nuances, and the nagging of her embarrassed young daughter. Her eyes were wild and skittish, crusted over by a nasty looking infection. Her tattered dress revealed her emaciated chest, the bones of her rib cage poking through her paper thin skin. The woman's nerves were tested even further when we turned off the tarmac and onto a dirt road heading for the coast. The bus rattled to such an extreme extent that the seat just in front of the woman broke. The seat back fell back into her lap, along with the gentleman who was seated in it. Her patience was wearing very thin as she grimaced in frustration and discomfort, shaking her head, and glaring out the window, but she refused to switch seats and created quite an unnecessary commotion. We shook along for 3 hours, my butt and legs numb from the constant, intense vibrations. Kate put it perfectly..."The poop is about to be vibrated right out of my butt!" So true.

We eventually arrived in Lamu after an exhausting 8 hour bus journey, only to have no clue where to head next. Lamu isn't a big island, but all we knew was that we needed to get to Shela Beach, which turned out to be a 45 minute walk through the sand. With our packs on, our stomachs grumbling, and exhaustion setting in, we made the trek to the other side of the island. After what seemed an eternity, we arrived in the very posh Shela Beach and began asking every muzugu we saw if they knew Lara or Alice. After a handful of quizzical looks, one of the bar boys pointed us in the right direction. We found Lara in a gorgeous house, just set back from the beach in a beautiful garden setting. Let the luxury begin. This is going to be a great week!