Our first blog: kuwakaribisha kwa kenya

kuwakaribisha kwa kenya, swahili for welcome to kenya!

The "tusks" in central Mombasa

So we set off on our travels exactly a week ago from London Heathrow and arrived in Mombasa last saturday. It already seems so long ago since we left!
This is our first time to Kenya, well our first time to Africa, and so far so good...despite the horror stories we may of heard or seen on the news before leaving, we have found it to be an extremely friendly and welcoming country, with an even more relaxing and laid back vibe about it. Unlike us Europeans, the Kenyans are never in a rush or a hurry; hakuna matata is literally their motto, and they suit it very well!
Our first week has mainly involved being a typical tourist for the week; sightseeing, getting sunburnt and becoming familiar with the local area and culture.
We were really lucky to have found an ideal backpackers in Mombasa, which too has a really relaxed atmosphere to it, aswell as a Kenyan woman, Esther, who makes the best breakfast omlettes ever! The owner, Lesley, runs the hostel and originally comes from the north of England (Newcastle!). She has been really helpful for our first week here and has gave us great advice for the rest of our stay in Kenya :)

Nirvana backpackers

One of the most interesting activities of the week has definately been mastering the "matatus", which are privately owned minibuses that are used as a reasonably cheap mode of transport in the local area. They are usually equipped with flashing neon lights, loud "pumping" tunes (pretty much like a disco on wheels!!) and a driver who isn't afraid to exceed the speed limit, aswell as the conductor who will let the driver know when to stop or when to go by banging on anything metalic within the car. They also have luxorious padded roofs, to prevent head damage when flying over the speed bumps at 90kph...so the matatus are defintaley an experience, but probably not for the faint hearted!
The only downside so far has been the mosquitos; they don't seem too bothered about feasting on max's flesh, whilst with me it is a different story...to date I have 30 bites and counting, ouch!

The beach in Nyali is really nice and picturesque...

... and it has a few resident camels :)

We are now looking forward to starting our voluntary work with the colobus trust in Diani, especially as we have not seen one monkey yet...just lots of lizards!

One of the house geckos taking it easy at Nirvana backpackers