The entire Watamu coastline is part of the Watamu Marine National Park. The Watamu Marine National Park stretches over 229 km of white-sand beach and we were lucky enough to be staying in an Airbnb a few minutes’ walk away right on Turtle Bay. We spent most afternoons playing at the beach in the Watamu Marine National Park. The children absolutely loved playing at the beach even though most of the beach nearest to us was covered in seaweed. The locals said that in a few days or weeks the tide would carry the seaweed into the ocean and it would return to its original pristine state. It didn’t bother us because the seaweed served as accessories to play. At times, the seaweed was food, hair, building materials, decorations or art materials. It was up to our imagination.
While the children were busy playing, we were busy chatting with our new “friends”. Tourism is a major source of income for many local people in Watamu. A could of local guys, Eddy and Alfred found us on the beach on the first day and found us everyday thereafter. They were happy to keep us company and chat, but what they really hoped for was to do some business with us. They could arrange just about anything we were interested in. They just had to know what we wanted. Straight away, we said no trinkets or sourvenirs because we are traveling light. No problem. We agreed to buy some coconuts from Alfred. He said he would be back in half an hour because he had to go climb a tree and pick them. Seemed like a straightforward deal for him. No overhead, he just had to find a coconut tree, climb it without getting hurt and then bring the coconuts over.
From Captain Eddy, we booked a private boat to take us out into the open water for snorkeling. This was a more complicated deal for Eddy, especially when we later found that he wasn’t really a Captain and he didn’t have his own boat. He was a middle-man, a deal-maker. His job was to comb the beach and find the tourists. Then he used his contacts to match the tourists to the activity supplier for whatever the tourists wanted to do – snorkeling, paragliding, kitesurfing, etc. He chaperoned the whole trip and made sure his customers were happy. He collected the money, took his cut and then paid his supplier. If all went smoothly, everybody was happy.
The waves were very choppy and a few of us got seasick. The fish were plentiful but visibility was cloudy due to the choppy waves. We could easily see angelfish, groupers, filefish, lionfish and snappers swimming very close to us. After the snorkeling, the boat took us to another stretch of Watamu Beach that was pristine and completely clear of seaweed. The children played, AY and EY got henna tattoos and I took a nap on the beach.
We headed to Caterpillar Island where a fresh seafood lunch was prepared for us. Some of the local residents took us on a canoe carved out of the trunk of a baobab tree into a creek surrounded by mangrove forests. Mangrove forests are a unique ecosystem that are extremely carbon rich and is a biodiverse habitat to an array of birds, insects, fish, crabs and shrimp. Unfortunately, the mangrove ecosystem in Kenya are under threat and have been reduced significantly. The main cause is unsustainable harvesting as mangrove wood is a strong wood that has been used for building hotels, houses and boats. Our guide told us that Caterpillar Island was thus named because there are caterpillars that live in the trunk of the mangrove trees and in the past, the fishermen would cut a mangrove to harvest the caterpillars to be used for fish bait. Over time, the mangrove forest receded. Local residents are trying to reforest the area by harvesting the seeds and planting the seedlings in the receded areas.
It was a short trip back on the boat and we were happy to see the big rock on our beach from a distance. The afternoon sun was glistening on the water like a million precious gemstones – citrine, aquamarine, topaz, peridot, tourmaline. When we reached our beach, Alfred was waiting for us and welcomed us back with a warm smile and the customary Kenyan fist bump. He asked how our day went and whether we needed any more coconuts. We thanked Eddy and paid him what we owed him. Deal closed, everybody was happy.
