It took a good hour to get from the ocean into where we would dock. As we sailed in, we often saw folks on the bank watching the ship and, many times waving. Yes, it was low tide! We speculated that Mombasa doesn't see many cruise ships!
Arriving at the dock, we were pleased to see that it wouldn't be a terribly long walk from the gangway to the buses. And, we were pleased to see that the buses were more like the European style.
Getting off the boat, coming down the gangplank, we were greeted by traditional Kenyan dancers. In many ways, the dance itself reminded me of the hula that we know from Hawaii. The music, however, was only drums, not the string instruments favored by the Hawaiians.
Our first stop was Bombolulu workshop and cultural center.
We walked thru some of the workshops with our guide from the bus. He's the one in the purple shirt. The workshops began in 1969 as a place for people with different abilities to overcome their physical limitations and become integrated members of their respective communities. Their products are really quite nice!
After a tour of the workshops we walked to the meeting place, the building in the right in this photo for a little entertainment.
Watching the native dancers and listening to the music, all percussion, was quite fascinating. At the end of their performance, they pulled members of the audience to come up on the stage to dance with them. That was the humorous part. No, not us… we were glued to our chairs!
The cultural portion of Bombolulu was a collection of former tribal houses brought in from the various areas of Kenya where the particular tribe had lived.
For this portion of the tour here, we were turned over to one of the guides trained in all the cultures represented. Here's Tom standing with our guide outside the Noebele home.
The center also had representatives dressed in the traditional dress of the tribe being shown.
The picture shows the kitchen area of a Noebele home. The Noebele built their homes of mud walls and thatched roofs. Yes, they did cook inside the home!
Another tribe, another style of building, this one being built completely of mud. I'm sure the guide told us but I don't remember how these endured any, albeit infrequent, rain that came about!
Yet another type of home with a woman wearing the dress of that tribe and our guide strumming a lyre-like instrument.
And, inside this home another native dressed man. Today, these folks wear the same kind of street clothes that most people all over the world do.
Tom coming thru the gate to the yard of one of the homes. The people of the tribal days were really quite small.Another style, this one all thatch.
Looking down, I spied this weird looking millipede! Not knowing if it was dead or alive, poisonous or not, I chose to let sleeping millipedes lie! Looks like it might have been 3-4 inches long.
Next stop on this tour was Haller Park. Click on the link for more detail, it is a fascinating story. Briefly, it was a cement factory's limestone quarry wasteland that has been reclaimed and now is a tropical ecosystem wonderland (not Disneyesque!). I was fascinated with the little vervet monkeys that live and breed there.
Most of the other "guests" as the cruise line calls us, were fascinated with feeding the giraffes. Been there, done that, thank you Miami Metrozoo, Busch Gardens, etc.!! However, not so much as to not take photos! Far be for me to resist a photo op!
Note the monkey sitting in the tree and another on the ground scrambling for feed the giraffes miss!
Next, our guide led us into the "Game Sanctuary" down a somewhat long path to see more of the animals that have been introduced to the park. The path seemed MUCH longer than it really was, primarily because of the heat; 93°F, 80% humidity, felt like 100+°!!
The guide said he was taking us for the hippopotamus feeding. It was a nice walk in spite of the sweltering heat, at least it was shaded.
First we saw a feeding area for some of the other animals, elands, oryx and zebras. Look closely and you see the little vervet scrounging for food not eaten by the others.
Ahhh, the hippo. Tom had already headed back to the bus so I chose to not wait around for the feeding and followed his lead.
NOTE: That hippo looked VERY well fed! Wish our "Piggy Bank" were that chubby!!
Getting back to the (literally) cool bus, the A/C was on, we were in for a nice little treat as a family of deer looking animals came grazing by. They wouldn't have been so calm had all the other folks been there milling around.
From there, we were back through town on our way back to the "boat". Most of the buildings were quite old and they contained shops. This was actually a CyberCafe selling phones and accessories. Virtually everyone has a cellphone and usually to their ear or being stared down at with thumbs at the ready!
These days, there are more modern buildings going up. From the bus, we saw quite a few.
The three wheeler taxis, know as "tuk-tuk"s, lined up waiting for riders. We had first seen these a couple of years ago in the far east, Bangkok, if I remember correctly. They seem to be the vehicle most used by residents and visitors as well.
Photo of the Faza Hotel… There quite a few similar buildings around the city labelled as "hotel". We certainly wouldn't be able to stay there without the air conditioning that we have become so accustomed to.
One last attraction, the elephant tusks over Moi Avenue. Not to worry, no animals were involved! They are not from some colossal elephant or wooly mammoth! They are made of aluminum and were installed in 1956 to commemorate a visit by Princess Margaret.
Very fascinating representation of coastal Kenya. This part of Africa is quite different from the Africa we saw in Egypt. But in all of Africa, the people, the local people, are all the same, very warm and welcoming!
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