Paradise Cliche

OK, ok, it's true. Our stay in Tiwi at Coral Cottages was like paradise. White, sandy beaches almost all to ourselves. Monkeys visiting us daily. Parrots in the distance. Fresh-caught seafood for dinner. Friendly, fat dogs near the office. Mosquitoes.

For starters, it's not that far from Mombasa (where we are again on our way to Nairobi). We caught a matatu to the ferry. Got off ferry and got matatu to Tiwi. Got off matatu and got in taxi. Got taxi to take us to grocery store as cottages are "self-catering" meaning "no restaurant so you get to cook and wash-up." Which was nice, for a change. I didn't realize how much I missed cooking, which I think means being in control of your meals (instead of walking into a restaurant and asking "what's for lunch" and the answer being "chicken and rice or chapati." And, that's it! Only chicken and a starch! Really! I miss cobb salads!). Oh, and then taxi took us to Coral Cottages. They, of course, have cottages right on the beach but we're cheap, remember, so ours was a whole 2 minute walk to the beach. But, it felt secluded. Froody was able to hang out in his underwear at times as no one but the fruit and fish sellers came up to our place. And monkeys.

Yup, on our second day there a fruit seller came by our place and, while I was looking for some veggies, a monkey swooped in and took an avocado I had set aside! Froody chased it up a tree where it ignored him and tucked into the avocado! Then, a bigger monkey (different species) came and stole the avocado from it. Several times during our stay the monkeys would come and visit, jumping from our roof to the trees nextdoor or sitting on the porch to watch us watch them. Twice, one got into the cottage but was easily scared away. Luckily, the manager warned us about that so we've always kept our food in a cubby.

The beach was real nice. The water was perfect- not too hot, but nice and cool. We went snorkeling each day, at first right off the beach where we saw a lot of brittle stars hiding, some sea cucumbers, and a few fish. We just loved being in the clear water and seeing different stuff. But, on day 3 we paid a "guide", Zima, to show us to the rock pools where we were told were tons of fish...and it was true! ****sigh*** it was soooo awesome that Froody wished he had a waterproof housing for his camera. We saw all sorts of species of wrasses and cleaner fish, a couple of nudibranchs, cowries, schools of silvery fish with big black-and-white tails, sea urchins, pipe fish, box fishes in all colors and patterns, moray eels, jumping fish (they hang out on the rocks just above water at low tide and really do jump!), rosey-colored hatchet shaped fish, and powderpuff worms. Just sooo amazing. Part of one rock pool formed a cave into the side of the cliff and we were snorkeling in it with fish below and bats (yes! I kid you not!) flying above. How can you top that???? We both felt like we were in someone's fish tank!

We also managed to wake up early enough (not that hard thanks to all the roosters. Not just at the cottage, but all over Tanzania and Kenya people have chickens. Or, the call to prayer at 5am wakes us up) to catch a sunrise. The beach is so different at low tide as I've never seen before. It's nice to see so many new things!

In the afternoons, we tried our best to stimulate the local economy which was very depressed as there were hardly any tourists. Everyone we talked to said how this year there won't be any tourists, that they won't return until next year. However, we are only two people and there are only so many souvenirs one can buy. I got from the manager that this is the high season and, normally, she is fully booked for the months of August and September. Whereas when we arrived she had three bookings for the whole month of Sept.

OK-just some more pix we took during our stay in Tiwi.
Oh, goody! A video of our cottage!
Sandal Tans!

Shared sunrise with dogs, probably from some other resort somewhere.

Fresh fruit and fresh seafood (biggest squid I ever seen!) for lunch. again.

Froody really liked the parrots. We even went inside their cage for a visit.

If you ever go, you must buy fruit salad and cashews from this guy, the world-famous Mango Man!