This post is originally from March 13, 2026

Our time in Malindi has sure flown by!  Malindi has been the perfect addition to our trip as it allowed us time to relax – especially after all the visiting we did in Cape Town.  We have eaten our share of Italian food, lounged in our bougie accommodation and even had our own personal tuk tuk driver,  Salim who would take us wherever we needed to go. 

Below are some snapshots of us in Malindi (buying some handicrafts from a Maasai, grocery shopping and buying the cheapest and juiciest fruit, and riding around with our driver)

On Wednesday we went on an excursion that we planned with Saidi (the dude whose sister “does massage”).  We were dreading seeing him because when we left him after the massage fiasco he wasn’t in the greatest of moods. When we got in the car we all laughed because he could literally be taking us anywhere and we all got in the car willingly. None of us really trust the guy so it’s hard not to be a little suspicious.

Our excursion was a day out at sea. We drove about an hour to a lovely area called Watamu where we, along with half of Italy boarded several boats. From there, they took us to go see dolphins. I’ve been lucky enough in my life where I’ve had several dolphins experiences – some that were utterly amazing and others where tourism was more important than the dolphins. This was more like the latter.  I honestly couldn’t count how many boats were there, but basically once a pod of dolphins were spotted, each boat would race to be the closest to them. It felt like we were chasing them down and in doing so, just dumping fuel into the ocean with it. We did see them, but we all agreed we’d rather not be there. (Looking at my photos now, I did a really good job of taking pictures without other boats in the way!!)

Next we made our way to a snorkeling point (as did all the other boats).  I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but there were barely any fish. The 3 of us couldn’t stop laughing at the hilarity of hundreds of people all splashing around with no fish.  Even if there was nothing to see it was still amazing to be in the beautiful clear blue ocean. 

The next stop was a gorgeous beach with the most turquoise water. The tide was low so even though we were far from shore, the water was only up to our waists. It looked like ‘Little Italy’ was sitting in the shallow water just having a good pee! We joined them in the ocean and swam as far away as possible to avoid frolicking in their wee. 

From there we got back on the boat where they took us to a bunch of mangroves. The highlight for me was when we saw a flock of flamingos. When they walk they look synchronized and when they fly – wow that is utterly breathtaking! Sadly they also took us to see some monkeys where part of the stop was getting out to feed them cookies!!! Monkeys eating biscotti- mamma mia!!!! It felt wrong on so many levels so we stayed on the boat. 

Our last stop of the excursion was at a beach where they fed us a massive lunch. For those who ate seafood it was definitely a feast! All in all, it was a great day and even better that we didn’t get kidnapped. 

Even though we are staying in a beautiful place we did have a few uncomfortable but hilarious events. One of them was a night where we were sitting on the veranda gabbing away when the power went out. Without power there is no AC, and we have been lucky to have this luxury in our rooms. Our feeble Canadian bodies just don’t do well in this extreme heat and humidity, so when we went to our room to go to sleep the only comfortable position I could find was to starfish in just my underwear! After about two hours we were both laying in a pool of our own sweat. You may be wondering, why we don’t just open the door or window to get some air flow – well, there are mosquitoes and we are in a malaria zone. Eventually it became unbearable so we came out on the veranda and slept under the stars. I got a little chowed and crossed my fingers that I wasn’t the ‘Malaria Chosen One’, but it ended up being spectacular because I saw my first shooting star! 

Yesterday was a bit funny too. Because it’s so hot, it is pretty much a given that you go swimming. I love swimming in the ocean but we haven’t gone where we have been staying because there are fishing boats directly in front of our residence. Instead we have used the pool where we are surrounded by plumeria trees and have an ocean view. Yesterday we got our swim suits on and made our way down to the pool to cool off. When we got there, there were signs telling us that swimming was prohibited because they were cleaning the pool with chemicals. Well, off to the ocean it is! Once we got to the beach it was also apparent why nobody else was swimming in the ocean. It was covered in garbage. The sand underneath the garbage is white and pristine but what had washed up was the exact opposite. We hoped the water would be a bit better, but sadly it was also pretty dirty. Dodging one plastic piece after another, we could only laugh and hope we weren’t also swimming with ecoli! We swam for a bit until we reached our trash threshold. I can handle swimming in sea weed, but garbage really just isn’t my jam. I feel like for the amount of trash that was in this one area, there must be a current pulling it all to one place. Current or no current, it still is a harsh reality of what humans are doing to our world! 

Tomorrow we leave Malindi and fly back to Nairobi where we start our G Adventures tour. It is bitter sweet to leave the sea side as the ocean is definitely my happy place, but knowing we have lions and elephants awaiting us is just as exciting!