Lamu Island

Kenya is primarily Christian, except along the Indian Ocean coast. Muslims from Arabia settled here as early as the ninth century. Lamu has been settled since the 1300s, and some of the buildings constructed then are still in use. Unlike Mombassa and other coastal towns, you cannot drive to Lamu. We flew to an adjacent island and were ferried across to Lamu Town and then to Shela Village (where we stayed) by dhow, a hand-crafted boat whose design has not changed much since about the 10th century. We also took a romantic sunset sail on a dhow. Lamu is the perfect place to relax. Their motto, translated into English, is "slowly, slowly"! Lamu is famous for its hand-carved wooden doors.

Lamu Town from Dhow	Lamu Town from the pier	Lamu looking left from the pier
Lamu Town looking right from the pier	Hamid Mohammed Salim leans on coral wall	Lamu door with courtyard
arched Lamu door	Lamu door at the beach	Kijani House where we were the only guests
Our room (2nd & 3rd floors)	Dining room	pool view from dining room
Pierre's daughters	Shela beach	view from our room when the tide was in
Dhow under sail (morning)	Captain Isaac	dhow under sail (sunset)
sunset

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota.