Scuba Diving and Thanksgiving and Kenya...Oh My!

For my birthday present to myself, I gave myself the gift of scuba diving. Kenya is known for having some amazing dive sites because the whole coast is a reef. So I found the dive company called Pilli Pipa. They picked me up from Diani Beach and drove me an hour south towards Tanzania. There we reached the a village where the boats are. They take you out on a Dow ship which is an old style sailing boat. There is an island 45 mins out that is in a marine park where they drop you off to do the diving and snorkeling. I did two amazing dives around the reef of this island. The water had great visibility and the colors of the reef and fish were beautiful. I saw huge lobsters, octopus, squid, sting rays, hundreds of different fish, huge starfish, Nemo, sea turtles and the best of all a dolphin!  It swam right by us and it was so cool to see it underwater. Then after the two dives, we headed back to the main land. Across from the main land is a large island where they have a resturant. There, they feed you this elaborate meal that was delicious. Then boated you back across to the main land and then drove us back to Diani. So it was an all day trip and I got to meet some great people and make friends with the manager of the company who invited me back for more diving. It was so much fun and was a really good deal for the price. Even cheaper than the states.

This last weekend I went to Voi to visit DaMon's site. He lives in the Taita Hills.  Picture Costa Rica type landscape with lush, green hills and jungle forest with waterfalls. It was cool, rainy, and beautiful. We made a Kenyan-style Thanksgiving and it was good just to spend time with people I haven't seen since mid September.  Next is Christmas celebrations and New Years partying. We are renting out our own personal island off the coast of Malindi for Christmas and then for New Years there is going to be a 24 hour beach party that we will be attending. It's going to be great to see everyone who will be coming out and it should be a very fun first holiday season in Kenya!