Watamu, Kenya: Where I left a piece of my heart.
Watamu Kenya is located on the eastern side of Africa bordering the Indian Ocean. It’s where I left a piece of my heart and as I returned from my trip there I was unsure of my next adventure…if ever!
2024 Author’s Addition Note:
This article is a lifestyle piece and intended to reflect the feelings and emotions from us during the early stages of the global pandemic. It won’t be updated to accurately reflect the words that were shared when they were shared.
I have been fortunate enough to travel far and wide across this world. I have gotten the privileged opportunity to see and experience so much and while writing this during the COVID-19 stay at home order I have a wildly amplified sense of “wanderlust.”
I want to get back out there. On the road, on foot, on a long international flight, it doesn’t matter. Any of it would work. For me travel is one of the most special parts of my life. It’s not about taking a vacation or getting away. Travel is something that brings me to life. It LIGHTS ME UP.
And of all the places that I have been, seen, and experienced I can express to you with confidence that I left a piece of my heart in Watamu, Kenya.
Not just a sliver of my heart either. A big ass piece.
My heart is currently yearning for Watamu and my connection to the people there brings water to my eyes. I yearn to return and I am confident that I will someday. But for now my heart aches and misses Watamu unlike any other place I have visited.
I share all of this in hopes of you being able to answer a question of mine:
“Where have you left a piece of your heart?”
Where is that place that you have traveled to that hit you like a ton of bricks and you felt weak in the legs and were unable to control your emotions of excitement and bubble gum popping energy?
Where is that place that shook you to the core like that high school crush you were obsessed with walked by you in the hallway during class exchange?
Where is that place that you simply tremble at the thought of COVID-19 not allowing you to ever return to?
I want you to go that place. Not in the physical sense. But I want your mind to go there. And your heart. And your soul. Feel what you felt when you have been there, whatever it is about that special place that created those emotions inside of you. Ask yourself if you would be okay if you were never able to return there again.
What would that feel like if you could never go back?
Now come to Watamu with me. Kenya’s eastern seaboard is famous for its iconic beaches and the picturesque Indian Ocean. Watamu is a smaller and more laid-back slice of these beaches. Though it certainly is not without its amenities.
I spent a week at the Watamu Treenhouse just off of Watamu Beach. It was the best food I have ever eaten prepared by a “lodge” or “hotel” or quite frankly any place that I stayed that wasn’t specializing in being a restaurant.
Days started with pour over Kenyan coffee (some of the best coffee in the world) and would offer up walks on the beach, kayaking in the mangroves, yoga on the top floor of one of the tree houses, wood fired pizza made by Kenyans with a touch of the Italian influence at one of the restaurants in town, and a sunset that just would make you lose control of your bowels.
I get there are a lot of places like Watamu. But it gripped me in a different way.
And that’s something I learned during the beginning of the pandemic. Let things grip you. Let them take you over. Feel into them unlike anything you have ever allowed yourself. Be willing to crumble to your knees in awe, love, anxiety, despair, and any other emotion that is invited in to your heart.
That’s why I travel. To feel this. To connect with all the people in different nooks and crannies of this world. We might seem different from each other but that’s bullshit. We are one species. While we are unique individuals there’s nothing different about us from country to country or region to region.
That’s what traveling can teach you. I already knew this before I arrived in Watamu but I can’t believe the connections I created with the people there. The staff at the Yoga Treehouse, our tuk-tuk drivers, the Dhow Sailing team, the European “snowbirds”, and more.
Watamu is gorgeous, quaint, and has the East African Vibes I was seeking. But to me this piece isn’t to point you to Watamu.
Maybe you will learn a thing or two about Watamu like “Wow I didn’t know Kenya had such cool beaches or yoga tree houses or big snakes” but it’s more about giving you the space to find where you have traveled that took some of your heart.
Where is that place for you?
Are you willing to sit in the wild emotions of not being able to currently go there and see how you feel about that?
Go there.
Now.
While you still can.
I’ll be in Watamu if you need me. Comment with questions about visiting Watamu or places where you felt similar as I have there.
Because Adventure Feeds the Soul,
Mike R