Kusafiri kwa Kisumu

October 13, 2018

Kusafiri kwa Kisumu

A couple of weeks ago, we found the courage to face a 2-hour horrendous matatu drive to spend the weekend in Kisumu.

Kisumu is the biggest, closest city we have from Shianda, and it is also the second biggest city of Kenya. The particularity of Kisumu is that it is located on the shore of Lake Victoria, namely "Africa's source of life" and source of the Nile river.

To be honest, the lake is more iconic than beautiful, and Kisumu might not be the most exciting city of Kenya; but to us after a couple of weeks living the village life, it felt like Vegas !

We started our weekend by checking in our little hotel, which was a pleasant surprise : a large comfy bed, and running water, hot shower and flush toilets ! The dream.

Our first stop was the Impala Sanctuary, a natural park on the shore of Lake Victoria. The Sanctuary is actually between a zoo and a park; some animals are caged and some animals are wandering around. I loved seeing zebras just grazing on the shore and impalas running in little herds to avoid visitors strolling lazily, enjoying the shade of huge mango trees or watching the boats on Lake Victoria. The zoo is not that big, a dozen cages, so it's really about enjoying the park in itself as well. The animals you can see are lions, cheetah, wild boars (that's where I discovered that my dear colleague Linda has a crush on Pumba and its kind, Linda you weirdo💙), leopards, monkeys, zebras, impalas, and a giraffe.

After touring around the park (and taking a dozen pictures of each and every animal), we discovered at the end of the park the Impala Ecolodge, where we had a drink (fresh pressed fruit juice, yummy) and lazed around the pool. The ecolodge is super quiet (you have to pay the park entrance fee to actually access the lodge so not so many people), very green and lush with comfortable bungalows, and it has a BEAUTIFUL view on the lake, with an amazing pier overlooking the water. Seriously, this place was a peaceful haven !

Once we had enough of all this peace and quiet (or because we had to get a boda boda back to the hotel before dark), we went back to the city for our first Kenyan night out. Kisumu is a dynamic city with universities and industries, therefore the nightlife is a bit more funky than in Shianda.

We started off in a weird indian restaurant where we had pizza and white wine (Dream n°2), and then headed to the Roan Rooftop, which was actually beyond our wildest African dreams... A young crowd, music, dancing, cocktails, cool atmosphere. You should have seen our faces of pure happiness when we got our margaritas ! And then our faces when we realised that all the ladies around were wearing fancy party outfits and we were wearing our good ol' Village Clothes (picture two girls looking like Amish going to Sunday church, really). Anyhow, despite our not-so-fun look, we had a great time !Next morning with a "mild" hangover, we were treated to a continental breakfast, and then headed out to visit the lake shore.

We had read on the Lonely Planet that the shore was very nice with local fish restaurants, so that was our goal; turned out the area is disappointing, not so pretty and no access to the lake really, and the restaurant owners are all screaming at you to go in their restaurant, which is very unpleasant. We kept walking a little to get a better view of the lake, but it was not that great, so we went back to the hotel.

And finally, our last stop before going home was at Dream n°3 : Tuskys, the supermarket (yes, actual supermarket). We also have a Tuskys in Kakamega, which is closer (30mins in matatu), but this one was really big and had so many products ! We were able to buy tea, pasta, oil and soy sauce, coconut milk, burger buns, aaaaand cheese ! Quite tasteless, quite expensive, yet so enjoyable !

We then had to get back into a matatu for a 3-hour hellish return, but we had a great time nevertheless !

Voila, our great city weekend !