Hello, Montezuma

Ahhh, Africa. Land of lions and cheetahs, hot summer days and nights with cool breezes -- and above all, gastrointestinal distress. Yes, Montezuma is having his revenge on us. He made a brief but rather overpowering appearance last night, although this morning I appear to be better. Mo is apparently a tougher warrior, because she's managed to fend off the worst effects. I, on the other hand, gave in completely. Suffice to say it wasn't pleasant, although I'm feeling quite a bit better this morning. I hope it's all over.

I can't quite remember the last time I wrote, although lots has happened in the past few days. We spent a day on a dhow, sailing around the waters near Lamu using nothing but the wind. I've never been sailing before and it was amazing. We spent some time walking around some 16th century Swahili ruins, marvelling at the rigidity of their architecture so many years ago. Their buildings were built of coral glued together with home-made lime, and many are still standing today. They were also smart: the streets, if you can call them as much, between the houses were no wider than a man's shoulders. The reason: packing houses tightly together allows them to shade each other from the blazing sun, keeping interior temperatures lower. Genius, although Takwa was not the kind of place you could ever have driven a Hummer around.

After the Takwa ruins, we spent some time on Shella Beach, a truly unbelievable beach 12 kilometres long -- gorgeous white sand that extended farther than the eye could see. And it was almost completely unused. The water was so warm you could bathe in it, and clear too. A few wealthy people have discovered this place -- the prince of Monaco has a huge house here -- but if I had the cash I'd buy property here. There is no way a place this nice, especially in a fairly stable country, will go undeveloped for long.

We flew in to Nairobi yesterday, leaving an absolute deluge in Lamu. The rainy season has definitely arrived, and I'm glad we brought our rain coats. We spent the night in the Holiday Inn in Nairobi -- a super-swank hotel that we got for free thanks to all the points I accumulated on Global's tab. We visited a nearby mall last night -- took a cab there, because we were strongly warned that walking after 6 p.m. is a recipe for unpleasantness -- and ate at the food court. Not exactly a deep cultural experience, but I wasn 't much in the mood for eating anyways. And they have table service at food courts here. How cool is that.

Today we're hoping to leave on a safari, although the guy that was supposed to meet us at our hotel this morning never showed. So we may have to go for plan b and spend the day in Nairobi before taking off.