After an exhausting safari and a day walking the streets of Stone Town, we were completely ready to relax in our final destination: Kendwa. We chose Kendwa because it has the best swimming beach in the island, even if not as cheap as Nungwi or as scenic as Paje.

We spent the days sleeping, eating yummy seafood and curry on the beach, laying in the sun and swimming. And even though the weather was not as good as we expected, we still tanned and recharged batteries. For some reason, this beach is very popular among Italian tourist, and all the resorts in the front line were crowded with them. This attracts local men and women, who constantly try to sell you tours and souvenirs. Only when we ventured into the village for lunch, or in the late afternoons when local kids would play soccer on the beach, we truly felt like we were in Africa. Nevertheless, the setting is gorgeous, with thin white sand that feels like flour, and turquoise water.

One day we went diving to Mnemba Atoll. We saw lots of colorful fish, nice coral formations, nudibranches, puffers, eels, a giant purple jellyfish, lionfish and a camouflaged scorpionfish. It wasn’t world class (nothing to do with Indonesia), but it was a good way to not get rusty.

Time flew and we had to pack to head back to LA. Barely 1 hr taxi back to Stone Town, 3 hr ferry to Dar, 1 hr walk, 1 hr taxi to the airport, couple hours wait, 6 hrs flight to Dubai, 10 hrs layover, 16 hrs flight to LA and some driving, and we were home.