We were met at the Matemwe Retreat reception area by the manager David who brought us a welcome drink of coconut milk fresh from the source. We were able to check in, but our room was not quite ready yet as we had arrived a couple of hours too early. David temporarily put us in another bungalow so we could rest while we waited. The staff soon had things in order for us, though, and David escorted us to our own private villa. Predictably, it was one of the farthest from the reception area (go figure) so our walk gave us a chance to see much of the grounds.
The infinity pool (above the main pool)...
The main lounge area...
The gardens...
And lots of beautiful flowers...
Our villa was amazing, with a beautiful bed, enormous bathroom, outdoor sitting and dining area, and (upstairs) our own relaxation area and plunge pool.
The views were equally as spectacular. When the tide was in, a parade of dhows sailed past heading either out through the reef or in to unload the catch. When the tide was out, locals wandered through the shallows looking for choice bits such as sea urchins, whelks, etc.
The receding tide often left the fishing boats high and dry, which made for some great pictures. The owners of these boats are pretty brave to trust their craft beyond the outer reef.
One of the best things about Matemwe Retreat was that we had our own butler, Salim(unfortunately our only picture of him is a bit blurry). He saw personally to our needs and comfort during our stay, and provided great comic relief, as well. I'm not sure I've ever met someone quite so cheerful before!
The other thing that made the stay spectacular was the food. We had the option of eating in the main dining room or eating in our villa. We chose to do the latter starting with dinner the first evening, which meant that each day the chef would arrive midday and talk to us about the menu and our preferences. We would tell Salim what time we wanted to eat and he would arrive accordingly with table settings and the first course.
The meals were leisurely and featured the local seafood. Our last dinner was particularly spectacular - a feast of local lobster, fish, shrimp, and other delicacies, as well as champagne. There may have been a mixup - we think they might have thought it was our anniversary (which was about 5 days earlier). In any case it was a great meal.
We had a bit of a scare with bug bites while we were at Matemwe. Our last day at Sayari both Catherine and I started developing large bite marks, mostly on our legs and arms. By the time we had settled in at Matemwe I had started having a bad allergic reaction to them and the welts were getting quite large and angry. I've avoided putting any pictures of them in the blog because they were pretty nasty (plus nobody really wants to see my legs!). In the interest of caution we asked the manager to arrange for me to see a doctor who arrived in just a couple of hours (a housecall!). He was a Belgian expat who specialized in tropical medicine and told us that it was generally much easier for him to travel to his patients than for them to travel to him. He couldn't be certain what the bites were - they didn't really look like Tsetse Fly, but they could be spider bites. In any case he gave me a couple of shots (one for my stomach problems, which were still hanging around, and an antihistamine for the bites). Catherine did not seem to be having nearly as bad a reaction as I, so she decided to play it by ear. She eventually wound up dropping in at the hospital in Barcelona to see a dermatologist and get a prescription for an antihistimine, but her bites never really got any worse than mine, which started clearing up soon after the shots. Even now, though, almost three months later, we still have marks where the bites were even thought the swelling and lumps have receded. Just a little reminder that Africa is a little wilder than home.
Despite the insect bites, Catherine wanted to go down to the beach and walk in the water a little. The rocks along the shore are heavily eroded and pitted, being soft coral stone. The sand was very white and fine, and seemed to form little pellets. We never did figure out why this was the case.
Matemwe Retreat was mostly about relaxing, so there really isn't much more to document. A lot of time was spent kicking back on the couch and hammock, staring at the sea, reading, and napping the warm days away. We found out on the last full day that our plane would be leaving three hours earlier than expected (the airline changed the schedule at the last minute), so we needed to be ready to leave by 9 am rather than noon. This was a little disappointing (we were looking forward to sleeping in) but entirely out of our control. Steve Chumbly and the hotel staff made sure that we were kept informed and that our arrangements for transfer to the airport were updated accordingly. Tomorrow would be a big day - we would start in Zanzibar in the morning and, with a little luck, arrive in Barcelona about a day later, ending our adventure in Africa. All down hill from here, right?
Right?
No comments:
Post a Comment