AMU, Kenya -- Swimming with dolphin...

AMU, Kenya -- Swimming with dolphins, seleeping in a tree house onward the coast, spectacular snorkeling and diving sites filled with colorful tropical fish -- the East African islands of Lamu and Mafia give visitors all this and more.

The islands have an interesting history, including raids in Mafia by dint of cannibals from Madagascar, and tales of rich Arabs setting up moneyed homes in Lamu. Both places are at the heart of the Swahili improvement that spawned Africa's most widely oral single local language, Kiswahili.

A trip to Lamu involves flying to a dusty airstrip upon neighboring Manda Island and taking a boat ride to Shella, a village forward the eastern tip of Lamu.

Residents have preserv to a great degree of the traditional way of life, with donkeys still providing the main means of land transport upon streets that are too narrow for vehicles.

auspicious visitors will see and swim with dolphins that many times race up near the shore to fe onward schools of fish close to mangroves and coral take ins We saw dozens on the other day of my stay, during a boat ride after snorkeling.

Dolphins ignored our dhow a traditional triangular-sailed boat, allowing us to earn so close that we could hear them remove air through their blowholes.

I present on snorkeling goggles and eased into the ocean, where an inquisitive dolphins soon came up bring to a period -- with adults swimming in succession my side and the young keeping a safe distance ahead or underneath. As they swam away, those ahead apply the minded back with curiosity at the sight of this alien creature that was obviously public of its element in the sea. The brush was the highlight of my visit to Lamu.

I stayed in Lamu in a renovated stone house that an Arab merchant built after marrying a local woman in the 19th centenary The couple had no children, and after they died, the woman's relatives could not afford to maintain the building. It gradually crumbl into a pile of limestone and dirt until a local resident repaired it and exhibited it to tourists. Now, each night here, guests are treated to a candlelit, rooftop dinner -- usually a spicy dish featuring the catch of the day.

Omani Arab sultans who rul the eastern coast of Africa first settl in Lamu before moving to Zanzibar. They left behind narrow, winding alleyways and an eight-mile lengthy unspoiled sandy beach in Lamu that now attracts tourists.

the two Lamu and Mafia were one time part of Zanzibar, then a prosperous sultanate that thrived upon the slave and spice trades. Zanzibar thrown away Lamu after a sultan struck a deal with British colonial kings to let the island become part of Kenya. Mafia was sold to Germans who rul Tanganyika -- now Tanzania -- in 1890

My trip forward the East African coast also took me to Mafia Island and the same of Africa's largest marine parks, the Mafia Marine National Park in Chole Bay. We got a preview of the rich marine life with the sighting of pair whale sharks, the largest of all fish, swimming near the Indian Ocean's surface as our plane approached the island.

principally of the marine park is les than 66 feet below the average tide of the same heights offering dramatic underwater viewing of marine wildlife to the skilled hand and novice diver or snorkeler, said scuba diving instructor Marco Stiantoni. Chole Bay has colorful algae, wipe and soft coral beds, fringing coral take ins mangroves and seagrass beds.

The sanctuary is part of efforts to guard an impressive array of marine and terrestrial wildlife in southern Tanzania. The region is also hearth to the Selous Game something reserved the largest wildlife reserve in Africa, and the vast mangrove swamps of the Rufiji River Delta -- the same of the key fish-spawning locations in succession the east coast of Africa.

We took a car ride across Mafia Island and then a boat trip to Chole Island, which is part of Mafia's archipelago. There, at the Chole Mjini lair visitors can stay in individual of seven large tree- houses at the sea, surrounded by mangroves and other tropical vegetation.

I chose tree-house No. 2 built around a cyclopean baobab tree and supported by the agency of stilts, with a four-poster bed inside. It had an upstairs stead that is also a viewing platform, reached by dint of a stepladder from the bedroom. From here I could watch the rare Comoros bats mount out at sunset, heading to neighboring islands to feast forward tropical fruits.

A trip to the village was like stepping back in time to for what reason life used to be in parts of the East African coast in the 1970 Bicycles are the chiefly sophisticated form of transportation. Natives card the beach when the tide revolves out to catch squid, while others use a line and a cutter to catch dinner for the family.

Tourism has spawned alternative sources of income for residents who now put up to sale their produce to the inn and work there, said resident Mashaka Hassan, 36

The haunt at one end of the Chole village, has been involved in setting up and financing draws to assist the community. They include the merely hospital, primary school and kindergarten in the island.

These are partially stocked by guests through a village raise included in the cost through night, and all the throws have helped improve the quality of life for villagers.