Mafia Island

March 14, 2026

Mafia - an unfortunate name for a cool little island! We were originally going to spend our last few days of vacation in Zanzibar, but we heard that Mafia, just 100 miles south of Zanzibar, is much less touristy, has an eco camp (Kitu Kiblu) that specializes in educating people about whale sharks, and has lovely snorkelling.

It has also been a good place to get over our PTSD from the kidnapping/ robbery/assault in Dar on Monday. Mafia is quiet and the locals are friendly.

We are staying in a large tent with a deck from which we can enjoy the views of the Tanzanians walking to and from Kilondoni town on the long sandy beach on which we perch, and the fishermen in their rustic wooden boats, pulling squid and fish from the Indian Ocean. We’ve also been able to process our feelings about the crime, and do some local explorations.

Yesterday, Hamisi, who grew up on tiny Chole Island, took us on a boat and walking tour out to Chole and Juani Islands, just off Mafia. First, we went to the crystal clear “blue lagoon” where Jane got to snorkel and we saw a group of rowdy blue monkeys. Then we walked across Chole, populated with very small, rustic Tanzanian houses where coconuts and seaweed were being collected/dried to ship off island. It was just over a year ago that the island first got electricity.

Jane snorkelling in Blue Lagoon, Juani Island

Hamisi took us to his Chole homestead, a compound of mud/stick shacks that his family shares with 3 sisters, a brother, his mother, Hamisi’s 6 children, and his siblings’ kids. He cut open a fresh coconut for each of us to enjoy, and I got to chat briefly in simple Swahili with his sisters. We also got invited into his son’s elementary classroom where the children sang us a song they were learning. Walking back to the boat we saw fruit bats (aka flying foxes - huge), monkeys and some cool birds.

Hamisi and part of his large family

The day wrapped up with some nice snorkelling in the Mafia Bay Marine Park and a local fish meal on the beach in Utende.

This morning, we got up early with Kitu Kiblu and their shark spotter, Hati, and got into an old wooden boat with two other Wazungu (a young couple from Switzerland) to go way offshore, hoping to find whale sharks to swim with.

Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the world, often as long as 40’, and are found in a few tropical locations, including off Mafia Island. They are beautiful gentle giants that feed on small fish and krill. Their numbers are declining worldwide, and Kitu Kiblu is one of the organizations helping to educate and promote responsible shark encounters. We were taught about reading the shark’s behavior, and safe distances for approaching and swimming near them.

We got lucky! It was a wild experience! Hati spotted a large shark shadow , pounded frantically on the top of the boat where he was stationed, slipped into a snorkel and mask, and hurled his young, lean Tanzanian body into the ocean, swimming like Michael Phelps after the shark shadow he had seen. We had been instructed to follow his cue, so the 4 of us followed him overboard, masks down, where we saw the shark gracefully gliding through the water about 15’ below us. Whale sharks can be pretty fast, so it was a bit of an endurance swim to keep up with it, especially in the choppy open ocean! We swam as hard as we could, keeping our eyes on the shark below, until it dove too deep to see. Then, we climbed back into the boat hoping for another sighting. We ultimately saw/swam with 3 sharks! We didn’t have a Gopro to film it, but I will share a photo (not ours) so you can get a sense of these majestic creatures!