"Light, beauty, wealth, destiny. Each one of this elements, in its own way, represents me and encloses the essence of the strong bond with this place i feel i belong to"
These are the words of Lara Abagni, Thirty-two old girl from Milan who has just opened and runs a health club, a spa in Watamu.
The items are those that in the East and also in Buddhism belong to the goddess Lakshmi, and with this evocative name Lara wanted to call the SPA.
"I was 23 when I began to love my work and honing my manual skills and knowledge - tells Lara - in 2011 arrived in Kenya for the first time and it was love at first sight ... not really. Through Mombasa, I wondered if what I was looking really existed: chaos, noise, media of all kinds, types and fantasy. Goats and chickens at every street corner ... a different world, so far away from what I was used to.
Along the way, once after I left Mombasa behind, I began to see vistas and horizons constantly changing, Baobab expanses, agave fields, small women working in the fields, children playing running after a wheel. It was totally surreal, but inside I was starting to enjoy a feeling of wellbeing. My breathing started to change, I was filled with a sense of quiet, something hitherto quite unknown, because of the pace of work and the big-city lifestyle. "
Before those African days, Lara worked in a beautiful spa in Milan, in the city center, a short walk from the "Madonnina".
"I loved my job and I was filled with a healthy passion, even though it was hard to make ends meet without thinking, I dare say a company from the Titans - recalls the owner of Lakshmi - when I had an opportunity to leave for Kenya, I gave the classic 15-day notice and I resigned. I quit my job, recently became a "permanent" and after 18 days, landed in Watamu. "
Lara today to Watamu is home, and finally to carry out the profession he does and that the more satisfying.
"Ah, Watamu - sighs - I'll never forget the first time I stopped to observe the Indian Ocean, the changes of the tides, the bright colors and the sound of waves, the first full moon that illuminated per day, the channels in the mangroves , the long white beaches. I immediately fell in love with that place, which until recently did not know existed. "
Lara was slowly lowered into the new small company and started to discover it.
"After several experiences in Kenya in recent years, I decided that this was where I wanted to live, this is the place I feel and I call" home "- admits the girl - and even today, after 5 years, I still find new angles to admire. I love the nature of this place, the strength and courage who can send me, I love the fact that here there is still people who struggle to preserve the environment. I love getting lost in the sights of Savannah, to look run along its expanses, the vibrant energy in observing an elephant.
Lara divides his passion for his work, which is visible in the beauty of the little "Garden of Eden" that created, on Jacaranda Road at the Golf Club Watamu, with that for the savannah.
"The savannah is like a cure, a medicine, a kind of detoxification by mankind - he explains - a place to recharge and come to terms with themselves."
When you are not going to relax in Tsavo, Lara decided to relax the others, and does so by exploiting its experience and expertise.
"I decided to combine the passion for this job and love for this land trying to create a place that encompasses its positive energy has to be able to transmit it. Thus it was born Lakshmi Spa, the passion for this job and love for this land. The choice of the name comes from the Goddess Lakshmi, which not coincidentally is represented on a lotus flower between two Elephants ".
The authenticity, wisdom and enthusiasm of a 32 year old girl alone are worth an experience in her paradise, including beauty treatments, ayurvedic massages, relaxing or lymphatic drainage and diving paradise in the tank of the "Oriental Garden". The rest is his professionalism, one that allows her to live in a place that belongs to her.