I used to make coconut milk yogurt. Did your pen-pal do anything to get it to solidfy? I used to add gelatin, but it was never a great solution. Probably pectin would work better.

I think you have to be careful with canned coconut milk, I know lots of it has preservatives which, I'm thinking, might kill the good bacteria off. The "light" coconut milk I get at Trader Joe's doesn't have the preservative.