Sri Lanka and India

This morning we took a brief tour of a spice market in Kochi and then moved on to our home/farm stay in the Kaithappuzha Backwaters.

We said goodbye to Sri Lanka this morning and flew across the Gulf of Mannar to Kochi, India. Our driver took us from the airport to our hotel by way of a short ferry ride, which was quite the experience as you will see shortly.

We backtracked a bit today to see some of the sights along the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, including the famous stilt fishermen and the historic fort at Galle.

Today we drove most of the way back to the airport in preparation for the next part of our trip. We’ll do one last bit of exploration in Sri Lanka tomorrow and then move on to India.

This morning we were up and on our way at first light so we could enjoy the animals in nearby Yala National Park.

We enjoyed a jungle nature walk this morning, and then drove over some very windy mountain roads to exit the Sinharaja Nature Preserve, and on to the edge of the Yala Nature Preserve. We’re told there will be many wild animals in tomorrow’s tour of Yala.

We are staying this evening in the Boulder Garden Resort, a two-hour drive from Negombo and the fish market.

We’re beginning a two-week exploration of Sri Lanka and India today. We arrived yesterday after a day and a half of flying from Seattle to Colombo. This morning we started with a tour of the Negombo Fish Market, which was rich with sights and smells.