Monkeys and Crocodiles and Leopards, oh My!

Hello from Sri Lanka!

We have spent the past week taking it easy and seeing the sights of beautiful Sri Lanka. We love it here. It seems impossible that we could have been here for a week already. Sri Lanka is a relaxed place, full of smiling people, curry, cows in the road, markets on the sides of the streets and barefoot people riding around in tuk tuks.  The people here are some of the happiest people I’ve ever met. There is a warmness here that seems to pervade every aspect of life- from the people to the curry, to the weather. The first few days we were here, we regrouped after China and explored Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. This place feels a lot like the Caribbean, with green foliage everywhere- flowers bursting with color and blue sky. We saw an amazing temple, perused some gems (Sri Lanka has tons of gemstones), played at the hotel and even stuck our feet in the Indian Ocean!

Yet, for all its magic, Sri Lanka has its challenges, too. This is what most people would consider a poor place, as the average income per year is just $4,000. It is still developing and parts of it are very dirty (luckily not the bathrooms, which put China to shame). We went to a market the first day exploring Colombo that had an open sewer with raw sewage running through the middle of it. The water is still dirty, and we are brushing our teeth with bottled water. But you know, with all that said, I don’t mind any of it too much. Perhaps it’s because we’ve been traveling for so long now, and we’ve seen a lot- or perhaps that there are other really amazing things here to focus on which make lasting impressions. Here are some of them:

Two days ago we stayed in a place called the Mud House. It’s made up of mud huts with thatched roofs with no doors or windows- only beds with mosquito netting surrounding them. I was a bit unnerved at the thought of sleeping in  the middle of the jungle, but it was so cool. When we got ready for bed, we had kerosene lamps hanging all over to light our hut. We even found a frog in the outdoor bathroom when we went to brush our teeth! A stray cat decided to move in with us as well. Luna sat in the dirt and played archeologist  (thank you, Terra Cotta Warriors) while we played cards.  When we went to bed, I prayed that the bug nets would work. And they did! At 5am the next morning, we were awakened by the loudest and most diverse symphony of sounds (animal and insect) that I’ve ever heard. It was incredible, and deafening. We all just laid there in bed smiling and listening, in slight disbelief at how loud it was. At breakfast that day, we saw wild peacocks, mongoose, land monitors (4 foot lizards), egrets and water buffalo just wandering around. I was grateful that I didn’t know how many animals were around when I was going to bed the night before…

After breakfast, we left and went to Wilpattu National Park for our first safari ever! Wilpattu is famous for its leopards, but we were warned that sightings are very rare. We spent four hours driving around bumpy dirt and sand roads through brush hoping to spot some leopards. The park was chock full of animals- it felt like driving through a zoo, and we had to remind ourselves that we were indeed in the wild. We saw eagles, a crocodile, egrets, kingfishers, peacocks, land monitors (large iguanas), turtles, toucans, monkeys, herds of wild boar and spotted deer, and just when we were getting ready to depart, we spotted a leopard waking up from his nap! We were able to watch him wake up, stretch and walk through the brush to get water. Wahooo! There is more wildlife here than I’ve ever seen anywhere else. We have seen at least 100 varieties of birds, too.

In sharp contrast to China, there are very few highways or big roads in Sri Lanka. The average speed is about 30-45 miles per hour, so it can take 3 hours to go just 100 miles. We have been mostly on two lane roads where we are dodging street dogs and people walking and monks on scooters. We have been in the car for about 2-3 hours a day when traveling around Sri Lanka just because it takes so long to travel from one place to another. Luna has loved her Nano- and being able to listen to music and stories from home has really grounded her.

There are three major religions here- Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. Luna hasn’t really been around many women in the burka before, but she’s seen plenty of Muslim women robed here. Normally, this wouldn’t seem so out of place, but 90% of people in Sri Lanka are dressed in the most colorful clothes I’ve ever seen, so it’s strange to see a person dressed in all black. At first when Luna saw women in the burka, she seemed alarmed at the sight of a woman dressed in black, with only her eyes peering out of a small slit. A few days later, Luna came to me dressed up all in towels in a dress up burka that she had created herself. “Look Mama! Like my burka?” she exclaimed. It’s amazing to me how her references in life are shifting as we travel.