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Happy New Year Everyone!!!…I hope 2011 is a sweet, peace filled year for us all!!

After a lovely long day of visiting the southern west coast of the island I spent my last few hours of 2010 in Colombo, in an unattractive hotel room (that looked lovely in the pictures… on the net…grin), with a bottle of some god awful “champagne” but with a couple of great friends and it was a perfect ending to the year. In truth I could hardly keep my eyes open and never did make it to midnight…. that too was perfect. I was still trying to catch up on a 40-hour marathon to get here.

While on the ride south we saw many of the places that were hit with the tsunami. Most are up again. However, it was amazing to see how close everything is to the sea…there is very little space between the water the road and since all the commerce occurs by the road the human toll was devastating.  I kept looking at the water imagining a 20-foot wall of water coming at me and wondering…what would I do…not pleasant thoughts but being here it was hard not to go there.

The turtles in my pictures are in a hatchery that is trying to bring back the population of these magnificent mammals.   The tsunami destroyed many of the hatcheries and they are slowly being rebuilt.

Yesterday we went into the mountains and visited the Temple of the Tooth. The story goes that when Buddha was being cremated his tooth was whisked by a princess and was brought here. Truth, myth who knows? The place was filled with people asking for or giving blessings. I figured it was good practice for Barb and I to be with such a sea of humanity before India.  We fared well.

Another highlight yesterday was the elephant orphanage…elephants that were hurt  or orphaned for whatever reason are brought here to work and heal…no words can describe the magnificence and the sense of owe and wonder that I felt watching them.

Inland the country is lush, green and teeming with life…we stopped on the road to buy some freshly toasted cashews…yummy.

So far…the food is absolutely delicious and when they ask spicy? Barb and I laughand say…bring it on.

Of course there is so much more to say, at the moment however, I am taking the time to absorb the sense of the land and people and enjoy.