Leah's favorite part of Sri Lanka...

was going to a sea turtle hatchery where we were able to release 7 baby sea turtles to their home in the sea. Also here is a picture from the tea plantation (factory portion) and the moonstone mine.

More Sri Lanka Pictures

We also watched this man climb the coconut trees at our hotel to "clean" them up by trimming them. He climbed with no equipment except a loop of rope he held around his ankles to provide some support against the trunk of the tree. He was amazingly adept at going up and down the trees!

Sri Lanka Trip

Hi everyone, We hope all is well. This past weekend was Chinese New Year so there was no work or school on Thursday and Friday. Gong Xi Fa Cai. Enjoy the year of the Rat. As you know, Jane is in Switzerland. Evan left on Thursday for a school trip to Spain. Thus, Leah, Lauren and I decided to spend the long weekend in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is a teardrop shaped island just off of India. Most of the people are Sinhalese (sp?) and are Buddhists. However, about 11% of the population are Tamil and they are Hindu. There has been unrest in Sri Lanka for years as the Tamil want their independence and take terrorist action. We were somewhat hesitant to go, but the troubles are almost exclusively in the North and East and we went to the South coast. The language was not a big issue. A fair amount of english is spoken, but also Sinhalese and Tamil (see the picture of the Women's Prayer Room for all three languages)

It was a great trip. Sri Lanka is third world, so you see all the elements we have seen in other places: poor living conditions, lots of stray dogs, cows wandering around the streets and crazy driving by cars, motorcycles, tuk-tuks and bicycles, all while lots of pedestrians are around and no sidewalks! Tuk-tuks are 3 wheeled mini taxis, by the way.

However, you also see much beauty. We were on the southern coast in an area called Galle. We visited the Galle Fort, an old Danish fortress. Our hotel was lovely and was recently on the cover of Conde Nast Traveler. The people are very nice. They loved to talk with us and were willing to share their experiences of the Tsunami. The Tsunami hit Sri Lanka hard and 35,000 were killed.

Other highlights of our trip included seeing the stilt fishermen, a tour of a tea plantation, the only blue moonstone mine in the world and another surprise that Leah will write about.

It was a quick trip, but well worth it. Enjoy the photos.

Happy Valentine's Day

Jed and Lauren