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In 45 min we have to check out of this lovely villa and take the train to Bentota. The train should be 1:30 which seems so short now. My hair is getting very dry (salt, or local water or too frequent washing) so I bought some coconut oil last night and am applying it. It comes in a glass jar and I'm not sure how well it'll travel. Anyway here is an update on some of our activities while we were here:
Turtle hatchery
After a good day relaxing by the pool we decided to visit the turtle hatchery which is two doors down. It cost £5 to get in and we had a guided tour by a marine biologist. He was very passionate and very honest. He was just working here to build up the cv as they are not enough opportunities for marine biologists and any that there are seem to be taken through nepotism. This guy was very knowledgable and he had a strange lilt in his accent like he had learnt English from an Australian.
Anyway, we saw where the eggs were laid. Some had hatched 5 days ago and they were in a tank settling before they needed to swim off 2 days later. Turtles tend to go back to where they were born to lay eggs. Only 1 in 1000 will survive the journey into the ocean and survive a year and I could see why. While we were talking the turtles would get tired and rest on the top of the water - it would be easy prey for any bird or fish. Of course they are also vulnerable to fishing nets and plastic bags from humans as well. There were some disabled turtles as well who had fins cut off by fishermen when they were caught in nets. And one who had a genetic condition where he had buoyancy problems. The man walking us around told us about all the solutions needed for the turtles but this place didn't have the money for it. Then there were some heathy turtles. The man said the hatchery look after these turtles and send them back into the ocean but only if there is another turtle to replace them so there is something to attract the tourists. One particular turtle was very big in a small tank and the man said that is not good for him and he should be gone.
Someone offered for me to hold a baby turtle and I thought about my sweaty hands. I'd have loved to but I said no. I didn't want to give that last 1 in 1000 an infection.
Getting sick
Unfortunately, Charlie and I have been quite poorly for a day or two. I track my tummy bugs back to the ice in the mojito. Luckily we are at the relaxing part of the holiday so we didn't need to go far. One night I didn't feel like dinner at all but Charlie was still well and went out for food. He bought a shredded roti from a street seller. The next day he was also terribly sick. We spend one day where we were both feeling poorly and then I started to feel better. Unfortunately Charlie was still sick and the Imodium was running out fast so we went to a local pharmacist and Charlie said 'Imodium' to the pharmacist. After a confusing few minutes the pharmacist loudly said 'do you want to stop the flow?' and Charlie's face had a look of horror and relief as he said 'yes'. The pharmacist and I both laughed a little at Charlie's expression. Then he said how many do you want? He sold them individually and they were 32 rupee each (16p). Charlie said 'I'll take the whole packet' which made me laugh more because it sounded like he'd need 12! The next day Charlie was feeling a lot better and we still had 11 imodiums left!
Galle
On one of our days we headed over to a town called Galle and looked at a Dutch fort. The fort overlooked a cricket ground and you'd be able to see the game perfectly without tickets. We then spotted two very large lizards roaming the ground of the fort. Later, we found out these lizards were iguanas. We also saw a tortoiseshell kitten that was even prettier than Phoenix.
We've had a lovely stay here. We've had the place to ourselves and the staff have been wonderful. Very friendly. One day we asked for a cup of tea and they set us up a table and pot and flowers. The breakfasts are delicious. One of the best things to do here was a walk at sunset along the beach. We did this three nights! You cannot swim in the ocean here because it is too rough which means hardly anyone visits this beach. Our next place is Bentota for four nights, then back to Colombo for one and home.
- comments
Charlotte Oh Nats, this is hilarious!!!!! Glad you are having fun! Xxxx
Steve Very funny narative.
Kristina