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Two days out of Sri Lanka and we lost all our
wind. For the last couple of days it had been coming from almost every
direction, so it has been a lot of up with the cruising spinnaker, down
and up with the jib, main and staysail. with enough mild squalls to keep
us conservative. It gets pretty tiring and work on the foredeck out of the
shade is blisteringly hot. Now we have to just motor and that means
hand steering, since Sampson - our autopilot - quit back in Washington. Oh
well, lots of music and books on tape. Nearly there.
We arrived in the outer harbor, tired, foggy and
have to go about anchoring, with a stern tie to a mooring. Not our best
job as the sizable surge and cross wind complicated matters. But we got
established, got Ieuan together, and headed in. The dinghy dock by the
navy quarters was fairly dilapidated, and we were met by some cows. Cows
are pretty much everywhere wandering the streets, rooting through the
trash, completely tame. We have been here three days now and our
impressions so far are that the food is disappointing. Driving is
completely crazy, but tuk-tuk taxis are cheap. People are very friendly
and ready to talk. But there are a large number of touts trying to make a
buck off you - very aggressively. I got the line the guide book warns
about "Hello, I know you, remember, from the hotel, let me take you
shopping". Bronwen, Douglas and I went searching for an internet cafe and
were directed to this fairly run down house. I rang the bell, and a
gaunt, sweaty man showed us through a Spartan hallway with paint peeling
off the walls into a small room with a bed, and a computer from about
1980. He wants to hook us up and type in the address and we almost have to
fight him off the keyboard. "Let's go" says Douglas, and Bronwen
protectively hovers over our disk and whips it away to safely at the first
opportunity. It all felt so bizarre I kind of enjoyed it. But the
connection failed and we moved on.
We took a tuk-tuk to a nearby beach resort area in
search off some good food one evening. And on the way back get a very
memorable driver. A little too much palm whiskey. He stopped off by his
house and picked up his four-year old son who then took over control of
the handlebars. The only saving feature was that he was going so slowly
we were being overtaken by bicycles!
The highlight of the visit was a train ride into the
interior highlands to visit the tea plantations and the ancient cultural
city of Kandy. Train rides are extremely cheap - under a dollar for a
third class seat, $3 for first class. We found it a great way to see the
countryside - saw a mass of different people brushing their teeth one
morning. It was safer too - other friends that had taken a driver and van
felt they almost died many times. And we got a good bit of local color on
the train too, often sitting in third class to get a seat. Most people
were very friendly, on our first ride one family didn't rest until the
mother had several people put themselves out in order to give us all a
seat. I sat next to a high school math teacher who was very interesting,
and completely blown away by the fact that we had sailed there from
America on a boat, he kept saying "I don't believe it!" and saying it was
just like Robinson Crusoe. Every so often beggars came through, or once
a preacher who stood and bellowed at the crammed car for 10 minutes and no
one paid him the blindest bit of notice. People came through at regular
intervals too selling oranges and spicy fried chili and onion things - "WADIWADIWADI
WADI". From Kandy to Nuwara Elyia we rode in a first class "observation
car" with windows all around through fantastic scenery to an elevation
of 8000 feet - terraced vegetable gardens and then the famous tea
plantations. We all had a great time soaking it all in and taking
photos. We were hustled by a guy at the station who wanted to be a guide
and we did end up hiring him and a driver next day to take us to Horten
plains national park where we did a several hour hike through the
highlands with some impressive views, waterfalls etc. It was fog bound and
blowing stink as we arrived in our shorts, and we almost considered
bailing out, but the hike was sheltered by hills and trees. We worried
about the famous view but Yoga, our guide, assured us that God would take
care of us because of the children, and he was right - 10 minutes after we
arrived at World's End the fog blew away. Yoga turned out to be a great
guide, good sense of humor and endless patience. We also visited a tea
plantation for a tour to learn the ins and outs. The women pickers pick
about 10 - 12 kilos a day( only the top two leaves and flower of each
branch) and earn less than $1.50 for it. One last stop on the train trip
was the Elephant Orphanage at Pinnawella. A great deal of fun.
We read that some of the elephants arrive because their relatives have
been partially blown up by landmines - one was missing a foot. There
were 62 elephants there ranging from very old to only a few weeks.
When we first got there they were hanging around with their handlers and we could go
up and pat them etc. But the best bit was when the whole herd got
marched off across the road through the village and down to the river
where we spent a couple of hours watching them frolic and splash.
Galle itself was fun too. The only sign for us
that the country has a civil war going on was that they have a watchtower
at the inner harbor and security blockades in and out of the harbor area.
Manned by boys in smart uniforms wielding automatic weapons. And Navy
stealth boats cruising around the place at night. They do set off depth
charges every night in the inner harbor, but we were out of hearing range.
We talked about it quite a bit with the locals in our hotels and on the
trains etc - people seem to really be feeling the financial drain. The
touts did get to be a hassle at times trying to sell us things, but we
found almost everybody we dealt with extremely open, friendly and curious
about us. The old part of the city is surrounded by a massive stone fort
built by the Dutch in the mid 1600s. There was a lot of atmosphere among
the old buildings, and on the weekend there were dozens of cricket games
going all along by the sea front - some of them on extremely challenging
uneven terrain. It is certainly a national passion.
Now we are in the Maldives having a whole new set
of adventures and challenges (mail is a very dirty word) but that will
wait for another installment. All is well, and we look forward to the
next 1750 nonstop sea miles to our next destination with not exactly
enthusiasm we at least hope for steady weather and nothing over 30 knots.
The Red Sea will be a whole different thing. The other option in front of
us right now is to hang a few degrees south and go to Kenya instead - and
suddenly that is very tempting. One of the great features of this
lifestyle is that the possibilities are pretty great. Anyhow - love to all
from all here. -Sarah and the Margaritas
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