This
morning we drove southwest, leaving the State of Tamil Nadu, entering the State of
Kerala. Unlike the United States of
America, in India when you enter a new State, you must stop at a check point
and pay an entrance fee. Kinda makes you
appreciate the good ol’ US of A. All the
area of India we traveled up to now has been rather flat. Kerala, however, is mountainous. Not quite like our mountains in Utah, but
fairly good sized. We visited a spice
plantation and saw pepper, vanilla, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and a
whole variety of other spices growing.
They weren’t grown in their own separate patches, but were interspersed
with each other. It was these spices
that lead to the discovery of America.
Following
our visit to the spice plantation, we traveled to a State Park nature preserve. We took a ride on a double decker boat on a
manmade lake created in the 1890s. Even
though the lake is over 100 years old, the trunks of trees that were flooded by
the creation of the lake still rise out of the water, creating places for birds
to nest and perch. We did not spot any
tigers, but did see monkeys, a wild boar, deer and antelope along the
shore. Back in the parking lot, our
driver spotted a Malabar squirrel, the biggest squirrel we have ever seen.
We
stayed in a beautiful facility called The Elephant Court. I could learn to live like this…..
We walked around the small town outside of the park that evening and were greeted by two small wild boar along the side of the road – no more than 10 feet from where we were standing. They didn’t seem to be too worried, so we decided not to worry either. One even obliged and posed for a picture.
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