Spring Break Trip to Sri-Lanka Part III - In which we venture into the Deep!

One of the big draws of Sri Lanka is the opportunity to see Blue Whales.  Yulia had scheduled us for a boat tour to go whale watching on Saturday.  We arranged with the hotel to have us taken to Mirissa to go on the tour.  We had to leave the hotel at 5:30, so it was an early day.  Our whale watching boat was a two-story boat that was about 40 feet long.  It was not a very fast boat, but it was okay.  We were some of the first ones that arrived, so we got seats on the top level of the boat.  We took Dramamine before we left to help with seasickness.

Got settled on the top deck

Lina is ready to roll. 

Yulia

These are a couple of other whale watching boats similar to ours. Most of them got really crowded. We were really happy we chose ours!

Fishing boats in the harbor

Leaving the island

Waves!

Well, the Dramamine did not work for everyone.  Sophie, who is our kid who gets carsick and seasick was the first to go.  Two of the other girls also threw up (Nika and Lina) and Lexa felt sick.  They all ended up laying down on mats on the deck for most of the trip.

Nika and Sophie, the seasick buddies!

Lina and Lexa

We saw two huge pods of dolphins (with at least 50 dolphins in each) who were very playful and social and who stayed near the boat for about 10 minutes or so.  We were out on the water from 6:30 until just after 1:00 p.m.  We were far enough out that land was not visible and we were out in the sea lanes so we saw a lot of big container ships traveling West from Singapore and China.  We were fed a nice breakfast (that was wasted on some of us) and snacks of fruit and crackers and a bottle of coke during the day.  Overall it was a pleasant day - hot and sunny.  The ocean was quite active, but not violently or overly so.

Beautiful reflection!

Dolphins!

This one got very close to the boat.

We did not see any blue whales on our trip.  Our captain told us when we got back to the harbor that he had information on where to find the whales, but it would have taken us 2 or 3 hours to get to them, and then we would have to return to shore.  He said that some other captains would stay out for 12 or 13 hours, but he wouldn't.  We had the opportunity to go out again the next day for free.  The girls were willing[1], but we opted out.  We gave it a shot and we had a nice adventure.  The nature of life is that sometimes you don't get to see or do what you want.

Back in harbor

Harbor

Some of the zillion fishing boats in the harbor

We were given a coconut (King coconut) and a straw when we got off the boat.  The coconut water is quite refreshing.  After drinking, we got in the van back to the hotel.  The driver pointed out a colony of bats hanging in a tree (they were big ones!).  He also showed us the pole fishermen out fishing.  We stopped at a sea turtle hatchery as well.

King Coconut is sweeter than the regular coconut

Huge bats hanging off the tree.

A couple of pole fishermen. They mostly do it in early morning.

At the hatchery they hatch the turtles so that tourists and fishermen and locals won't dig up the eggs.  Six species of turtles lay their eggs on the beaches in Sri Lanka.  The hatchery also rehabilitates turtles who are injured in fishing nets, so we got to see some larger (adolescent) turtles that were 10-20 years old.  The turtles don't lay eggs until they are around 30!

Eggs buried at the hatchery

Two week old sea turtles

They are super active and super cute!

I think this one was a 7-year old rescued turtle.

And another one.

Eggs of different types of turtles that come to Sri Lanka's shore.

It was a nice little detour and one that we hadn't planned.  When we got back to the hotel, we swam and napped and generally just relaxed for the rest of the day.  We had accomplished the one thing we had really planned on doing in Sri Lanka successfully!

Relaxing at the swimming pool at night.

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[1] Especially if they could do it without throwing up.

Spring Break Trip to Sri Lanka Part II: Unawatuna

The girls' suitcase had arrived with no problem, and so they quickly changed into their swimming suits and spent the morning in the pool.  Our sun screen hadn't arrived, and so the girls got quite crispy.  Yulia went out and found some sun screen in the afternoon so they were protected from then on, but they were crispy the whole vacation!

One of the two outdoor pools at our hotel. The other one was for smaller kids, so our kids didn't even consider it.

Life is great!

Sophie and Lexa

Twins!

King coconut tree. They are yellow, and the milk is very refreshing.

Our hotel had a restaurant in it and we decided that we would try it out on our first night.  We were very glad we did.  The girls all ordered yummy food - Nika ordered crabs and Lina ordered lobster! Sophie ordered spaghetti and Lexa ordered curry chicken.  All of the meals came with delicious salads and with dessert and they were really good.  After trying it the first night, we pretty much decided to just eat there every night.  Yulia had a different fish entree every night, and I tried a variety of sea creatures as well - with a plate of calamari my last night and a seafood risotto on the third. The meals cost about what a casual dining place would charge (think Chilli's or Olive Garden), but so much better.

Happy with their orders

We loved the salads there!

Lina with her zebra lobster. We actually do not know what it is called, but Lina was very happy to eat it! Especially because she got to eat it without any utensils. A win win situation for Lina!

They had two huge German shepherds hanging out in the dining area. Here is one. They were super calm and very friendly.

Our hotel room was two suites.  They were on a separate balcony with its own entrance and a private little pool.  The only problem is that the power went off in the girls' room the first night and wouldn't stay on after that.  Yulia and I slept in their room on the second night so they could have air conditioning, and after that, we told the hotel that something needed to be done.  They seemed a bit surprised that something as little as a lack of electricity would make us unhappy, but eventually they gave us another room in the balcony next to ours.  No problems with electricity there. The owner of the hotel was very apologetic and gave us our family dinner for free on the night they moved us into the new room.

Our little private pool.

Girls hanging outside of their door waiting for the lights to be fixed. Again.

Our bag arrived early on Friday morning, and so we had toothbrushes, changes of clothes, and most importantly our swimming suits.  Yulia and I joined the girls in the pool in the morning, and in the afternoon we went down to the beach and played there.  The girls mostly found shells and waded.  Yulia and I also did some swimming.  I swam more, but we both went in and swam. The waves in Sri Lanka are quite high - better for surfing than swimming, but it was swimmable and very warm. We stayed at the beach until about five when it started to lose a bit of light, and then cleaned up and ate a lovely dinner.  Our second day in Unawatuna was much better than the first!

Ocean!

There were quiet a few stray dogs hanging out at the beach. Here is one of them. The beach itself wasn't super clean, there was garbage that the tourists left.

Spencer swimming

They were so excited to get into the ocean but the salty water stung their burnt skin, so they quickly changed their plans to castle building and shell hunting.

Building something that in the next minuted turned to ...

...this!

Lina watching the ocean.

Finding treasures!

Double trouble!

After 5 pm a lot of locals came to the ocean with their kids. Some of them would go swimming right in their clothes!

More locals coming to the beach.

Coming to our hotel from the beach along the narrow village road. Had to be very careful because those tuk-tuk drivers are sometimes down right crazy!

Not sure why we took this picture but here it is...enjoy!

Our little fruit stand close to our hotel. We got bananas from them a few times. They are cute little bananas that are really tasty!

Yep, perfect for the kids!