Sri Lanka - Elephants, Crocodiles & Sea Turtles

Beach Elephant

Crocodile

          Our trip to Sri Lanka was a short and semi random decision to travel.  We were not keen to waste an extra day given to us due to a national holiday, but for a we still struggled to find a decent location for a small vacation.  We had heard good things from various co-workers about Sri Lanka and that coupled with the short flight factor made our decision easy.
          After our short overnight flight to Colombo we hired a cab to drive us to our hotel that we had booked for our trip.  The drive was about two hours and sadly we realized we had given incorrect directions so we had to back track about forty five minutes.  When we finally got on the beaten path from the main road we saw our hotel in the distance.  It was a very nice place and it sat right on the ocean, the region we drove down to was called Waddua which is just up the road from the more well known beach area called Hikkadua.  The first think I head while we were still driving up to our hotel was an cow bell that kept ringing slowly down the road.  As the car got closer I realized it was an elephant and his owner walking down the street.  Later on they took a short cut to the beach through a path in our hotel.

Newly Hatched Sea Turtles

Buried Turtle Eggs

          We decided to take it easy on our first day since we were a bit jarred from the overnight flight.  We explored the hotel and the beach area and just walked around.  That night there were thunderstorms which was really cool to experience given the fact that we only see those in Abu Dhabi at best maybe once a year.  
          For our first active day in Sri Lanka, we arranged a trip through a gentleman we had met on the beach outside our hotel which included a marsh tour, a visit to the sea turtle hatchery, a visit to a moon stone factory and some time on Hikkadua beach to relax.

Baby Turtle Pile

           The first stop was to the marsh where we were going to do some animal watching.  To be honest I was unsure what exactly I had signed us up for on this trip.  I was hoping to just hire a driver to go the beach and maybe the turtle hatchery, but our host had other plans.  When we got to the marshy lake area we were immediately brought from the van to a boat and set out.  The first stop was on the other side of the lake to see a man who had a small baby crocodile.  I was a bit apprehensive when I was offered to hold it, but then they demonstrated how you could put your finger in its mouth and it would do no real damage.  It was actually pretty cool to feel its skin and to feel it breathing, it was pretty chill to I have to say as we were just passing it around.
           When we were finished with the crocodile we continued on with our animal sighting, we saw a lot of bats sleeping in the trees and also a water monitor which is kind of like this big salamander type animal.
          Following the marsh trip we made our way to a moon stone mine and factory where they mine moon stones and set them up in the jewelry store.  Apparently there are only a few large veins of moon stone deposits in Sri Lanka and this was one of them.  They also claimed to have a moon stone with a blueish hue that is only native to Sri Lankan moon stones.

Sri Lanka Sunset

Baby Turtle Nursery

          After browsing some moon stones in the shop we went back to the van to visit the sea turtle hatchery.  I have only visited one other hatchery in my lifetime and it was in Guatemala, but I had arrived at a time when it was not very active.  One thing on my bucket list had always been to hold a baby sea turtle that had just hatched (not sure why, but there you go).  I did not have high hopes for this hatchery given my previous experience, but when we arrived, the caretaker walked up to our van with a big smile and said "You're in luck, today is a very special day".  I got this big smile on my face, the turtles were hatching!  He walked us over to the area where they bury all the different turtle eggs and date them for hatching times.  He took us over to an area and started digging in the ground until he came to an area where all the baby turtles were.  It was amazing, honestly one of the coolest things I have done in a long time.  Our guide took out one baby turtle each for us to hold and then bring over to the pool with the hundreds of other baby sea turtles.  The hatchery keeps these turtles for a short period of time before releasing them into the ocean.  They use keep times to do so when birds are not around to scoop them up.  They also kept some females to keep reproduction going as well as turtles that have been injured at sea.

Waddua Beach

          When we finished our amazing experience at the turtle we finished the day relaxing on Hikkadua beach.  We went swimming in the Indian Ocean for a long while and swam next to a huge sea turtle.  We then finished the day having dinner and wine at our hotel before going to bed.
          After our action packed day, we decided to take our final day slow and just relax on the beach and hang around our resort and the pool bar.  We had some fun trying to request some unique cocktails while eating fries.  We walked along the beach at night and watched all the wild dogs play and run down the beach.  Our flight was very early in the morning the next day so we went to bed rather early for our drive back to Colombo.
         We got a great taste of Sri Lanka during our short visit, I would definitely go back again.  We missed a few recommendations which were to drop by a tea plantation and also the elephant orphanage.  Given the short trip from our home, I am sure we will pay a visit again sometime.