Our third and final stop in Sri Lanka was in Bentota, on the southwestern coast. We stayed in a hotel right on the beach (Eden resort and spa) and enjoyed a nice beach walk our first afternoon, followed by some fruity cocktails at our hotel bar.
The next day, we visited a turtle farm. There are several turtle farms in this area. The one we went to was staffed by volunteers from all over the world. Locals phone them when they find turtle eggs on the beach and they are brought to the farm so that they can hatch in peace. There is a higher hatch rate in the safety of the farm than on the open beach. A few days after hatching, the turtles are released into the ocean. A few turtles are kept around until they're 3-4 years old for education purposes for tourists like us. The woman who gave us the tour of the farm said it's especially important to teach the Chinese about turtles because they eat turtle soup. :(
These little guys are only a day old:
After visiting the turtles, we went on a boat safari in a river delta. We were taken to several islands in the delta for various activities and demonstrations. On one island we learned how cinnamon is made from the cinnamon tree. This was interesting because I had no idea that the cinnamon we use is the second layer of bark from a tree and the rest of the tree is used for firewood.
We also stopped to hold a baby crocodile and have a "fish foot massage" where tons of fish ate the dead skin off of our feet. It didn't hurt, but tickled.
The containers holding all the "foot massage" fish:
This is where they catch prawns:
We then continued down the road toward Galle. Galle is neat because it was ruled by the Portuguese in the 16th century followed by the Dutch in the 17th-18th centuries. The Galle fort is a world heritage site and is the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers. We didn't spend a lot of time here - it was hot and traffic was bad. We walked along the walls surrounding the city a bit and wandered around in the pedestrian area and did a little shopping. Below is a picture of one of the streets in the city and a few pictures of the old walls.
Galle, along with most of the southern coast of Sri Lanka, was devastated by the December 26th, 2004 tsunami. All along the road to Galle, which runs right along the coast, we saw shells of houses that were never rebuilt or fully torn down after the tsunami hit. Below are pictures of a memorial we stopped at.
Some pictures of the coast. The water and beaches were gorgeous but nobody was in sight!
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