Our room last night was beautifully simple, stark white walls and tall gauzy curtains; nothing to distract from the great views from the floor to ceiling windows.  Which is how I found out that it starts to get light in Sri Lanka around 4am. And if it wasn’t the brightening sky that wakened me, it was surely all the chirping birds.

Since yesterday’s village walk was a wash out, we went on it this morning.  First our hostess showed us around the farm, pointing out what changes they’ve made to make it a eco-friendly tourist accommodation, plans for the future, and how they’re trying to increase job opportunities both on the farm and locally for the villagers.  One of her 1st projects was getting all the homes water tanks to help ease any shortages when the municipal supply packed in or ran dry, as was especially common during the dry season.

We visited a local home where the wife had started an incense making business, now employing about 15 women part-time, each able to hand-make 5-6000 sticks of incense a day!  

Another home housed a sewing cooperative that made nice canvas bags & aprons and recycled rice sack totes.  

We had to suffer going through the terrible traffic of Kandy again on our way into the mountains, passing slower tuk tuks and heavily laden trucks on narrow winding roads. Udi stopped several times at roadside fruit stands to buy us some local fruit to try: cut guava, jackfruit, and red banana, so it was a satisfying but slow journey to lunch.

Next we had our one scheduled excursion – the Glenloch tea plantation.  In business for 150 years, it produces bulk tea for export, 75% of which goes to the tea auction in Colombo to be then repackaged and sold around the world. Our rather unpersonable guide ran us quickly through the production process which is surprisingly rapid: plucked, sifted, 90 minutes to ferment, 20 minutes to dry, then it’s ready for packaging! A tasting followed, then we checked out the fields and a couple of the girls tried on the traditional collection basket and attempted to get a few leaves into the baskets, with varying degrees of success.

A winding, winding road carried us up and up and over the mountain, past multiple tea plantations and into a lusher, tropical climate from the drier lowland area. Our evening destination is Nuwara Eliya, known as “Little England” for its many colonial houses – the early tea barons and associated society enjoyed this area for it’s cool climate and lack of humidity. It was a lovely drive into town, with beautiful public parks, large lake, gorgeous golf course, a small downtown with the usual shops, restaurants, etc. but as soon as we checked into our hotel the mist dropped, the rain started, and the temperature fell so any desire to go exploring quickly evaporated. I signed up to go on the Horton’s Plain hike tomorrow, starting at 5am so it’ll be any early night for me!