Galle/ Dutch Fort.

I thought my last weekend in Sri Lanka would be a total washout, as it started to raining non-stop from Thursday.

 We planned to go to Galle,  in southwest Sri Lanka, about 71 miles from Colombo.

We left Colombo in the pouring rain early Friday morning and it rained all the way to our destination.

Then ta-da, as we arrived, it stopped raining and has been great ever since.😊.

Latsane, Joan, Sharlene, Damith 

My hosts Damith/Sharlene and I all stayed in nice little hotel in town called Blue Heaven. Later we had a grand time hanging out at Galle Fort with their friend Latsane.

This Fort, built by the Portuguese in 1588, is on the Indian Ocean.

In 1649 it was fortified by the Dutch and is today an important architectural heritage site controlled by UNESCO.

The entire town and surroundings are growing rapidly, partly due to the influx of tourists.

However 21 years ago, much of the town was flattened by the tsunami which devasted much of south east Asia.

Thousands of people were swept away and killed, 500 just in the transport center in town alone! 

Naturally the ruins were also damaged but you
wouldn't believe it looking at the surroundings today.

A replica of the original small town.

Most of the archeological site remains in pretty good condition, despite having been badly damaged in 2004.

Miniature, showing the original design of the city.

A huge Mosque near the ruins. As it was Friday, many Muslims were busy in the area.

The very angry Indian Ocean.

Like much of Sri Lanka, this city is home to religious adherents from all the major religions, but the dominance of Buddhism which is so obvious in other areas, was not visible.

A Buddhist temple on the hill quite a distance away. I could also see a huge, old Christian church in town, from the fort.

The roof of the solid ammunition storage building.

A Muslim on her way to the Mosque ahead.

A coconut tree grows out of the large granite rock heap offshore.

These ladies in beautiful saris are teachers at the International School. The saris are their uniform.

A small cafe has been set up in the midst of the ruins.

Tourism is now Sri Lanka's second most important industry, so both local people and visitors flock this area. 

This is a recognized UNESCO world heritage site and every time I visit a place like this, I wonder why we are joking around with our sunken city, Port Royal?

 Such a damn shame.😡

Pic of the very angry Indian Ocean below!

This lovely house on the Ocean was badly damaged by the tsunami, but they fixed it up nicely.
That's where we stayed overnight before heading back to Colombo.

Young people challenging the rough surf on their boards.

There is a statue of Buddha on the hill overlooking the town of Galle.

The Indian Ocean is so rough and sounds so fierce, it's kinda scary.

The sand looks nice though.

Among Damith's friends that we had drinks with on Friday night was Dr Ruwan who served as coroner in Jamaica for 3 years.

Then to my surprise, on returning to Colombo I discovered that my wonderful hosts Sharlene and Damith, had organized a goodbye dinner for me with some of their young friends.

L-r. Charaka, his wife Tara, Dr. Damith, and Ganga.

It's been an overwhelming three weeks as there is so much to see and do in that very big island. And the Sri Lankan people are so warm and generous.

It's really true that time flies when you having fun.

And boy, did I ever have fun😊.

_________________________________________

Update. The rains that started on Thursday night turned into quite a storm with high winds later in the night. It damaged the roof of 
Latsans parents home in Galle. 

He is a contractor though so had already repaired it by midday Saturday when we saw him again. 👏

That same storm however killed a family of seven in another area close by. Their home  collapsed on them.🥺

It's the beginning of the monsoon season in Sri Lanka and the weather seems to be intensifying now.

No place like home

"There’s no place like home" is probably the most overused cliché ever developed, but it’s used so much because it’s so true.

Beautiful Silver Sands beach

 At least in my case, for there is nothing I look forward to more than my annual visits home, to Jamdung, Jamaica, whatever we lovingly call it.

Be it reconnecting with good friends, the dominoes, eating real food, the incomparable beaches, the cycling, the fishing, whatever, its simply wonderful.

This year it was a different type of fishing for me, although I had no success there.

 Anyway, my brother Bernie had become so tired of hearing me grudgingly complain about how he caught a few large barracudas (pictures displayed on his wall no less) while I had never even had the opportunity, that he arranged for me to go with his dedicated fisherman Yusafta.

I don’t take chances however, for they had gone to Barracuda Alley the previous week and came back empty handed. 

So since I couldn’t face the possibility of such an outcome, I told Yusafta that if we didn’t get a hit there within an hour, we should go to the regular spots where we were at guaranteed to catch butter fish, welchmen etc for breakfast!

Luckily I did, for we travelled miles out to sea to the appropriately named place where the water is around 300 feet but never even got a hit! I guess we should have been forewarned that they were not running since we saw no other fisher folk heading in that direction.

We did run into a fisherman who on pulling in his fish pot, saw that a huge conger eel inside eating out his catch, so he was in the process of killing it.

After an hour out there, I didn’t feel badly as the Yusafta never got hit either.

So we did as I suggested and at least got breakfast plus a conger eel which Yusafa said he would take for a lady who loved to eat them. I had tried the fried conger eel once but really never liked it, so happily donated it to her dinner.

Barracuda Alley faces a recently built Spanish hotel located in Coral Springs, between Duncans and Falmouth, (Trelawny).  I must admit it is most unimpressive and unattractive looking  from the sea as it looks like a huge prison with its solid blocks. I hope it’s more attractive from the land side!

The new Spanish hotel is unattractive from the sea

I love Silver Sands and was so happy to be there with my brother and sister in law Judy, at their home “Winedown.”                                                                                Ran into Lisa at the beach there too. Then learnt that my former sister in law Betty, children and grandchildren were at a cottage almost behined us, so vistied them briefly.

    

During my stay, as usual the sea was flat and wonderful, only becoming rough on my last day there.                                                                                                                                                         I also enjoyed riding there, as it is nice and undulating although for the first two days, I could not conquer the hills. By day 3 I did though and even found a big bearing guinep tree at the top of one hill, where I could get refreshed.😋                                                                                                                                                        You see I now reside in flat, boring Florida which does nothing for your riding muscles, so being back in the hills is always a treat. Anyway I was spoilt by our riding group Fun and Thrills  whose riding expeditions involve going out into the country parts, swimming in a cool clean refreshing river then eating the most wonderful Jamaican breakfast before driving or even sometimes riding home. (Check out some of the Fun and Thrills blogs right here. They were also the basis for the Gleaner series; "Enjoying the Jamaican outdoors.”)                                                                                                                        The people who I could ride with in Florida, ride, ride, ride for around 20 miles to some place, then ride ride ride back. 

No fun or thrills on their rides!😕

Charles the 1st leads the troops, Charles11 behind.

So, when I arrived in Kingston, it was wonderful to get back with some friends from that wonderful club. We drove to Port Royal, parked, rode to the round about at the airport then returned to Port Royal where we lymed with cold beers, conch soup and guess what, jerked pork and fried bammy.

I was in my element as I had never had jerked pork in Port Royal as it has always been the fish capital of Jamaica. However, my friend Chuckie who is like me a porkist, had discovered the jerked pork there and surprised me. It tasted good too. 

Yummy. that made my day.

Gathering round the jerk pork😋

At Port Royal I saw that the cruise ship pier had been completed (but I was not allowed inside.) Also, for the first time, compliments of Grace, I learnt that there was still standing, part of the structure of the Woman’s Jail there which had been built before the 1692 earthquake destroyed the Wickedest city in the world!

Outside the restored Women's jail

Yup as I said, there’s no place like home, for not only do I get to reconnect with some of my dearest friends, but also there is never a visit when I do not discover something new.

Sweet Memories of  the return to Jamdung 2022

Outside the new cruise ship pier in Port Royal

This special barracuda bait never helped😡

When it gets rough at Silver Sands

 Some pics supplied by Charles Simpson and Grace Perez