Hollywood revisited

 It's not often that I go on the monthly trips organized by the Tamarac senior center, as most are to shopping centers or casinos and I have no interest in those activities.

However today's outing was to Hollywood beach, so I tagged along. 

And it was great camaraderie and lots of free vitamin D.🙂

And we had to do quite a bit of walking as the Tamarac driver Shawn, for some strange reason, refused to let us off at our destination, Margaritaville.

Eric consulting the girls?

Carol striking a pose

A group of us stayed together and as Meredith and I were starving, we headed straight to lunch at Margaritaville. 

It was quite good and the prices were not as exorbitant as one had expected.

Ivy strikes a pose too

Meredith and I 

It was a pleasant day as we only had limited time to do anything else before having to catch the bus back home.

There wasn't much else to do anyway and I don't know if it was because school was back in session or because Trump had scared off the tourists, but the beach was really empty.

Some pics below tell the sad tale about the current tourism situation today at Hollywood beach.

Bikes begging to be rented

We virtually had the beach all to ourselves!👍

Missing the sunset

 Mr. Haton, my tuk tuk driver in Anuradhapura, took me to the Abayawewa Resevoir to view the sunset.

 Unfortunately it was heavily overcast, so there was no sun to set! 

That's not a bad thing though, for since I came to Sri Lanka it has rained every day except today. So just overcast was good.

The government here has wisely built numerous reservoirs to harvest the rainfall, so they have no water lock offs here. (Can Jamaican politicians learn from them? I doubt it😡)

Besides with the amount of rice they eat here they have to grow lots of rice so water is always needed.

From this reservoir you can see all the major temples so people come here to meditate, enjoy the scenery or simply exercise, as there is a nice trail built beside the bank.

With no sunset to view, we went to Isumurini Raja Temple.

All the temples are more or less the same, with  passionate devotees, lots of shrines and the sweet smell of incense burning and the flowers and blooms the devotees bring ng to their prophet.

                 Abayawewa resovoir.

I don't think you can go anywhere in the Anuradhapura and not see an imposing statue of Lord Buddha so here he is right beside a meditation center across from Abayawewa reservoir.

Light from the incense rooms. Naturally, you see these better at night. 

Missed the sunset but enjoyed the beauty and fabulous art in and around another temple in Anuradhapura.