Feeling welcome

 I certainly felt welcome on landing at Colombo airport, Sri Lanka, for look who met us as we approached the arrival hall!

My hosts, Professor Damith and his wife Sharlene. Sharlene is a PhD student.

Then, as I was walking to immigration, I saw decorations all around, so figured some big celebration had recently taken place recently.

Passengers walking down the well decorated arrival passage to immigration.

I was right about a recent celebration for I subsequently learnt that had I arrived two days earlier, I would have witnessed the annual birthday celebrations of the birth of  Lord Buddha.

 Darn, wish I knew about it before booking my flight.😩 I would have given anything to have witnessed some of that annual ritual.

My hosts Damith and Sharlene have gone all out to accommodate me. For when I said I could take a cab to their home, Damith insisted on making arrangements for me to be picked up since he said I don't know the language.

 I had just assumed English was widely spoken here, (it was a former British colony known as Ceylon) as it is taught in the schools. It clearly isn't though, for not even the taxi man who took me to their home, did not spoke a word.

Sinhalese is the lingua franca here.  (93% speak Sinhalese, 15% Tamil and around 70% speak English. The Sinhalese won the civil war against the Tamil 1983-2009 hence the dominance of their language I guess.)

First Lesson to myself therefore is Assume nothing😊.

I know I am going to have a wonderful  time here though for the vibes are good.

 It's so green and lush too but the rains just started coming after a prolonged drought, I hear. 

 (Of course as you probably know Sri Lanka is an island around six times as large as Jamaica and with a population of over 22 million.)

The drive from the airport to the town of Homagama, took over an hour and that was on a toll road.

My first impressions are: how clean the place is and how careful the drivers are as the roads (outside of the highway,) are extremely narrow but well maintained , for I am yet to see a pot hole.

 

Haven't seen too many big cars either as clearly they import mostly small cars, bikes and tuk tuks aka three wheel, vehicles that fit within their environment and pocket.

Tuk tuk

(Living within your means is clearly an integral part of how your society develops, for despite the political upheaval in 2022 which led to the overthrow of the government and massive economic consequences, according to Georank.org, in 2024, Sri Lanka's GDP per capita (PPP adjusted) was higher than Jamaica's. Sri Lanka's PPP adjusted GDP per capita is estimated at $13,000, while Jamaica's is estimated at $9,400. Thanks Professor Damith😊.)

But back to my first impressions, my favorite vehicle is the tuk tuk, that's what you see in most of the smaller countries in Asia.

Driving to Mount Clifford Range where I will be staying, took me through a section of Homagama which reminded me of sections of Santa Cruz in my home parish of St. Elizabeth. But I didn't see one sidewalk vendor!

Will share my impressions between this island and my island home from time to time. 

Today it's all about getting over jet lag and getting rid of the germs that I picked up on the flight from Dubai to Colombo on the final leg of the long journey here, which has left me feeling slightly fluey.

More anon.

Ps. We are about 9 1/2  hours ahead of Jamaica time.

First memories in pics.

A Sarong.

The Sarong is  a traditional male outfit 

Damith in a sarong, posing beside a Wesak lantern. These were put up all over the island as part of the decoration to celebrate Lord Buddha' s birthday.

Marrakech, Morocco.

Our first stop after leaving Tenerife, was Morocco. The cruise port is in Casablanca which is the commercial sector so to get to know the culture, we had to take a three hour drive to Marrakech.

Ready for nighttime activities.

Posing with Canadians, Silvie and Martin and our wonderful driver Kalil.

The landscape on the trip wasn't all that great as the country had just recovered from an eight year drought. Luckily they have desalinization for human consumption so it's really the farm lands that suffered.

However we saw lots of shepherds protecting their sheep as they tried to find something to eat in the dry areas.

The desert-like appearance in certain areas , many movies requiring that type of background have used that section of the world.

In the better irrigated sections we saw huge expanses of mint farms, citrus orchards etc.

We also got to see the Atlas mountains from various angles.

Last year they had a devastating earthquake in that section of Morocco which killed some five thousand people.

Marrakech, once known as the red city because of the soul and the buildings that took on the color of the environment was founded around 1070 by Berbers from the adjoining Saraha Desert. 

Most of the population is Sunni Muslim but today every religion exist there in peace. (We were told that our lovable Morgan Freeman has become a Muslim and lives there now.)

As a result of its long existence. You find the oldest Sunni mosque and even one of the oldest boarding schools in the world.

At the school students from as young as fourteen came to study the sciences.

This school/mosque is Medersa Ben Yousef.

The old grand bazaar area and food offerings are traditional Moroccan, whereas you see lots of modern food chains in Casablanca.

The traditional meals are only super delicious.

On our way

With our guide

The offerings in the bazaar are colorful 

Inside sections of Medersa Ben Yousef 

The roof of Medersa Ben Yousef, built 1665, of was made from cedar.
That's still going strong.

Inside the mosque.

The wash basin in background is for ablution before prayers.

The original marble and wood walls

A lady makes argan products from the nut

 The present King, Mohammed V1 is of the Alawi dynasty.

If you get tired of walking through the huge bazaar you can always hire a carriage.

These men sell water they keep in the container made from goat's skin. They ring a bell so you can locate them.

The oldest mosque in old Maracech was built in the 11th century.

Color coding is big in Morocco. Cabs in Marakech are yellow. In Casablanca they are red.

Orange orchard springs up after the eight year drought.

Food stalls are so well laid out

Date palms

Our driver got a speeding ticket.
Poor fellow. It was Ramadan and he couldn't eat anything until sundown. As he saw the sun going down., he took out his sandwich and broke his fast.

That pyramid tabari keeps the meat warm

This very prickly Ceiba plant is common to S. America.

Inside the Secret garden.

Scooters ride in and out between pedestrians in the bazaar.

Snake charmer with Cobra

We went to hear an Italian tenor on our return to the ship. He was quite good.
 

And then we went to party.

Posing with the water sellers.

Making argan oils from the nut

Didn't really expect to see a Mexican Cantina in Morocco!🤔

On the whole we had an interesting day in Morocco. 

Tomorrow we hit Valencia, Spain.

Some pics supplied by Kadi, Sonja, Michelle and Camille.