Auntie KoKo and Uncle Anthony

At Kaits homestay near Alleppey we spent our evenings with Thomas, little Thomas, Angitha, Rose, Anthony and Appu. They tought us some local songs and we shared "you are my sunshine" with them. Angitha practiced her dance routine that she will be performing along with her classmates soon and we tought all of them "gimme five, up high, down low, you're too slow!" We had so much fun and as we were leaving they all waved goodbye saying "bye auntie!" I was in tears....

Alleppey

We landed at Kaits Home - a great family homestay on the backwaters near Alleppey. Jossy and his family welcomed us along with his extended family of brothers, uncles, children, neices and nephews! It was an extended holiday for everyone as there was a bus strike (unions are very strong in Kerala and a strike shuts everything down including schools and shops - "together united, we'll never be divided!"). Kerala's government alternates every 5 years - communist party, then democratic congress. It makes it very difficult for investors and public works projects, but they have a 100% literacy rate which is pretty impressive. This seems to be mainly because of the presence of Christians which is the pervasive religion here - they invest alot in education. The backwaters are gorgeous, with houseboats floating up and down the peaceful tributaries. Everyone uses the water for everything - laundry, bathing, swimming, fishing, and the occassional waste receptacle, but it seems surprisingly clean compared to other water bodies we have encountered so far. We took a 3 hour boat tour to Alleppey where we disembarked our mighty vessel, had some lunch, a massage and then returned to Kaits for another delicious traditional Keralan meal. We are definitely getting a chance to eat locally and plentifully.

Kumily - Periyar National Park

shhhh....we're hunting wabbits.
Went for a night trek in a National Park known for its tigers and elephants(accompanied by a few rangers, including the one pictured with (literally)an elephant gun.) We didn't see any elephants, nor any tigers, but spotted a few wild boar, deer, a porcupine, a bunny rabbit, bats and something that we suspect was a domestic cat. The flying monkey is from our hotel balcony and the picture of Anthony is at the hotel Wildernest. A quick visit and onto Alleppey for backwater adventures....

Munnar - Tea Plantations

A couple days spent in the Western Ghats on the Kerala - Tamil Nadu border. The large Indian company Tata (cars, telecommunications etc) own most of the tea plantatations in the area, which were originally planted by the British.