India 2007

The Secret Beach was spectacular - nothing but white sand, palm trees and fishing boats for as far as the eye can see. Apart from two Europeans who were staying at the same guest house, we were the only westerners there. The kids played in the surf and caught crabs. Chris and I read, swam and talked to some of the fishermen.

When we first arrived, there were about ten boys playing in the surf - Chris and Grady had a great time playing with them while I shot photos. Arden hung back a bit. I think she was a little embarrassed. Half were naked; the other half had only the suggestion of a thong (usually just a piece of string) or underwear that exposed most of their bits and pieces...

We made our way down the beach a fair ways and then settled in for the afternoon. As I sat reading, a young boy (maybe two or three years old) and old man sat squatting a few meters away. Every once in a while the boy would yell "hi" and squeal with delight when we said hi back. Then he'd hide his face in the old man's lunghi (the cloth they wrap around their waist to cover their lower body). Eventually the boy came over and offered me a pinwheel made of palm leaves. The acceptance of that seemed to serve as a signal to others. A short time later, we had half the village standing at a little distance, watching us, smiling, commenting to one another.

It was an incredible couple of days. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face. I feel so blessed.

The next day, we headed north to a couple of towns near the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. We didn't see a whole lot of wildlife, but did see monkeys, water buffaloes, snakes, deer, wild boar and a peacock. (Saw lots of elephant scat, but alas, no elephants. Tigers also eluded us...). We saw all kinds of flora though. The kids' favourite was the "touch me not" plant which closes its leaves when you touch it. We also saw peppercorn vines; cardamom, tea, coffee, tapioca and henna bushes; and banana, cashew, cotton, mango, rubber, fig, jackfruit and orange trees.

The only questionable point of the day was climbing a dry waterfall. We'd hired a guide and jeep to take us to the tea plantations and wildlife sanctuary. The guide hadn't warned us that we'd be climbing, so we were all in flip flops. It started off okay - we were scaling pretty big boulders but it wasn't terribly steep - but about halfway up (we thought we were near the end but there was still much to go...), it got very steep and difficult - we really had to reach for the few cracks and crags available to pull ourselves up (good thing we're all tall!). It was incredibly dangerous and I couldn't help wondering what kind of mother gets her kids into such a treacherous situation... (Mother of the year...) but it seemed safer to keep going than to try to go back. Even the 16 year old male among us thought it was crazy and dangerous (aren't they supposed to feel invulnerable at that age?).

We're now in Mysore. We've just had word that British Airways may begin striking on the very day we're scheduled to fly home. We'll keep you posted...