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| fallen power lines in the storm |
The second half of our week in Sri Lanka was spent at the beach in Hikkaduwa. We had a hotel right on the beach with a balcony looking out to the beautiful Indian Ocean. Our two little beach babies enjoyed their time in the sand and the sun....and rain. We had a lot wind and rain on the first day/night we were there. In fact, when we got home we learned that Cyclone Nilam was passing by not too far from where we were. http://news.oneindia.in/2012/11/02/cyclone-nilam-shakes-india-but-ravages-sri-lanka-1092649.html On our way from Kandy to Hikkaduwa, several roads had been closed due to flooding or fallen power lines. There was no talk of the cyclone there, and our internet access was unreliable, so we had no idea about the magnitude of the storm until we got home.
After the first day, the weather improved and we spent a lot of time playing in the surf and building sand castles on the beach. The boys found coconut husks to dig with and then they decorated their sand castles with beautiful shells and coral. When they got hungry, we refueled with banana pancakes at Budde’s on the Beach.
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| Banana pancakes - yum! |
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| Tsunami Memorial |
Like many others around the world, I remember watching the tsunami on Boxing Day eight years ago and being shocked by the devastation. The destruction along the coast is still there, and many places have not been re-built; the ruins of houses, shops and boats remain. There are thousands of graves along the coastal road. Estimates say that 35,000 died in the tsunami in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lankans say the number is closer to 50,000.
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| Tsunami Memorial |
The Tsunami Memorial is a haunting place. I hadn’t known (or remembered) that 2000+ people died on a train that was traveling through Peraliya at the time of the tsunami. After the first waves of the tsunami, the train signals were changed to red; when a train came though the area minutes later, the driver stopped the train without knowing about the tsunami. Sadly, the largest of the waves (some at 9 metres high) hit shortly after that. Only a few people on the train survived. The brass memorial, which has a sort of Guernica feel, depicts this tragic event.
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| Ben and a 1 day old sea turtle |
The highlight of the week was the Sea Turtle Hatchery in Kosgoda. http://www.kosgodaseaturtle.org. The organization, which runs entirely on donations from tourists, works to protect and release sea turtles back to the ocean. Sea turtles eggs are not safe buried in the sand in this part of Sri Lanka, as there are many predators (stray dogs mainly), so the owner of this organization take the eggs (or buys them from fishermen), buries them in sand at the hatchery, protects the new babies and then releases them in the evening when it’s safer for them. They also care for sick and blind turtles and also those who have lost limbs from being entangled in fishing nets. They protect five of the world’s seven sea turtle species, all of which have unique incubation times. The little tiny one-day old babies were so cute; Benjy thought they were “flappy” when he picked them up. We loved the turtle hatchery and next time we will go in the evening so we can release one back to the ocean.
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| Will & Ben at Galle Face Hotel |
On the final day we travelled up to the airport and took a detour through Colombo to see the Galle Face Hotel. My grandad, Robert William Robertson, served in the British Navy in World War II. He was stationed in Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, for a period of time. When he was there, he stayed at the Galle Face Hotel. We visited the beautiful hotel and had a cold drink at the pool side bar. Before we went, my grandma told me of my grandad’s stories of the hotel, like running up and down the stairway with his friends and playing football. It was a short, but very special and memorable, visit at the Galle Face Hotel.
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Galle Face Hotel
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Like many others around the world, I remember watching the tsunami on Boxing Day eight years ago and being shocked by the devastation. The destruction along the coast is still there, and many places have not been re-built; the ruins of houses, shops and boats remain. There are thousands of graves along the coastal road. Estimates say that 35,000 died in the tsunami in Sri Lanka, but Sri Lankans say the number is closer to 50,000. 
The highlight of the week was the Sea Turtle Hatchery in Kosgoda. http://www.kosgodaseaturtle.org. The organization, which runs entirely on donations from tourists, works to protect and release sea turtles back to the ocean. Sea turtles eggs are not safe buried in the sand in this part of Sri Lanka, as there are many predators (stray dogs mainly), so the owner of this organization take the eggs (or buys them from fishermen), buries them in sand at the hatchery, protects the new babies and then releases them in the evening when it’s safer for them. They also care for sick and blind turtles and also those who have lost limbs from being entangled in fishing nets. They protect five of the world’s seven sea turtle species, all of which have unique incubation times. The little tiny one-day old babies were so cute; Benjy thought they were “flappy” when he picked them up. We loved the turtle hatchery and next time we will go in the evening so we can release one back to the ocean. 
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