The last Couple of Days

I haven't had the opportunity to do an update in a few days so here is goes:
Thursday I told you I was going to milk a snake. Well, I didn't get the opportunity to do that. Prof. de Silva was on a research expedition and was attacked by hundreds of ticks and he was hospitalized for a few days. He was still really weak so he didn't want to bring out all of his super poisonous snakes because he didn't want to over exert himself and put everyone in danger. He did, however, bring a Russel's snake which is highly venomous and he milked it for us. It was really angry right away so we had to be careful. It kind of got loose and I was standing 3-4 feet away. Pretty amazing. I got to hold a few snakes and frogs in lab. They're so cute! After lab we went down to the river on campus. We put on big boots but one of mine had a huge hole and my foot was hanging out, but somehow my foot managed to stay safe. There were leeches everywhere. They kept crawling on my boots. I just flicked them off. One got onto my jacket sleeve when it was tied around my waist and it got up under my shirt and started sucking on my stomach. I flicked it off before it gave me the full dose of anti coagualant so I didn't bleed for too long after. Sometimes you bleed for days. No big deal it, wasn't scary. I spotted a few frogs and and skinks but no snakes. (Professor de Silva is also famous. when we were walking out to the river this Sri Lankan man came up to him in awe and was asking him how long he'd be on campus. I still cannot believe the company I am in.)
We went back to Galbungalow (that's the mansion we're staying in) and hung out there for the rest of the evening. I was sitting in the cement fence and the monkeys got way to close. I almost got attacked but I ran away. They were fighting with each other and then one of them jumped on the ledge next to me. This monkey was literally 2 feet away. I spent the rest of the night with my new Sri Lankan friends. Siri's (the chef) assisant ,Tharanga, taught me how to speak a little Sinhala. I sat for 2-3 hours with him. It was so much fun! We exchanged addresses so I have a new pen pal now too.
Saturday we began the day with a lecture on Theravada buddhism. I love buddhism it's such a great religion. So interesting. We then had a lecture on plant conservation. The professor that gave us this lecture is the director of the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. This is one of three major projecfts in Sri Lanka. So yeah, he's famous. He took us on a tour that afternoon of the Botanical Gardens. BEAUTIFUL!!! It's amazing to see one of each plant all in one garden. We also saw a lot of fruit bats. They are really cute! I never really liked bats but these are so fuzzy! I saw the guiness book of world record's largest coconuts and all sorts of amazing trees and flowers. The root systems on some of these trees are what amaze me the most! I have some pictures on me standing with these roots. They make walls that curl and are as tall as me sometimes. I have to show you pictures!
We then left for Nuwara Eliya. This was a rough drive!!! The roads were being reconstructed and it was a long, very winding road, straight up. The good side was it was very beautiful. Tea plantations everywhere!!! Every hill is covered in rows of tea bushes. The most beautiful sight! And there are lots of waterfalls. When we got to Nuwara Eliya we had dinner and drove to another botanical garden where they had a circut bungalow waiting for us. We spent the night there. This place had the best showers! It was almost like home.
We then met up with our professor (the same famous conservator) and we went to Horton Plains. On the way we stopped at "Sita's Rest". This is supposedly the site where where Ramada's(the king) wife, Sita, was kidnapped and held captive. We had to take our shoes off and walk around barefoot in the rain again but it was beautiful. There was a ceremony going on and they were chanting. It was such an amazing experience!
Horton Plains was also amazing. This is where the two peneplains meet. I think the best way to describe this is there are two techtonic plates that are overlapping slightly so it creates this huge mountain that is even still increasing in height. This area is still the wet zone but it is called the montane region. I got to hike up to "world's end". This is where peneplain 2 looks over peneplain 3. (where the two plated overlap) It's this huge cliff that drops thousands of feet. It was misting a lot be we got extremely lucky and it cleared for about 30 seconds. For that 30 seconds I saw the most amazing view I've ever seen and probably ever will see in my entire life. There was a crack I stood over. If you look through the crack you see the other plain thousands of feet below. AMAZING! We hiked through to Baker's Falls which is another beautiful waterfall and through the grasslands into the montane tropical rainforest. It began to flash flood and we got caught in a down pour so I was soaking wet but it made the experience that much better! I was almost in tears because this experience was so overwhelming! Good tears. It was so hard to believe that everywhere I looked I was seeing species of plants that are only found in Sri Lanka. Rododendrons that no one else sees. Ferns that are like no other ferns. And I was being guided through this forest by the director of the country's botanical gardens, probably the most qualified man in the country! Standing at world's end. There are no words to describe this experience.
After Horton Plains I visited a tea factory that was built in 1824. It's still working just as well as it was when it first began. I bought tea for everyone to taste back home. It's good tea! Last night we returned to Galbungalow and Siri had dinner waiting for us.
Today I'm going to Penewala. This is the elephant orphange. We will be guided by none other than the director of the orphanage. This boggles my mind!
I hope things are going well back home. I'm enjoying all of your comments! Thanks.
- Allegra

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