Fantastic weekend! A group of 7 of us left on Friday afternoon to drive down to the south of the island for a busy weekend. We got up at 4:30 on Saturday morning to do a 7 hour safari at Yala National Park. We were rewarded with an early morning sighting of one of the park's leopards. It was on a rock for a while and then went stalking through the bushes before running out in front of our van. Later on we spotted a younger leopard napping in a tree as well as a couple of elephants further away. The rest of the wildlife consisted of water buffaloes, birds, and deer. I saw a red jungle fowl, which is the ancestor of all of our modern day chickens, but it was too fast to get a picture to show my poultry science professors. That was my nerdy moment for the weekend. Aside from the leopards the most memorable moment was probably the most incredibly bumpy jeep ride of my life.
We took the public buses to the beach, which was an interesting experience, and after 4 hours of crazy driving and having fallen into a Sri Lankan toilet at one of the bus stops, we were at our beach rest stop. Unawatuna is a tiny beach town about 5 minutes from Galle known for being a hidden tourist destination. We got off the bus and walked down a road and right onto the beach. That night we found a party on the beach and grabbed a couple of drinks while we chilled in some beach chairs. The next day was the most relaxing since I arrived at Sri Lanka, spending the entire day on the beach reading, listening to music, eating non rice and curry meals and playing in the water. And no sunburn! I also drank from a coconut, hence the title, which was surprisingly sweet and filling. Alas, our beach day had to end and 6 hours later we were back with the elephants.
Lots of fun things planned for this week so look forward to future updates.
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