This morning we woke up early as Claire had been invited to mass in the local Catholic church, at 8:30. So we got up at around 7:30 and while she went off for mass I had a quick run in the area - however after about 25 minutes it quickly proved too hot and humid for me to continue and I had to pack it in. Even after a break and a shower I was still sweating an hour later - phew!
We had breakfast, which consisted of Indian dishes: coconut with a bit of flour steamed in an cylinder to make nice round "logs" of puttu (not to be confused with the word uttered by Star Wars's Sebulba when things didn't go his way during the pod race (Poodoo ;-) with a lightly spiced curry sauce and plenty of cut fruit and bananas - very nice and refreshing meal.
Shortly after breakfast we were invited by two of the owners out on a walk around the neighbourhood, consisting of many houses grouped together and owned mostly by families. They even brought us in to meet some of the people in the houses and showed us a lot of plants, fruits etc. They included tamarind, mango, coconut, fresh pepper (hot/spicy!), lady finger (Okra) and snake gourd. They even took down two fresh orangey colored coconuts (sweet version - there's at least 3 kinds here) and first let us drink the juice and then chopped them open and let us eat the fresh flesh - yum! They also showed us a local wood work shop and a weaving shop, which was using the fibers off the coconut shells.
It was all very impressive and part of the real India that we would not otherwise have seen, had we not gone to the real backwaters rather than the touristy areas - and with an added bonus of a bit of banter with the locals - Breeze Homes is definitely a gem here in Kerala and must be visited if you come to the south of India!
We opted to skip lunch as we were both wedged from breakfast and had some fruit leftover - instead we relaxed on the veranda for a while and read before I brought out the camera to photograph the bird wildlife - while Claire was acting the spotter.
We also saw one of the locals climb up one of the palm trees in our establishment and later come down with coconut leaves, from which syrup is extracted and used for Indian Toddy - Claire had a full shot while I took a quick taste of it - horrid stuff! Like eating moths, I would imagine... Yuck ;-)
After a late afternoon while watching the sun set over the backwaters we had prawns for dinner with rice and curry sauce, as well as fruit for dessert. We had previously asked to try some Keralan wine and they had conjured up a red wine looking cloudy and tasted like a mix between port and mulled wine, which included the rich cinnamon and cloves smells and taste - very tasty and sweet, definitely up our alley - unlike the toddy!
Afterwards we retired to our room and watched a couple of episodes of Burn Notice before going to sleep.
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| Chinese fishing nets on the backwaters |
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| A kite swooping over the water, looking for a nice little unsuspecting fishy snack |
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| A woman making thread from dried coconut shell fibers |
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| The man is weaving mats from the thread of the coconut fibers |
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| Snake Gourd |
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| Claire with her coconut and straw |
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